Tin

Tin turns up in only a few verses, and always as one metal in a list. Numbers 31 names it among the gold, silver, brass, iron and lead taken from Midian that had to be purified. In Ezekiel 27:12 the merchants of Tarshish trade “silver, iron, tin, and lead” in the markets of Tyre. Ezekiel 22 uses the same metals as a sad picture: God says Israel has become like dross, and he will gather the people as metals are gathered into a furnace and melted. The image is not of destruction for its own sake but of fire used to separate what is worthless from what is pure. Ezekiel 22 is the place to read it.

4 verses

Numbers

Numbers 31:22

Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 22:18

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

Ezekiel 22:20

As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.

Ezekiel 27:12

Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Heb. bedil (Num. 31:22; Ezek. 22:18, 20), a metal well known in ancient times. It is the general opinion that the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon obtained their supplies of tin from the British Isles. In Ezek. 27:12 it is said to have been brought from Tarshish, which was probably a commercial emporium supplied with commodities from other places. In Isa. 1:25 the word so rendered is generally understood of lead, the alloy with which the silver had become mixed (ver. 22). The fire of the Babylonish Captivity would be the means of purging out the idolatrous alloy that had corrupted the people.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

Among the various metals found in the spoils of the Midianites, tin is enumerated. (Numbers 31:22) It was known to the Hebrew metal-workers as an alloy of other metals. (Isaiah 1:25; Ezekiel 22:18,20) The markets of Tyre were supplied with it by the ships of Tarshish. (Ezekiel 27:12) It was used for plummets, (Zechariah 4:10) and was so plentiful as to furnish the writer of Ecclesiasticus, Ecclus. 47:18, with a figure by which to express the wealth of Solomon. Tin is not found in Palestine. Whence, then. did the ancient Hebrews obtain their supply "Only three countries are known to contain any considerable quantity of it: Spain and Portugal, Cornwall and the adjacent parts of Devonshire, and the islands of Junk, Ceylon and Banca, in the Straits of Malacca." (Kenrick, "Phoenicia," p. 212.) There call be little doubt that the mines of Britain were the chief source of supply to the ancient world, [See TARSHISH] ("Tin ore has lately been found in Midian." --Schaff.)