This list contains twenty-eight items of merchandise. The list reflects the actual products sought by society’s elite in John’s day (just as a parallel list in Ezekiel 27:25–36 reflects what was sought after in Ezekiel’s day). The list divides into six subsections, as follows: precious metals (4), costly textiles (4), exquisite natural products (6), spices and perfumes (5), foods (4), and domestic animals (5). The common thread connecting every item in this list is their excessively expensive cost (due to rarity or transportation costs; silk came from China, cinnamon from India and Indonesia, ivory from southern Africa, etc.). The market for this list, then, was the excessively rich; these merchants were not concerned about supplying the needs of the average person, let alone the poor. That in turn also meant that the merchants could charge an extra levy to enrich themselves (Revelation 18:3). The buyers were not only the people of the city of Rome (huge metropolis as it was, approaching nearly a million people!) but included other major cities (concentrations of people; i.e., Babylon!) within the Roman empire (e.g., Ephesus, Alexandria). In sum, this list speaks to satisfying the wants of a very selfish stratum of society in the Roman Empire—and by extension of any such stratum across the ages in various civilizations. Further, it should be noted that the items on the list speak to any Babylon’s effort to build a paradise without God.
12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,