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Sidon
Sometimes Zidon, as in the KJV. This ancient Phoenician city was built on a
small island, which was connected with the mainland by a bridge. The town was
some 20 miles N of
Tyre, is called Saida at present, and is now located in the republic of Lebanon.
It is situated between mountains to its back and the sea to its front. Its
people very early took to seafaring commerce. As the oldest capital of the
Phoenicians, its antiquity is attested by (Gen 10:15). The city is referred to around
1400 BC in the Amarna Letters.
The Phoenicians were called Sidonians from the eleventh to the eighth
centuries B.C. The city's early preeminence is attested by Homer, who often mentions
Sidon but never Tyre, and who employs the name as synonymous with Phoenicia and
Phoenicians. Later, however, it was outclassed by Tyre, but Phoenicians
generally continued to be known as Sidonians (1 Ki 5:6; 16:31).
Solomon was influenced by Sidonian cults (11:5-7) and hired expert Sidonian timber
cutters. Sidonians worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. Jezebel of infamy was a daughter
of Ethbaal, "king of the Sidonians." Her introduction of the licentious
worship of Canaanite cults into
Israel brought internal misery (16:31-33; etc.).
Shalmaneser of Assyria captured the city in 725 B.C. It was invaded by
Sennacherib, dominated by Esarhaddon, overrun by the Babylonians after the fall of
Assyria, and made a province by the Persians. It was conquered by Alexander the
Great (330 BC). It enjoyed importance under the Romans, and Herod embellished it.
Our Lord visited the general territory (Mk 7:24,31) and made reference to the
iniquity of its inhabitants (Mt 11:21-24). Paul visited the place on his way to
Rome (Acts 27:3). It figures in early church history, at the time of the
Crusades and finally under Muslim rule.