Hebrew word · H7404

רְכֻלָּה

rekhulatekha

merchandise

Trade, traffic, merchandise. It comes from רָכַל, "to go about as a trader"; the related participle רֹכֵל means "merchant" or "peddler." The noun occurs only in Ezekiel (26:12; 28:5, 16, 18).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

merchandise, traffic, trade

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 28:16

Range of meaning

Trade, traffic, merchandise. It comes from רָכַל, "to go about as a trader"; the related participle רֹכֵל means "merchant" or "peddler." The noun occurs only in Ezekiel (26:12; 28:5, 16, 18).

Against the English

KJV "merchandise" suggests goods on a shelf. "Trade" or "commerce" (BSB, WEB) better catches the activity and the network.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 27 uses the related verb and participle repeatedly in its catalogue of Tyre's trading partners from Tarshish to Arabia. Ezekiel 28:18: "by the injustice of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries."

From the study of Ezekiel 28:18

Range of meaning

Trade, commerce, merchandise. The root רכל means to go about as a travelling merchant (a rokhel is a trader or peddler). The noun appears almost only in Ezekiel's oracles against Tyre (26:12; 28:5, 16, 18).

Against the English

KJV's "traffick" meant commerce in 1611, but modern readers may hear road traffic or illegal trafficking. "Trade" and "trading" (BSB, ESV, NIV) are accurate.

How it drifted

In KJV English, "traffic" was the normal word for buying and selling. The modern sense of "traffic" in vehicles, and the criminal sense of "trafficking", came later.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 27 lists Tyre's trading partners in detail, from Tarshish to Arabia, with the related term rokhelet and its root. Isaiah 23:8 calls Tyre's merchants "princes". Phoenician seaborne trade across the Mediterranean in the 7th–6th centuries BC is well documented in the archaeology.

From the study of Ezekiel 28:5

Range of meaning

Trade, commerce, merchandise, the goods and activity of travelling merchants. It comes from the root rkl, "to go about as a trader." The related participle rōḵēl means "merchant" (1 Kgs 10:15; Neh 13:20; Song 3:6). BDB connects the noun rāḵîl, "slanderer, tale-bearer" (Lev 19:16), to the same idea of going about.

Against the English

KJV says "traffick". WEB, NASB and ESV say "trade/trading". YLT says "merchandise". BSB and NIV fold it into "skill in trading". "Traffic" meant ordinary commerce in 1611, but readers today hear smuggling (see drift).

How it drifted

The noun itself has not drifted. The KJV's English rendering has ("traffic" → "trafficking").

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Hebrew Bible it occurs only in Ezekiel's oracles on Tyre: 26:12; 28:5, 16, 18. The participle rōḵelet, "merchant of the peoples," describes Tyre in 27:3, and forms of rōḵēl run through the long trade list of chapter 27.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 4

  1. Ezekiel 26:12 רְכֻלָּתֵ֔ךְ merchandise your

    They will plunder your wealth and pillage your merchandise. They will demolish your walls, tear down your beautiful homes, and throw your stones and timber and soil into the water.

  2. Ezekiel 28:5 בִּרְכֻלָּתְךָ֖ by trading your

    By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it.

    Here: "By your trading." It stands next to the previous phrase with no "and", so it names what the great skill was used for. The verb root describes a merchant travelling from market to market. In the Bible the noun appears only in Ezekiel's Tyre oracles.

  3. Ezekiel 28:16 רְכֻלָּתְךָ֗ trading your

    By the vastness of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I banished you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

    Here: "Your trading." It comes from the verb for a travelling merchant who goes from place to place. It means the whole activity of buying and selling, not only the goods. Tyre's famous maritime trade network is in view (Ezekiel 27).

  4. Ezekiel 28:18 רְכֻלָּ֣תְךָ֔ trading your

    By the multitude of your iniquities and the dishonesty of your trading you have profaned your sanctuaries. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the eyes of all who saw you.

    Here: "Your trading", from a root meaning to travel about as a merchant. Ezekiel uses it for Tyre's commerce (28:5, 16). The sin is named in commercial terms.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.