Context No. 2759 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 27:17-21: in context

17“‘“Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded wheat of Minnith, confections, honey, oil, and balm for your merchandise. 18“‘“Damascus was your merchant for the multitude of your handiworks by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches, with the wine of Helbon, and white wool. 19“‘“Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were among your merchandise. 20“‘“Dedan was your merchant in precious saddle blankets for riding. 21“‘“Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your favorite dealers in lambs, rams, and goats. In these, they were your merchants.

This is part of Ezekiel's long lament over Tyre, which he pictures as a magnificent merchant ship. Here he lists her trading partners: Judah and Israel bringing wheat and honey and balm, Damascus with wine and white wool, Arabia and the princes of Kedar dealing in lambs and rams and goats. It reads like a manifest of the whole known world's goods pouring through one harbor.

Ezekiel is not admiring the wealth. He is drawing up an inventory precisely so that its loss will register when the ship goes down. Every partner named, every luxury catalogued, is about to sink into the sea the poem imagines. Commerce that reached wide enough to touch every nation still could not keep the city afloat when God's judgment came. The very list of her riches becomes the measure of how much there was to lose.

What am I quietly counting on to keep me secure, that could sink as completely as Tyre's endless trade?

Sources

Ezekiel 27:27: "Your riches... and all your men of war who are in you... will fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin."
Proverbs 11:4: "Riches don't profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
Luke 12:20: "You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared, whose will they be?"