Ver. 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they [were] thy merchants,.... Javan designs Greece, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it; especially that part of it called Ionia, from Javan the son of Japheth,
Genesis 10:2 and Tubal, and Meshech, were also sons of Japheth; the former are the Iberi and Albanians, as Jerom and others, among whom were a city called Thabilaca, by Ptolemy w; and the latter the Cappadocians, with whom is a city called Mazaca x.
They traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy markets; or, "the souls of men" y; they bought up men and women in the several countries to which they belonged, or where they traded, and brought them to Tyre, and sold them for slaves; and the Ionian and Grecian slaves were had in great esteem: and the best brass, of which vessels were made, was had from Corinth, Delus, and Aeginetus; according to Pliny z, Cappadocia was famous for it also: in the first of these merchandises Tyrus was remarkably a type of antichrist, who is said to deal in such wares, the souls of men, Revelation 18:13. The word here rendered "markets", Gussetius a also observes, does not design the place of commerce, but the act of negotiation or trade; and so it is rendered by many b.
w Geograph. l. 5. c. 12. x Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. y בנפש אדם "animabus hominum", Pagninus, Vatablus, Cocceius, Starckius. z Nat. Hist. l. 34. c. 2. a Ebr. Comment. p. 642. b מערבך την εμποριαν βου, Sept.; "negotiationem tuam", Tigurine version; "in commercio tuo", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus "mercaturam tuam", Cocceius.