These traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of colored stuff, bound with cords and made secure: The goods provided to Tyre by the places mentioned in the previous verse are luxury materials and clothes, although some of the Hebrew terms here cannot be identified with certainty. The Hebrew word for choice garments (literally “[materials of] perfection”; compare 23.12) refers to the very best clothes. The Hebrew term for clothes refers to external garments worn over other clothes. It may be rendered “mantles” (New American Bible, Moffatt), “coats” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), or “cloaks” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). These outer garments were of blue and embroidered work; that is, they had a rich purplish-blue color and were elaborately decorated with needlework (see the comments on Ezek 27.7). The meaning of the Hebrew expression rendered carpets of colored stuff, bound with cords and made secure is very uncertain. Recent scholarship has proved that it refers to carpets, “[floor] rugs” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version), or “fabric” of some sort (Revised English Bible), although some see the word for carpets as storage boxes (compare King James Version / New King James Version “chests”). The carpets were of colored stuff, which may be rendered “brightly colored” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “of many colors” (New Century Version; similarly New International Version, New International Reader’s Version). Some translations take the Hebrew words rendered bound with cords and made secure as describing the quality of the carpets; for example, New International Version says “with cords twisted and tightly knotted” (similarly New International Reader’s Version). Others take them as describing how the carpets or fabrics were stored; for example, New Living Translation has “rolled up and bound with cords” (similarly Revised English Bible). Because the Hebrew word for made secure is very similar to the one for “cedar

,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “tied up with cords and preserved with cedar [oil],” but this sense is unlikely. On the other hand, Good News Translation takes this phrase as referring to another product, separate from the carpets, namely, “well-made cords and ropes” (similarly Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Translators should feel free to follow any of these interpretations. A possible model for this whole sentence is “These cities sold you the very best cloth [or, material], coats that were blue and decorated in needlework, brightly colored carpets, and well-made cords and ropes.”

In these they traded with you means these were the products they traded with Tyre. Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew text here, which has only one word. The meaning of this word is not clear. Some translations take it to mean “in your markets/marketplace” (so New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New King James Version , Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible). But this word is never used elsewhere in the Bible, so others have divided the Hebrew letters in a different way to give the reading that is in Revised Standard Version. We prefer this reading (so also Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). Therefore this last expression should be rendered as a summary of the verse, as in “These were the things they traded with you.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .