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, Jud 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, 1Ki 5:11 as they were in the times of Herod, long after, Ac 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 , who says that at Jericho grew the balsam tree, from whence came a precious oil, which oil is "pannag": and Hillerus 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, De 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, Jer 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 . The balm, or balsam plant, was peculiar to Judea, as Pliny ; at least it was the place of it until transplanted into other countries; and so says Solinus .
Hist. 1. 4. c. 22. p. 379. Onomastic. Sacr. p. 903. Vid. Scheffer. de Militia Navali, p. 43. 319. Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 25. Polyhistor. c.