SIDON . See Zidon.

Fishing; fishery, Genesis 10:15,19 (A.V. marg., Tzidon; RSV, Zidon); Matthew 11:21,22 ; Luke 6:17 . (See ZIDON .)

The Mediterranean seaports of Tyre and Sidon were the two most important towns of Phoenicia. The Bible frequently mentions the two towns together as a way of referring to Phoenicia in general (Ezra 3:7; Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:4; Zechariah 9:2; Mark 7:24). Sometimes mention of only one of the towns is sufficient. For example, Tyre, being the larger and more prosperous port, may have symbolized the greed and arrogance that Phoenicia as a whole developed because of its international shipping activity (Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:8; Isaiah 23:17; Ezekiel 27:3; Ezekiel 27:25; Ezekiel 28:5; Ezekiel 28:9; Ezekiel 28:16). In the same way Sidon, being a dominant religious centre, fittingly symbolized the corrupt Phoenician religion that at times troubled Israel (Judges 10:6; 1 Kings 16:31-33). (For details of Sidon’s commerce, religion and history see PHOENICIA.)

(ssi' dahn, teere) Phoenician cities located on the coastal plain between the mountains of Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea (Genesis 10:15 ). Sidon and Tyre were ancient cities, having been founded long before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan. Extrabiblical sources first mention Sidon before 2000 B.C. and Tyre just after 2000 B.C. While Sidon seems to have been the most dominant of the two cities during the early part of their histories, Tyre assumed this role in the latter times. Both cities were known for their maritime exploits and as centers of trade. One of Tyre's most coveted exports was purple dye. Joshua could not conquer the territory (Joshua 13:3-4 ). Israel had relations with the two cities, but especially with Tyre. David employed Tyrian stonemasons and carpenters and used cedars from that area in building a palace. (2 Samuel 5:11 ). The construction of the Temple in Jerusalem during Solomon's reign depended heavily on the materials and craftsmen from Tyre. About 870 B.C., Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of the Phoenician king, bringing Baal worship to Israel's court. Ezekiel 28:1 characterizes the king of Tyre as the ultimate example of pride. Under Roman rule, the two cities were important ports of trade, but they did not enjoy the dominance they previously held. Jesus spent time in Tyre and Sidon and in contrast to the prophets' attitude toward the cities, He contrasted them with the Jews as examples of faith ( Matthew 11:20-22 ). Paul spent seven days in Tyre after his third missionary journey (Acts 21:3-4 ). See Phoenicia . Scott Langston

(Σιδών, ethnic Σιδώνιοι) Sidon, called ‘Great Zidon’ (Joshua 11:8), was one of the maritime cities of Phcenicia, about 25 miles N. of Tyre, its ‘rival in magnitude, fame, and antiquity’ (Strabo, xvi. ii. 22). After the coming of Alexander the Great, whom Sidon rapturously welcomed and Tyre frantically opposed, the two cities shared the same political fortunes, being for two centuries bones of contention between the Greek kings of Syria in the north and Egypt in the south. So long, however, as their civic autonomy was secure, their factories busy, their overseas traffic prosperous, the quarrels of their alternate overlords did not greatly trouble them. And, while their wealth was apparently almost as great as ever, they added a new interest to life by learning the language and assimilating the culture of Greece. They were not now a mere race of merchant princes or pedlars, wholly absorbed in getting and spending. Strabo says that in his time-the beginning of our era-the Sidonians not only ‘cultivate science and study astronomy and arithmetic, to which they are led by the application of numbers and night sailing, each of which concerns the merchant and seaman,’ but there are ‘distinguished philosophers, natives of Sidon, as Bcethus, with whom I studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and Diodotus his brother’ (xvi. ii. 24). The two sister cities now consistently advocated a policy of peace with all their neighbours. Not possessing a fraction of the army and navy with which they once defied empires, they could no longer assert themselves even when they were in the right. When Herod Agrippa was ‘highly displeased with the Tyrians and Sidonians’ (Acts 12:20), they indulged in no useless heroies. Raising no question as to whether the king’s displeasure was just or not, and facing the plain fact that ‘their country was fed from the king’s country,’ they looked about for a friend at Court and humbly asked for peace. If there was any thought of peace with honour, it was suppressed. Dependents could not afford to be angry, and the king could do no wrong. To this had great Sidon and proud Tyre now come. No details are given of our Lord’s visit to Sidon, though it is definitely stated that He came through it, or at least its surrounding territory (reading διά not καί in Mark 7:31, with the best Manuscripts ), on His way to Decapolis, which He probably reached by the highway over the Lebanon to Damascus (see H. J. Holtzmann, Die Synoptiker3, 1901 ^[1], and A. B. Bruce, Expositor’s Greek Testament , ‘Mark,’ 1897, in loc). Nothing is known of the actual introduction of Christianity into Sidon. One of its bishops attended the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325. ‘Sidonian’ was originally an ethnic name like ‘Hittite,’ Sidon and Heth being named together as sons of Canaan in Genesis 10:15. In Homer ‘Sidonia’ is equivalent to Phcenicia and ‘Sidonian’ to Phcenician. In the Latin poets, too, when the adjective qualifies such words as ‘Dido’ (Virg. aen. xi. 74), ‘nautae,’ ‘rates,’ ‘murex,’ ‘vestis,’ ‘chlamys,’ it means Phcenician. The modern town, called by the Arabs Saida, has about 15,000 inhabitants. Some very remarkable sarcophagi have been found in the necropolis to the S.E. of the town. Literature.-E. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine2, 3 vols., 1856, ii. 478 ff.; O. Hamdy-Bey and T. Reinach, La Nécropole royale de Sidon, 1892-96; C. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria2, 1894. James Strahan.

SIDON (for much of common reference, see Tyre).—A narrow, rocky district as well as a once famous city in Phœnicia, the city being 30 miles S. of Beirût and 26 miles slightly N. by E. of Tyre, and 60 miles N. of Capernaum. Like nearly all settlements on the east coast of the Mediterranean, Sidon owed its location to certain prominent rocks in the sea, which at first served as a breakwater, and then, through gradual connexion with the land, produced a northern and a southern harbour, the latter now filled with sand. Sidon is so ancient that all certainty as to the origin of its name has vanished. Some have deemed it ‘fishing’-town, others the seat of the worship of a deity Sid. Sidon and the Sidonians are heard of earlier and more influentially than Tyre, which finally distanced its northern rival. All the Phœnician cities seem to have known little but rivalry down to the appearance of such world-powers as Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, which made them all, sooner or later, subject and abject. Each had its ‘king,’ its ‘god,’ its colonies, its coinage. Each sent its trading vessels seaward to the Mediterranean world; landward, each was in touch with the markets of Damascus and the East by means of those caravans of ‘ships of the desert’; each sat as queen over a semicircular domain with a radius of some 15 to 20 miles. Through faction in the 8th cent. b.c. Sidon lost many of her merchants, chiefly to Tyre. At length her limited territory, her merely commercial aim, her being sapped by colonization and dissension, her final surrender of leadership to Tyre, combined with her conquests by the world-powers, left her under the Romans in the days of Christ a merely provincial capital, richer in the vices of ancient paganism than in its virtues. Some from Sidon were in the multitude that thronged Jesus at the Sea of Galilee (Mark 3:8), and Sidon was pronounced more excusable in the day of judgment than the more favoured cities of Jesus’ own country and race (Matthew 11:21 f.). The present Saida has about 10,000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by delightful orange groves, beneath which lie archaeological treasures. Beirût, with its Damascus railway and improved harbour, has robbed Sidon of its last vestiges of commerce. In a sense Sidon was, and in another sense was not, within the limits of the Holy Land. In the ideal distribution of Canaan recorded in Joshua the lot of Asher would seem to have included about all of Phœnicia, extending ‘even unto great Sidon’ (Joshua 19:28). The coast cities and their daughter villages, however, remained utterly unconscious of their assignment, while Asher became so assimilated thereto as to retain in Israelitish history little more than a name. The Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 declares that Jesus ‘came through Sidon,’ a distinct and exact statement unknown to the Authorized Version ; and thereon depends our conception whether or not Jesus Himself, from choice, ever went into the way of the Gentiles. Many points as to the primariness, structure, and transmission of the Gospels are illustrated by this case. Matthew 15:21 ff. Authorized Version Mark 7:24 ff. Authorized Version Matthew 15:21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Matthew 15:22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, etc. Mark 7:24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, etc. ^[1]. Matthew 15:29 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. Mark 7:31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. ^[2]. After the Revisers’ most conscientious work, with their better evidence, this is the form in which we read the same: And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, etc. And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into an house, and would have no man know it: and he could not be hid. But straightway a woman, etc. ^[1].   Marg. ‘Some ancient authorities omit and Sidon.’ And Jesus departed thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and sat there. And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis. B. Weiss sides completely with the ‘some ancient authorities’ of (Revised Version margin) , and reads: Jesus ‘went away into the borders of Tyre.… And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee,’ etc. Thus the primary Gospel of Mark, the more ancient Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts , Professor Weiss, and the Revisers do not hesitate to depict Jesus as entering Gentile territory (twice), entering a (probably) heathen house, and dispensing blessings upon a pagan woman, going then yet farther ‘through Sidon’ and Decapolis. The more theological First Evangelist, however, and the judicious transcribers disliked so to state the case. So Edersheim: the ‘house in which Jesus sought shelter and privacy would, of course, be a Jewish home’; and ‘by “through Sidon” I do not understand the town of that name, which would have been quite outside the Saviour’s route, but the territory of Sidon’ (Life and Times, ii. 38, 44). Anything like a direct ‘route’ from the Israelitish borders of Tyre, or of Tyre and Sidon,—for Edersheim emphasizes Matthew’s indication that the woman came from her territory to that of Jesus,—would take one in a south-easterly direction, and therefore away from Sidon. Accordingly, Jesus’ choice to go in a northerly direction, ‘through Sidon,’ shows that He was not taking any near and direct and usual ‘route,’ but for a reason was seeking travel into heathen territory. Mk.’s connexion indicates that Jesus journeyed into the Gentile land with His disciples, on the occasion of the abolition of the Levitical distinctions as to the ceremonially clean and unclean, so as to give to His followers an example and object lesson as to the same. Sidon on the far north was for this reason included, as was the hog-herding Decapolis. It was at Caesarea, a similar Gentile city almost 100 miles nearer Jerusalem, that St. Peter received his fuller lesson on the same subject. Wilbur Fletcher Steele.

SIDON or ZIDON. A fishing town made memorable from our Lord's occasional visits there. Some derive it from the word Tzada, to fish. It was an antient place. (See Joshua 11:8; Matthew 15:21)

See ZIDON and ZIDONIANS.

("fishing town"); SIDON or ZIDON. Genesis 10:9; Genesis 10:15; Joshua 11:8; Joshua 19:28; Judges 1:31. Sidon was in Asher (Isaiah 23:2; Isaiah 23:4; Isaiah 23:12). An ancient mercantile city of Phoenicia, in the narrow plain between Lebanon and the Mediterranean, where the mountains recede two miles from the sea; 20 miles N. of Tyre. Now Saida. Old Sidon stands on the northern slope of a promontory projecting a few hundred yards into the sea, having thus "a fine naturally formed harbour" (Strabo). The citadel occupies the hill behind on the south. Sidon is called (Genesis 10:15) the firstborn of Canaan, and "great Sidon" or the metropolis (Joshua 11:8). Sidonians is the generic name of the Phoenicians or Canaanites (Joshua 13:6; Judges 18:7); in Judges 18:28 Laish is said to be "far from Sidon," whereas Tyre, 20 miles nearer, would have been specified if it had then been a city of leading importance. (See TYRE.) So in Homer Sidon is named, but not Tyre. Justin Martyr makes (Judges 18:3) Tyre a colony planted by Sidon when the king of Ascalon took Sidon the year before the fall of Troy. Tyre is first mentioned in Scripture in Joshua 19:29 as "the strong city," the "daughter of Sidon" (Isaiah 23:12.) Sidon and Sidonians are names often subsequently used for Tyre, Tyrians. Thus Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians (1 Kings 16:31), is called by Menander in Josephus (Ezekiel 28:22-24 section 2) king of the Tyrians. By the time of Zechariah (Zechariah 9:2) Tyre has the precedency, "Tyrus and Sidon." Sidon revolted from the yoke of Tyre when Shalmaneser's invasion gave the opportunity. Rivalry with Tyre influenced Sidon to submit without resistance to Nebuchadnezzar. Its rebellion against the Persian Artaxerxes Ochus entailed great havoc on its citizens, Tennes its king proving traitor. Its fleet helped Alexander the Great against Tyre (Arrian, Anab. Al., 2:15). Augustus took away its liberties. Its population is now 5,000. Its trade and navigation have left it for Beirut. It was famed for elaborate embroidery, working of metals artistically, glass, the blowpipe, lathe, and graver, and cast mirrors. (Pliny 36:26, H. N. 5:17; 1 Kings 5:6, "not any can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians".) Their seafaring is alluded to (Isaiah 23:2). Self indulgent ease followed in the train of their wealth, so that "the manner of the Sidonians" was proverbial (Judges 18:7).. Sidon had her own king (Jeremiah 25:22; Jeremiah 27:3). Sidonian women in Solomon's harem seduced him to worship Ashtoreth "the goddess of the Sidonians" (1 Kings 11:1; 1 Kings 11:4; 2 Kings 23:13). Joel reproves Sidon and Tyre for selling children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Grecians, and threatens them with a like fate, Judah selling their sons and daughters to the Sabeans. So Ezekiel (Ant. 8:13,) threatens Sidon with pestilence and blood in her streets, so that she shall be no more a pricking brier unto Israel. Jesus went once to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21). Paul touched at Sidon on his voyage from Caesarea to Rome (Acts 27:3); by Julius' courteous permission Paul there "went unto his friends to refresh himself." Tyre and Sidon's doom shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment than that of those who witnessed Christ's works and teaching, yet repented not (Matthew 11:21-22). On a coin of the age of Antiochus IV Tyre claims to be "mother of the Sidonians," being at that time the capital city.

Eldest son of Canaan, son of Ham, and the city in Phoenicia founded by his descendants. Genesis 10:15,19 . In scripture Tyre is nearly always mentioned first, though it is probable that in early days Zidon had the supremacy, which led to the district of Phoenicia being called Sidon, and the people thereof Zidonians. In Joshua 11:8 ; Joshua 19:28 , it is called 'great Zidon.' It fell to the lot of Asher, but they did not drive out the inhabitants, which led to the Israelites serving the gods of the place. Judges 1:31 ; Judges 10:6 . Solomon also loved some of their women, and imitated their form of idolatry. 1 Kings 11:1,33 . Zidon is denounced by the prophets for destruction. It is charged with being a 'pricking brier' to the house of Israel, and a 'grieving thorn' around them. Ezekiel 28:21-24 . Jehovah says of Zidon, in conjunction with Tyre, that they had taken His gold and silver and pleasant things, and carried them into their heathen temples, and had also sold the children of Judah unto the Grecians, to remove them far from their border. Joel 3:4-8 . A warning message from Jeremiah was sent to the king of Zidon and neighbouring kings, exhorting them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, who was Jehovah's servant. Jeremiah 27:3 . We do not read that Nebuchadnezzar took Zidon, indeed his lengthy siege of Tyre probably enriched Zidon. The city is mentioned in Genesis 49:13 ; Isaiah 23:2-12 ; Jeremiah 25:22 ; Jeremiah 47:4 ; Ezekiel 27:8 ; Zechariah 9:2 , etc. The Lord Jesus visited its coasts, and said that it should be more tolerable in the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for the cities in which He had done his mighty works. Matthew 11:21,22 ; Matthew 15:21 ; Acts 12:28 ; Acts 27:3 . The destruction of Zidon was remarkable. They revolted from the Persians, but Tennes their king turned traitor and betrayed them. When the place was besieged, many of the citizens went out in submission, but were cruelly butchered. They had burnt their ships that none might escape, and seeing no effectual means of defence, in despair they shut themselves up in their houses, set them on fire, and perished in the flames. This was in B.C. 351. It gradually recovered from this destruction and became again a flourishing town. It is now called Saida, 33 34' N, there are many ruins. In the Hebrew the name is Tzidon, as in the margin of Genesis 10:15 . Sidon is the Greek form of the name.

or ZIDON, a celebrated city and port of Phenicia, and one of the most ancient cities in the world; as it is supposed to have been founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan, which will carry it up to above two thousand years before Christ. But if it was founded by Sidon, his descendants were driven out by a body of Phenician colonists, or Cushim from the east; who are supposed either to have given it its name, or to have retained the old one in compliment to their god Siton, or Dagon. Its inhabitants appear to have early acquired a preeminence in arts, manufactures, and commerce; and from their superior skill in hewing timber, by which must be understood their cutting it out and preparing it for building, as well as the mere act of felling it, Sidonian workmen were hired by Solomon to prepare the wood for the building of his temple. The Sidonians are said to have been the first manufacturers of glass; and Homer often speaks of them as excelling in many useful and ingenious arts, giving them the title of Πολυδαιδαλοι . Add to this, they were, if not the first shipwrights and navigators, the first who ventured beyond their own coasts, and in those early ages engrossed the greatest part of the then commerce of the world. The natural result of these exclusive advantages to the inhabitants of Sidon was, a high degree of wealth and prosperity; and content with the riches which their trade and manufactures brought them, they lived in ease and luxury, trusting the defence of their city and property, like the Tyrians after them, to hired troops; so that to live in ease and security, is said in Scripture to be after the manner of the Sidonians. In all these respects, however, Sidon was totally eclipsed by her neighbour and rival, Tyre; whose more enterprising inhabitants pushed their commercial dealings to the extremities of the known world, raised their city to a rank in power and opulence unknown before, and converted it into a luxurious metropolis, and the emporium of the produce of all nations. After the subversion of the Grecian empire by the Romans, Sidon fell into the hands of the latter; who, to put an end to the frequent revolt of the inhabitants, deprived it of its freedom. It then fell successively under the power of the Saracens, the Seljukian Turks, and the sultans of Egypt; who, in 1289, that they might never more afford shelter to the Christians, destroyed both it and Tyre. But it again somewhat revived, and has ever since been in the possession of the Ottoman Turks.

Sidon. Genesis 10:15, A.V. See Zidon.

Ancient Phenician seaport, 67 miles from Caesarea, between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean, where Saint Paul stopped on his voyage to Rome (Acts 27). The modern port, Saida, is west of Sidon.

Hunting; fishing; venison

In the Old Testament Genesis 49:13 , and is believed to have been founded by Zidon, the eldest son of Canaan, Genesis 10:15 49:13 . In the time of Homer, the Zidonians were eminent for their trade and commerce, their wealth and prosperity, their skill in navigation, astronomy, architecture, and for their manufactures of glass, etc. They had then a commodious harbor, now choked with sand and inaccessible to any but the smallest vessels. Upon the division of Canaan among the tribes by Joshua, Great Zidon fell to the lot of Asher, Joshua 11:8 19:28 ; but that tribe never succeeded in obtaining possession, Judges 1:31 3:3 10:12 . The Zidonians continued long under their own government and kings, though sometimes tributary to the kings of Tyre. They were subdued successively by the Babyloniaus, Egyptians, Seleucidae, and Romans the latter of whom deprived them of their freedom. Many of the inhabitants of Sidon became followers of our Savior, Mark 3:8 , and he himself visited their freedom. Many of them also resorted to him in Galilee, Luke 6:17 . The gospel was proclaimed to the Jews at Sidon after the martyrdom of Stephen, Acts 11:19 , and there was a Christian church there, when Paul visited it on his voyage to Rome, Acts 27:3 . It is at present, like most of the other Turkish towns in Syria, dirty and full of ruins, thought it still retains a little coasting trade, and has five thousand inhabitants. It incurred the judgments of God for its sins, Ezekiel 28:21-24 , though less ruinously than Tyre. Our Savior refers to both cities, in reproaching the Jews as more highly favored and less excusable than they, Matthew 11:22 . Saida occupies an elevated promontory, projecting into the sea, and defended by walls. Its environs watered by a stream from their beautiful gardens, and fruit trees of every kind.