The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were thy traffickers they furnished thy markets with all the choice spices, and with all precious stones and gold.
Ezekiel 27 is a funeral song for Tyre, the great trading city, pictured as a richly loaded ship. Verse 22 is one line in that cargo list: two Arabian peoples selling spices, gems and gold into the richest market on earth.
The verse names two real peoples. One dictionary traces their family line:
Fourth son of Cush, a son of Ham. He was the father of Sheba and Dedan, whose descendants are thought to have settled along the shores of the Persian Gulf. The merchants of Raamah who traded with Tyre were no doubt connected with them.
Commentators differ over exactly which branch of Sheba is meant here, since more than one family carried the name. What they agree on is the direction of the trade and the kind of goods. Following the list from its western end, one writer notes where verse 22 sits in the sweep of the chapter:
Again merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with Tyre, furnishing the markets with the best spices and with all precious stones and gold. Next we find the Mesopotamian traders. From these eastern sources they had the most showy articles, purple, and damask, and embroidery, wound up with the ships of Tarshish, the great means of conveyance for the ancient world.
Spices, gems and gold were only part of what came into Tyre. The whole inventory shows what the city stood for:
In the Word, Tyre is a picture of the world with all its riches and desirable things. Her trade spread over all the earth, and the resources of the whole world flowed to her from every direction. She had precious woods, which the Sidonians were the best at working, ivory and ebony, fine linen, white wool, embroidered work, blue and purple, silver, iron, tin, lead, brass, red gemstones, coral, rubies and every precious stone, gold in great abundance, spices, oil and wheat, and countless flocks. That is before we mention her warriors to defend her, her sailors to guide her fleets, and her wise men to direct her and make use of her resources. Such, in very few words, was the wealth of Tyre. Anything the human heart could want on earth could be bought there.
Some writers press the meanings of the two names, and find a warning in them:
So we find, first, Sheba, "captor," in whom we may read the great enemy of God and man. It would be strange if the one who leads men captive gave no more to Tyre's merchandise than we have seen. Here he makes a notable contribution by his goods. Joined with him is Raamah, whose name means "rumbling," "trembling," "agitation," "thunder." Raamah is the father of Sheba, though he is named second here. In these two names together there is as much truth as in what is often said, that fear is the parent of all religion. Of course there is a fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and that reverent fear is a very different thing from what these names speak of. In all heathen worship and superstition, fear is what has complete control, and how much of Satan's hold on a soul lies in this! But when God is known, as He is in the gospel, and the soul is brought into full liberty in its relationship to Him, the rule of Satan is broken thoroughly and forever, and every form of superstition is brought to an end.
The same goods turn up again in Revelation, on a far worse city. The finest things pass through the worst hands:
reason: Scripture quotation must be ESV; archaic wording; drop line that only repeats the verse
Sheba's story does not end at Tyre. The same nation appears in prophecy, bringing the same goods somewhere else:
Isaiah 60 gives in much detail, from verse 6 on, the abundance of earthly blessings that God will pour into Israel. That verse mentions Sheba, the land the Queen came from who visited Solomon with much gold and spices. When she arrived, as 1 Kings 10 tells us, she showed forth the praises of Solomon. In the day this chapter looks forward to, they "shall bring good news of the praises of the LORD."
- Traded — Sheba and Raamah were real peoples from Cush's line. They settled near the Persian Gulf and sold spices, gems and gold to Tyre.
- Stocked — Tyre had everything a human heart could want on earth, and it was all for sale.
- Sold — Revelation decks Babylon in the same gems and gold. The enemy sells such things and makes no one rich. God does not sell at all; He gives, "without money and without price."
- Snared — Sheba means "captor" and Raamah means "trembling." Fear is what holds people under the enemy's power, until God is known in the gospel.
- Surrendered — One day Sheba will bring its gold to the Lord and tell out His praises. Same cargo, different destination.
Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with thee
Ezekiel 27 is a funeral song for Tyre, pictured as a great ship loaded from every corner of the known world. This verse ends the long list of her trading partners with inland cities far from the sea — so why does God record names like Canneh and Chilmad at all?
Some of these names are well known, others have vanished from the map. Haran is the one a Bible reader has already met:
Haran was an ancient city in Mesopotamia. Terah and his family moved there from Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham stayed there on his way to the land of Canaan, until his father's death. The descendants of Nahor, Abraham's brother, also settled there, so the city was called the 'city of Nahor.'
Others are little more than a name. Canneh was an eastern city that traded with Tyre, and may be the same place as Calneh. Chilmad is unknown, named here only alongside Sheba and Asshur. Eden here is not the garden:
A people called 'the children of Eden,' living in Thelasar, or Telassar, which had been conquered by Assyria. They supplied Tyre with costly fabrics. 2 Kings 19:12; Isaiah 37:12; Ezekiel 27:23. Its locality is not known.
Sheba appears twice in this chapter, and commentators note that the two are not the same people.
The "Sheba and Raamah" named earlier in Ezekiel 27 seem to be the Cushite race in the west, since they were spice merchants. The Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad of this verse point instead to the family of Keturah. They dealt in choice clothes or wares and bales of embroidered work. This was also the Sheba that first plundered Job's possessions.
These eastern traders brought their own kind of goods.
Next we find the Mesopotamian traders. From these eastern sources they had the most showy articles: purple, damask, and embroidery. The list ends with the ships of Tarshish, the great means of transport for the ancient world.
Some writers also read the names themselves as a comment on this trade:
Next and really last in this catalogue we have Haran, "the parched," "the dry." He stands with Canneh, "the firm," "the upright," and with Eden, the place of "delight" lost from earth… and with Asshur, who has lost his place in connection with the revelation of God and wanders among the perverted traditions of men, and with Chilmad, whose name seems to point out the "would-be learner." Their trade is in rich clothing, by which the nakedness of the fall is done away — or rather, covered over with ornament. As we see by the carefully packed bales noticed here, they clearly made much of it.
Commentators differ here. Others treat the list simply as geography and trade.
The point of the list is its total. It gathers everything the earth could produce into one place.
The analysis ends here, except for one thing: the ships of Tarshish are the one great means that unites all these together. It is all the fruit of a spirit away from God. That spirit explores the earth for whatever it can make gain of, but it can yield no satisfaction. It all hangs together like their bales of merchandise. This makes Tyre very glorious for the present. But her glory sits in the middle of what is the very image of instability, "in the heart of the seas."
Writers apply Tyre's trade to commerce today.
Commerce may not be wrong in itself. Still, it opens a wide door for unrighteous ways, and resisting it needs more grace than the open sins of the world do… Power and religion may stir up ambition and hatred. But trade feeds the secret and sometimes unsuspected covetousness of the heart. Commerce as it now appears is the inborn covetousness of man's heart organised, with the science of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest markets.
The song ends by answering all this splendour:
Ezekiel 27 describes the grandeur and worldwide trading connections of Tyre. It then announces "the day of your ruin." Such is the world and its end, as unstable as the waters that carried Tyre's ships.
- Reach — the verse names inland cities. Haran is famous, Canneh and Chilmad are now unknown. Tyre's trade ran far beyond the sea.
- Riches — these eastern partners sent the showiest goods: purple, damask and embroidered cloth in packed bales.
- Reading — one writer finds meaning in the names themselves. He reads their trade in fine clothing as a cover for the nakedness left by the fall. Other writers keep to plain geography.
- Root — the whole list goes back to a spirit away from God. It searches the earth for gain and finds no satisfaction.
- Ruin — all this glory sat "in the heart of the seas." The song ends with "the day of your ruin." That is the picture of the world and its end.