Ezekiel 27:16

16. Syria Hebrews, Aram. Many expositors follow the Peshito, “Edom;” but there is no good reason for leaving the Hebrew.

Aram-Naharim was the ancient name for a very wide region, embracing at least western Mesopotamia and northern Syria, and is constantly mentioned in the Assyrian texts. The Aramaeans are now known to have been the controlling element in Syria and Arabia as well as Mesopotamia, though the Assyrians did not call the populations west of the Euphrates Aramaeans, but Hittites or Amorites. Certainly the products named were widely scattered. Emeralds (or, carbuncles), coral (perhaps, pearls), and agate (or, ruby), would naturally be Edomite (compare Job 28:16; Job 28:19); the purple, and broidered work might be the wrought garments for which Babylon was famous (Ezekiel 23:6; Joshua 7:21), while the fine linen might be the Syrian byssus. The Syrians probably learned how to make this fine gauze from the Greeks. The Greeks called it καρπασος (Esther 1:6), and probably from its manufacture one town in Cyprus was called Karpaseia. (Compare Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 1 . )