Ezekiel 27:18

27:18 Helbon was a town ten miles north of Damascus. Zahar may have been nearby, although its exact location is unknown.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Helbon--or Chalybon, in Syria, now Aleppo; famed for its wines; the Persian monarchs would drink no other.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Damascus wine of Helbon] Now called by the Turks Haleb, and by us Aleppo.

White wool.] Very fine wool: wool of a fine quality. Some think Milesian wool is meant.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Wine of Helbon.—Helbon is identified with a village of the same name, three and a half hours north of Damascus, rich in ruins, and still devoted to the culture of the vine, from which the costliest wine of the country was made. It was probably the same with the wine of Chalybon, so much prized in Persia.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. wares of thy making] the multitude of thy works, i.e. the works done for Tyre, all of which are hers.

multitude of all riches] or, because of every kind of riches.

wine of Helbon] This is repeatedly mentioned as a choice wine in the Assyrian inscriptions (Schrad. KAT. p. 425). The Persian kings also preferred it on their table. Cf. Hos_14:7, Son_8:11. The place is identified with Chalbûn, N.E. of Damascus.

white wool] Possibly, wool of Zachar, though a place of this name is unknown.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Dan also and Javan, going to and fro, occupied in thy fairs,.... Either the inhabitants of the tribe of Dan in general; or of Laish, sometime called Dan, and in later times Caesarea Philippi, which was in that tribe: though Grotius thinks that Taprobane, or the isle of Zeilan, is meant, where, and not in Dan, were the things after mentioned, in plenty; and where also, according to Ptolemy (t), was a city called Dana or Dagana: and Bochart takes Javan not to be Greece, but a people of a country in Arabia, the metropolis of which was Uzal; and so he renders it, as some of the Greek versions do, Javan of Uzal, or Asel, to distinguish it from the other Javan, Eze 27:13, where also, and not in Greece, the sweet spices grew, which these are said to trade in:

bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market; brought from the above places; polished iron or steel, and the sweet spices of cassia and calamus, or the aromatic cane or reed, which came from afar, Jer 6:20.

(t) Geograph. l. 7. c. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rich. Hebrew Chelbon; perhaps the city Chelba, Judges i. 31. The kings of Persia used this wine, and planted vines at Damascus on purpose.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Damascus; a very ancient and wealthy city of Syria, and the royal city.

The wares of thy making; see the phrase Eze 27:16.

For the multitude of all riches: though the Tyrians had many rich and lovely commodities, yet it pleased the Damascenes to bring chiefly two of their commodities in exchange, richest wines to please the palate of the luxurious Tyrians, and finest wool to clothe their pride.

Halbon; this place I meet no where else; Ptolemy hath Chalinonis in Syria, perhaps they may be it. Others, to save trouble, make it a common name; sweet, or smooth, or fat wine; for

Helbon comes from a word that signifies fat.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Damascus — This city, the wonder of the ancient world, still remains great because of its three highways — running to Egypt, Arabia, and Persia. It has been from the dawn of history the capital and chief city of Syria, and celebrated because “of the multitude of all kinds of riches” (R.V.). Schrader gives several texts in which the wine of Helbon is mentioned. Nebuchadnezzar brought his wine from the “country of Helbon” (Hi-il-bu-nu), and Strabo mentions that this was the favorite wine of the Persian kings. The locality has been identified with Halbun, very near Damascus, a place still celebrated for the finest vineyards in Syria.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Damascus. The chief expert of the great capital of Syria was the wine of Helbon. The name occurs only here in the Old Testament. The LXX gives Chel-ben; the Vulgate, as if it described the quality of the wine, vinum pingue. It has been identified with Aleppo and with Chalyben, but both of these places are too remote from Damascus, and Mr. J. R. Porter ("Dict. Bible," s.v.) finds it in a place a few miles from Damascus, still bearing the name, and famous as producing the finest grapes in Syria. Strabo (Ezekiel 15. p. 735) names the wine of Chalybon as the favorite drink of the Persian kings, and Athenaeus (1:22) says the same of the wine of Damascus. The name appears in Egyptian monuments in conjunction with Kedes, as a Hittite city, and Brugsch ("Geogr. AEgypt., " 2:45) agrees with Porter as to its position. White wool. The adjective has been taken as a proper name (Smend) "wool of Zachar,"the region being identified with Nabatheaea, which was famous for its sheep. The LXX gives wool of Miletus," the city most famous in Greek commerce for its woollen fabrics.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

with white wine [Heb. בְּיֵין חֶלְבּוֹן,] cooked white wine, and Menachem (p. 89) connects it with (Ps. 147:14): “the best (חֵלֶב) of the wheat,” an expression of goodness

and white wool [Heb. צָחֹר.] [Jonathan renders:] “fine white covered wool.” On the day the lamb is born, and its mother cleanses it by licking it, they make a cover and wrap it around it with clasps so that that its wool be clean.

צָחֹר means white, like (Jud. 5:10): “white (צִרוֹרוֹת) donkeys.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.