Ezekiel 27:17
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants,.... The inhabitants of Judah and Israel; the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the other ten tribes of Israel, they all merchandised with the Tyrians, being near unto them:
they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith; the name of a place,
Judges 11:33, where probably the best wheat grew; so the Targum renders it; the Tyrians were supplied with wheat from the land of Israel, in the times of Solomon, long before this, 1 Kings 5:11 as they were in the times of Herod, long after, Acts 12:20, it was four miles from Esbus or Heshbon, in the way to Philadelphia, according to Eusebius:
and Pannag; which some take to be the name of a place, where the best wheat also was; which some say was Phoenicia, or the land of Canaan. The Septuagint render it "ointments": and the Latin interpreter of the Targum "balsam"; with which agrees Josephus ben Gorion {k}, who says that at Jericho grew the balsam tree, from whence came a precious oil, which oil is "pannag": and Hillerus {l} translates it balsam: it follows,
and honey, and oil: with which the land of Canaan abounded; for it was a land of oil olive and honey, a land that flowed with milk and honey, Deuteronomy 8:8 so that they had enough for themselves, and to spare for their neighbours, and which they carried to the market of Tyre:
and balm; or balsam, of which there was plenty at Gilead, and near Jericho, however at the latter; we read of the balm of Gilead, Jeremiah 8:22. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it "rosin"; and so the Targum; and this the Tyrians might make use of in their ships {m}. The balm, or balsam plant, was peculiar to Judea, as Pliny {n}; at least it was the place of it until transplanted into other countries; and so says Solinus {o}.
{k} Hist. 1. 4. c. 22. p. 379.
{l} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 903.
{m} Vid. Scheffer. de Militia Navali, p. 43. 319.
{n} Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 25.
{o} Polyhistor. c. 48.