Ezekiel 27:13

13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech Javan, brother of Tarshish (Genesis 10:2), is the well-known name for Ionian or Greek. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets, 1400 B.C., mention a Yivana who had been sent on a mission to Tyre by the Egyptian king. Cyprus was called the “island of the Ionians” by the Assyrians, and Sayce thinks Cyprus is meant when Javan is referred to by Ezekiel ( Races, p. 46. For extent and character of the early Greek commerce see Introduction to Daniel, III, 2.) It is possible, however, that at this period the name had a wider application, being perhaps a racial term, which was beginning to be specifically used of the Greeks of the mainland. Tubal and Meshech are generally mentioned together in the Scriptures (Ezekiel 32:26; Ezekiel 38:2; Ezekiel 39:1), and appear in the Assyrian inscriptions as Tabali, Tubla, and Muska. They were famous as archers and were probably located in the interior of Asia Minor on the coast of the Black Sea. Professor Smith says: “Beyond Yavan were the coasts of Elisha, that was perhaps Sicily, and Tarshish, the great Phoenician colony in Spain. To all of these ships traded from Tyre and Sidon and Accho and Joppa. Their outward cargoes were Syrian wheat, oil, balm, with oriental wares, and they brought back cloth, purple and scarlet, silver, iron, tin, lead, and brass. Sometimes they carried west Hebrew slaves (Amos 1:9; Joel 4:6) and outlaws (Jonah 1:3), forerunners of the great Dispersion” ( Historical Geography, p. 136).