Calkers (Caulkers)

The caulkers belong to the trade-roster of Tyre — the workmen who sealed the seams of the city's ships against the sea. Both occurrences fall inside Ezekiel's lament-oracle over Tyre, which catalogues the city's craftsmen and merchants and then names them again in the moment of shipwreck.

The Workmen of Gebal

The first notice identifies the caulkers with the men of Gebal: "The old men of Gebal and its wise men were in you, your caulkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise" (Eze 27:9). The trade has prestige attached to it — these are the elders and the wise men of a Phoenician neighbor, hired into Tyre's shipwright operation alongside the mariners who sail what they have built.

In the Day of Ruin

In the closing roll-call of Tyre's destruction the caulkers reappear inside the long list of personnel who go down with the city: "Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your caulkers, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you, with all your company which is in the midst of you, will fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin" (Eze 27:27). The trade that kept the hulls watertight is itself swept under the water when the great merchant ship founders.