SIDON sī dən. The first mention of Sidon in the OT is found in Genesis 10:19 in a description of the territory of the Canaanites, which extended from Sidon as far as Gaza. The capture of Laish by the Danites was facilitated by its distance from Sidon, under whose protection it apparently was (Judg 18:28).

In the NT, Sidon often is combined with Tyre, almost as a formula. One visit by Jesus to the region of Tyre and Sidon is recorded in the gospels (Matt 15:21; Mark 7:31), at which time he had the encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman. This is the only recorded instance in the ministry of Jesus that He went outside the boundaries of Pal. In His invectives upon the cities of Galilee, Jesus compared Chorazin and Bethsaida to Tyre and Sidon and declared that the latter cities would have responded more quickly than the former (Matt 11:21, 22; Luke 10:13, 14). The people of Tyre and Sidon were involved in difficulties with Herod at the time of his death (Acts 12:20). On Paul’s shipwreck voyage to Rome a port call was made at Sidon (Acts 27:3).

The modern Lebanese city of Sidon is built over the ruins of the ancient city, also known as Saida. It is located about thirty m. S of Beirut and about thirty m. N of Tyre. On the N side of the city there was a good harbor, protected by a low line of rocks joining the promontory and the mainland. To the S of the city there was a large bay.

The ancient history of Sidon is closely related to the history of the Phoenicians, an aggressive sea-faring people on the eastern Mediterranean coast. Sidon was one of the four most important towns of the Phoenicians—the other three being Aradus in the N (almost directly E of Cyprus), Byblos (about twenty-eight m. N of Beirut) and Tyre (S of Sidon). Each of these cities was a more or less independent political unit, its immediate territory forming its kingdom. Occasionally some cities would have control over some neighboring territories, but they never fully united into a confederacy or nation.

During the second millennium b.c. and the first half of the first millennium, Sidon was somewhat under the shadow of Tyre politically. Egyptian inscrs. of the 16th cent. mention Tyre and Sidon by name. In the Tell el-Amarna Letters (1370-1348 b.c.) a king of Sidon, named Zimreda, is mentioned (no. 147, ANET, p. 484). Under Tiglath-pileser I (1114-1076), the Assyrians made an expedition to the Mediterranean coast and received tribute from Byblos, Sidon and Arvad (ANET, p. 275). Hiram was king of Tyre at the time of David and Solomon, and provided workmen and material to Solomon for the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chron 2). He also assisted Solomon in the development of Red Sea trade (2 Chron 8:17; cf. 1 Kings 9:26-28; 10:11). In the 9th cent. b.c., the Assyrians had control over a number of Phoen. cities. Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) received as tribute from Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and other cities: gold, silver, tin, copper, linen garments, ebony, boxwood, ivory (ANET p. 276). Shalmaneser III (858-824) also received tribute from the “countries of the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos” in his twenty-first year (ANET, p. 280). A cent. later Sennacherib (704-681) in his third campaign marched against Luli, king of Sidon, and in his annals boasts about his complete rout of the Sidonian monarch who fled to Cyprus where he died (ANET p. 287f.). Sennacherib placed Ethba’al on the Sidonian throne and exacted tribute from the land. Later, Abdimilkutte became king of Sidon and refused to recognize the authority of the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon (680-669), or to comply with his severe economic demands. Esarhaddon, however, in a battle in 677-676 destroyed Sidon, and the Sidonian king was killed at sea. The Assyrians took much booty—all the riches of the city and many subjects captive. With the help of neighboring peoples, Esarhaddon built a new city on a new location which he called Kar-Esarhaddon (ANET, p. 291). This Assyrian commercial colony was to replace the Phoen. merchant cities in handling Assyrian trade on the Mediterranean coast. Nevertheless the Assyrians were never able to subjugate completely all the cities of the Phoenicians. The first Eastern king to gain complete control of the Phoen. territory was Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562) in whose court the king of Sidon was a “subject” (ANET, p. 308). His destruction of the power of Tyre in 574 made Sidon the leading city of the area. Under the Persians Sidon was a major city and a seat of a palace of the Pers. king. Sidon gained a measure of independence in the 5th cent., as suggested by the inscr. of the coffin of Eshmunazar (now in the Louvre) which reports that he added the Philistine cities of Dor and Joppa to his kingdom. With the Gr. conquest under Alexander the Great, epitomized in his spectacular siege of Tyre, the Phoen. cities became Gr. and subsequently Rom. in character and culture.

The skill of the artisans of Sidon is wellattested in ancient times. The carving of ivory to decorate furniture, architecture, and small objects was a flourishing industry in Sidon. The Assyrian documents record great quantities of ivory articles sent to the Assyrian kings as gifts and tribute. Homer lists one of the prizes at the funeral games of Patrocles as a beautiful Sidonian silver bowl (Iliad 23. 741ff.). Such trade in ancient times reflects an extensive Sidonian influence in E and W.

The chief god of the Sidonians was Eshmun, and of the Tyrians, Melqart. These two were part of the familiar Near Eastern fertility cult and harvest myth, represented in Babylonia as Ishtar and Tammuz, in Egypt as Isis and Osiris. Eshmun also became the chief god of Carthage.

Unfortunately, the modern Sidon is built largely over the ruins of the ancient city, making any extensive and systematic excavation of the ancient site very difficult. It is hoped that the increased archeological investigation along the Phoen. coast may reveal more of the past history of Phoenicia, and of some of her major cities.