Bible Dictionary
TRAFFIC, TRAFFICKER
Traffic or trafficking means trade, commerce, or the business of traveling merchants and peddlers. Scripture uses the term for commercial activity involving merchants, foreign trade, and the accumulation of wealth through buying and selling.
Definition
Traffic or trafficking means trade, commerce, or the business of traveling merchants and peddlers. The term may describe commercial exchange, the income produced by trade, or goods carried about for sale, including spices and other merchandise.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses the term for the land and city of merchants, for the traders whose activity contributed to Solomon’s income, and for commercial dealings in Egypt and Tyre. Ezekiel also associates extensive traffic with increased riches and, in Tyre’s case, unrighteous commerce.
Historical Background
The underlying terms are connected with merchants who traveled about or went from place to place in trade. One term became associated with merchants because the Canaanites were celebrated for commerce.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>traf'-ik, traf'-ik-er (kena`-an, micchar, cachar, rekhullah):</p><p>(1) Kena`an = "Canaan," and, as the Canaanites were celebrated merchants, came to mean "merchant," and so "traffic" (see CANAAN). Eze 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."</p><p>(2) Micchar means "trade," and so "traffic"; comes from a root meaning "to travel round," e.g. as a peddler. 1Ki 10:15 reads: "Besides that which the traders brought, and the traffic of the merchants." This refers to the income of Solomon.</p><p>(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" (Ge 42:34). He evidently meant that they should have license to become, throughout Egypt, traveling traders.</p><p>(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. (Eze 28:18).</p><p>See MARKET; MERCHANDISE; SHIPS AND BOATS, II, 2, (2); TRADE.</p><p>William Edward Raffety</p>