-Hazor:
And not just a weak little fire. Archaeologists digging at Hazor
found the fire was so hot, it turned mud bricks to glass.
-Sidon.(another
spelling is Zidon): a fishery, a town
on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre.
It received its name from the "first-born" of Canaan,
the grandson of Noah.(Genesis
10:15, "And Canaan begat Sidon, his firstborn and Heth.").
This city was famous for
its manufactures and arts, as well as for its commerce. The Sidonians had
a great reputation
for hewing wood:.1Kings
5:6.
It was the first home of
the Phoenicians on the coast
of Palestine.
The name Phoenicians is synonymous
with Sidonians.
From its extensive commercial
relations, Sidon became a 'great' city. It was the mother city of Tyre.
It was never subdued. The
Zidonians/Sidonians
long oppressed Israel. Were they the beginning of the cabal? What they
were like in heart is the same as the
cabal today. From the time of David
its glory began to wane
and Tyre, its 'virgin daughter', rose to its place of preeminence.
Solomon
entered into a matrimonial
alliance with the Zidonians and thus their form of idolatrous worship found
a place in the land of Israel.
This is frequently referred to by the prophets and it became a major
historical point of the Old Testament.
Our Lord visited the 'coasts'
of Tyre and Zidon = Sidon.(q.v.);
and from this region many came forth to hear him preaching.
From Sidon, at which the
ships put in after leaving Caesarea, Paul finally
sailed for Rome.
This old Phoenician city
is now a town of 10,000 inhabitants, with remains of walls built in the
twelfth century
A.D.
In 1855, the sarcophagus
of
Eshmanezer
was discovered. From a Phoenician inscription on its lid, it appears that
he was a "king of the Sidonians", probably in B.C.E.
the third century when the city was founded. Eshmanezer's mother was a
priestess of Ashtoreth
"the Goddess of the Sidonians". In this inscription Baal
is mentioned as the chief God of the Sidonians and from a Phoenician inscription
on its lid, it appears that he was a "king of the Sidonians" probably in
the third century
B.C.E.
Today lies ruins of the Phoenician Temple of Eshmun.(aka
Eachmoun).and
castles the Crusaders used.
Ezekiel
28:22,23 "And say, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you,
O Zidon and I will be glorified in the midst of you and they shall know
that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her and shall
be sanctified in her. For I will send into her pestilence and blood into
her streets and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the
sword upon her on every side and they shall know that I am the Lord."
-Tyre:
a rock, now es-Sur; also an ancient Phoenician
city south of Sidon. Sidon was the oldest Phoenician
city, but Tyre had a longer and more illustrious history. The commerce
of the whole world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre.."The
purple dye of Tyre had a worldwide celebrity on account of the durability
of its beautiful tints and its manufacture proved a source of abundant
wealth to the inhabitants of that city."
Both Tyre and Sidon."were
crowded with glass shops, dyeing and weaving establishments and among their
cunning workmen not the least important class were those who were celebrated
for the engraving of precious stones.
"Tyrian merchants were the
first who ventured to navigate the Mediterranean waters and they founded
their colonies on the coasts and neighbouring islands of the Aegean Sea,
in Greece, on the northern coast of Africa, at Carthage and other places,
in Sicily and Corsica, in Spain at Tartessus and even beyond the pillars
of Hercules at Gadeira.(now
the city of Cadiz)."....Driver's
Isaiah.
In the time of David a friendly
alliance was entered into between the Hebrews and the Tyrians, who were
long ruled over by their native kings.
Tyre consisted of two distinct
parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called Old Tyre and the city,
built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore.
It was a place of great strength. It was besieged by Shalmaneser,
who was assisted by the Phoenicians
of the mainland, for five years and by Nebuchadnezzar-II.(B.C.E.
586-573).for
thirteen years, apparently without success. It afterwards fell under the
power of Alexander the Great, after a siege of seven months, but continued
to maintain much of its commercial importance till the Christian era.
It is referred to in Matthew
11:21 and Acts 12:20. In 1291
A.D.
it was taken by the Saracens and has remained a desolate ruin ever since.
The wickedness and idolatry
of this city are frequently denounced by the prophets and its final destruction
predicted. For those delving
into it further, see Isaiah 23:1; Jeremiah 25:22; Ezekiel 26; 28:1-19;
Amos 1:9, 10; Zechariah 9:2-4 and Bible dictionaries.
Here a church was founded
soon after the death of Stephen and Paul, on his return from his third
missionary journey spent a week in with the disciples
there:.Acts
21:4.
Here the scene at Miletus
was repeated on his leaving them. They all, with their wives and children,
accompanied him to the sea shore. The sea voyage of the apostle
terminated at Ptolemais, about 38 miles from Tyre. Thence he proceeded
to Caesarea:.Acts
21:5-8.
"It is noticed on monuments
as early as B.C.E 1500 and claiming, according to Herodotus,
that Tyre was founded about B.C.E. 2700. It had two ports still existing
and was of commercial importance in all ages, with colonies at Carthage.(about
B.C.E. 850).and
all over the Mediterranean. It was often attacked by Egypt and Assyria
and taken by Alexander the Great after a terrible siege in B.C.E. 332.
It is now a town of 3,000 inhabitants with ancient tombs and a ruined cathedral.
A short Phoenician text of the
fourth century B.C.E. is the only monument yet recovered."....Driver's
Isaiah.
Ezekiel
26:3-5,12 "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against
thee, O Tyrus and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the
sea causes his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus
and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make
her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets
in the midst of the sea. For I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. And
it shall become a spoil to the nations. And they shall make a spoil of
thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise. And they shall break down
thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses and they shall lay thy stones
and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water."
