MERCHANDISE, in the OT four Heb. words are so tr. in the vs(s). 1. Heb. סﯴחֵ֑ר, is the most common; it is philologically cognate to Akkad. saḥāru(m). They are not, however, semantically equal. The basic meaning of the Heb. seems to be “peddler,” “merchant,” and thus his merchandise (Isa 23:18, et al.). However, the same root must be tr. “trade” or “barter” in many passages (Gen 34:10, et al.).

2. Heb. עָמַר֮, H6683, commonly meaning to “bind” and in a very restrictive sense in the Hithpa’el (III) stem it apparently means “bind as a slave,” “treat harshly” (Deut 21:14; 24:7), KJV reads, “make merchandise of,” RSV “treat as a slave,” JPS “deal with as a slave.”

3. Heb. רְכֻלָּה, H8219, which appears only in Ezekiel 28:5, 16, 18 and as objective in 26:12, means “traffic,” “goods.”

4. Heb. מַעֲרָב֮, H5115, prob. “the west,” “location of the sunset,” it occurs only in Ezekiel 27:3, 32), in a context dealing with the fall of Tyre, the term must have been derived from “western goods” in the sense of “imports” and thus “merchandise.” In the NT two Gr. words are so tr., ἐμπορία, G1865, the classical term for a market place, Eng. “emporium” (Matt 22:5; John 2:16). It was a loan word in late Heb. also.

Gr. γόμος, G1203, “load,” “cargo” appears in LXX and Acts 21:3; KJV reads “burden” (RSV Rev 18:11 and 12).