Ebony

Ebony appears once in scripture, named among the luxury goods that flowed into the markets of Tyre. The single mention places the wood in the company of ivory as an article of long-distance maritime trade.

A Trade Good of Tyre

In the lament-catalogue of Tyre's commerce, ebony is paired with ivory and routed through island traders: "The sons of Rodan were your traffickers; many isles were the mart of your hand: they brought you in exchange horns of ivory and ebony" (Eze 27:15). The wood enters the picture not as a building material or an instrument of worship but as imported merchandise — exchanged, carried by sea, and gathered into the wealth of a coastal mercantile city whose downfall the surrounding chapter announces.