Traffic, Trafficker

TRAFFIC, TRAFFICKER [ISBE]

TRAFFIC, TRAFFICKER - traf'-ik, traf'-ik-er (kena`-an, micchar, cachar, rekhullah): (1) Kena`an = "Canaan," and, as the Canaanites were celebrated merchants, came to mean "merchant," and so "traffic" (see CANAAN). Ezek 17:4 refers to the great eagle who "cropped off the topmost of the young twigs (of cedar) thereof, and carried it unto a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants." (2) Micchar means "trade," and so "traffic"; comes from a root meaning "to travel round," e.g. as a peddler. 1 Ki 10:15 reads: "Besides that which the traders brought, and the traffic of the merchants." This refers to the income of Solomon. (3) Cachar means "to go about," "occupy with," "trade," "traffic," "merchant," and so the business of the moving merchant or peddler. Joseph said to his brothers: "So will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land" (Gen 42:34). He evidently meant that they should have license to become, throughout Egypt, traveling traders. (4) Rekhullah, from a root meaning "to travel for trading," and so a peddled traffic, as in spices, etc. Ezekiel speaks against the prince of Tyre: "By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches" (28:5); and against the king of Tyre: "in the unrighteousness of thy traffic," etc. (Ezek 28:18).

See MARKET; MERCHANDISE; SHIPS AND BOATS, II, 2, (2); TRADE.

William Edward Raffety