Zidon
Zi'don
(Heb. Tsidon', צַידוֹן [nor briefer צירֹן, Ge 10:15,19; Ge 49; Ge 13], fishery [Gesen.] or fortress [Fürst]; Sept. [usually], New Test., and classical writers generally, Σιδών; A.V. "Sidon" in ver. 15,19, and New Test.), the name of a man and of a place. They have a mutual bearing in relation to origin and birthplace of the Punic race, which figured so conspicuously in later times and in Roman history.
1. The eldest son of Canaan (Ge 10:15; 1Ch 1:13). B.C. considerably post 2514. SEE ETHNOGRAPHY.
2. One of the most ancient cities of Phoenicia (Ge 10:19; Ge 49:13; Jos 11:8; Jos 19:28; Jg 1:31; Jg 10:6; Jg 18:28; 2Sa 24:6; 1Ki 17:9; Isa 23:2,4,12; Jer 25:22; Jer 27:3; Jer 47:4; Eze 27:8; Eze 28:21-22; Joe 2:4 [Heb 4:4]; Zec 9:2; Mt 11:21-22; Mt 15:21; Mr 3:8; Mr 7:24,31; Lu 4:26; Lu 6:17; Lu 10; Lu 13; Lu 14; Ac 12:20; Ac 27:3), which still retains its ancient appellation (Phoen. צדן) in the Arabic from Saida. Justin Martyr (who lived in Palestine) derives the name from the Phoenician word for fish, "piscem Phoenices sidon vocant " (18, 3); but Josephus; from the son of Canaan (Ant. 6:2).
1. — Situation and Importance. — Zidon lies on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea,: in lat. 33 34' 5" N., less than twenty English miles to the north iof: Tyre. It is situated in the narrow plain between the Lebanon and the sea, to which it once gave its own name (Josephus, Ant. 5, 3, 1, τὸ μέγα πεδίον Σιδῶνος πόλεως) at a point where the mountains recede to a distance of two miles (Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 19). Adjoining the city there are luxuriant gardens and orchards, in which there is a profusion of the finest fruit trees suited to the climate. "The plain is flat and low," says Mr. Porter, author of the Handbook for Syria and Palestine, "but near the coast line rises a little hill, a spur from which shoots out a few hundred yards into the sea in a southwestern direction. On the northern slope of the promontory thus formed stands the old city of Zidon. The hill behind on the south is covered by the citadel" (Encyclop. Britannica, 8t.h ed. s.v.). It had a very commodious harbor, which is now nearly choked up with sand (Strabo, 16:756; Josephus, Ant. 14:10, 6). It was distant one day's journey from the fountains of the Jordan (ibid. 5, 3, 1), and four hundred stadia from Berytus (Strabo, 16:756, 757). It was situated in the allotment of the tribe of Asher, but never conquered (Jg 1:31); on the contrary, it was sometimes a formidable enemy (Jg 10:12). Even in Joshua's time it was called Tsidon-rabba, or Great Zidon (Jos 11:8; Jos 19:28), or Zidon the Metropolis, scil. of Zidonia. This district appears to have embraced the states of Zidon, Tyre, and-Aradas, and its inhabitants are always distinguished from the inhabitants of the city itself (called "dwellers יושבי of Zidon") as צדונים, "Zidonians," or dwellers in the districts and it seems in those early times to have extended northward to the Giblites, southward to the Carmel (Zebulun's border, Ge 49:13). At a later period the boundaries south were determined by the fluctuating- issue of the struggle for the hegemony between Zidon and Tyre, while northward the river Tamyrus divided it from the State of Berytus. To 'the east, where it never had extended very far (Dan, a Zidonian colony, being described as being "far from the Zidonians," Jg 18:7) in early days, it touched, at a later period, the territory of Damascus. The assumption, however, drawn by some writers from the inexact way in which the appellation Zidonian is used by ancient writers — viz. that this name stood for "Phoenician," and Zidonia itself for the whole of Phoenicia, of which it formed only an important part is incorrect. Tyre, of later origin than Zidoni, if not indeed founded by it, in the same way styles itself on coins אם צדנם, Metropolis of Zidonia, in the sense of its momentary hegemony over Zidon only, possibly also with a secondary reference to the nationality of its inhabitants, mostly immigrants from Zidon. The frequent allusions to the skillfulness of the Zido niansin arts andmanufactures, the extent of their commerce, their nautical information and prowess, in ancient writers, are well known (see Homer, It. 6:290; 23:743; Odys. 4, 617; 13:285; 15:117,425). Of the trade of the "Zidonian merchants" (Isa 23:2; Eze 27:8), both by land and sea, we hear in Diod. Sic. (16, 41, 45); of their glass, linen, and other manufactories, in Pliny (5, 20), Virgil, Strabo (16, 10), and other classical writers. The best vessels-in the fleet of Xerxes were Zidonian (Herod. 7:99, 128). In Hasselquist's time (1750) its exports to France; were considerable (Travels, p. 166); but at present its traffic is chiefly confined to the neighboring towns (Mannert, Geographie, 1, 291; Kitto, Pictorial Bible, notes on Deuteronomy 33 and Joshua 19).
2. History. — The antiquity of Zidon is evident from the ethnological assertion that Zidon was the first-born of Canaan, though Berytus and Byblus, as towns founded by Cronos, claimed a high mythological antiquity. Tyre is not mentioned in the Pentateuch at all; but Zidon is referred to in terms that give it the pre-eminence among Phoenician cities. From a Biblical point of view, this city is inferior in interest to its neighbor Tyre, with which its name is so often associated. Indeed, in all the passages above referred to in which the two cities are mentioned together, Tyre is named first a circumstance which might at once be deemed accidental, or the mere result of Tyre's being the nearest of the two cities to Palestine, were it, not that some doubt on this point is raised by the order being reversed in two works which were written at a period after Zidon had enjoyed a long temporary superiority (Ezr 3:7; 1Ch 22:4). However this may be, it is certain that, of the two, Tyre is of the greater importance in reference to the writings of the most celebrated Hebrew prophets; and the splendid prophecies directed against Tyre, as a single colossal power (Eze 26; Eze 27; Eze 28:1-19; Isa 23), have no parallel in the shorter and vaguer utterances against Zidon (Eze 28:21-23). The predominant Biblical interest of Tyre arises from the prophecies relating to its destiny.
If we could believe Justin (18:3), there would be no doubt that Zidon was of greater antiquity than Tyre, as he says that the inhabitants of Zidoni, when their city had been reduced by the king of Ashkelon, founded Tyre the year before the capture of Troy. Justin, however, is such a weak authority for any disputed historical fact, and his account of the early history of the Jews, wherein we have some means of testing his accuracy, seems to be so much in the nature of a romance (36, 2), that, without laying stress on the unreasonableness of any one's assuming to know the precise time when Troy was taken, he cannot be accepted as an authority for the early history of the Phoenicians. In contradiction of this statement, it has been further insisted on that the relation between a colony and the mother city among the Phoenicians was sacred, and that as the Tyrians never acknowledged this relation towards. Zidon, the supposed connection between Tyre and Zidon is morally impossible. This is a very strong point; but, perhaps, not absolutely conclusive, as no one can prove that this was the custom of the Phoenicians sat the very distant period when, alone, the Zidonians would have built Tyre, if they founded it at all;, or that it would have applied not only to the conscious and deliberate founding of a colony, but likewise to such an almost accidental founding of a city as is implied in the account of Justin. Certainly there is otherwise nothing improbable in Zidonians having founded Tyre, as the Tyrians are called Zidonians; but the Zidonians are never called Tyrians. At any rate, this circumstance tends to show that in early times Zidon was the most influential of the two cities. This is shadowed forth in the book of Genesis by the statement that Zidon was the firstborn of Canaan (Ge 10:15), and is implied in the name of "Great Zidon," or "the, metropolis Zidon," which is twice given to it in Joshua (Ge 11:8-19:28). It is confirmed, likewise, by Zidonians being used as the generic name of the Phoenicians, or Canaanites, (Ge 13:6; Jg 18:7); and by the reason assigned for there being no deliverer to Laish when its peaceable inhabitants were massacred, that "it was far from Zidon" whereas, if Tyre had been then of equal importance, it would have been more natural to mention Tyre, which professed substantially the same religion, and was almost twenty miles nearer (ver. 28). It is in accordance with the inference to be drawn from these circumstances that in the Homeric poems Tyre is not named, while there is mention both of Zidon and the Zidonians (Odys. 15:425; II. 23:743); and the land of the Zidonians is called "Sidonia" (Odys. 13:285). One point, however, in- the Homeric poems, deserves to be specially noted concerning the Zidonians, that they are never here mentioned as traders, or praised for their nautical skill, for which they were afterwards so celebrated (Herod. 7:44, 96). The traders are invariably known by the general name of Phoenicians, which would,' indeed, include the, Zidonians; but still the special praise of Zidonians was as skilled workmen. When Achilles distributed prizes at the games in honor of Patroclus, he gave as the prize of the swiftest runner a large silver bowl for mixing wine with water, which had been cunningly made by the skilful Zidonians, but which Phoenicians had brought over the sea (Homer, I1. 23:74, 744). When Menelaus wished to give to Telemachus what was most beautiful and most valuable, he presented him; with a similar mixing-bowl of silver, with golden rim —a divine work, the work of Hephaestus-which had been a gift to Menelaus himself from Phuedimus, king of the Zildonians (Odys. 4:614-618; 15:425). Again, all the beautifully embroidered robes of Andromache, from which she selected one as an offering to Athene, were the productions of Zidonian women, which Paris when coming to Troy with Helen, had brought from Sidonia (Il. 6, 289-295). But in no case is anything mentioned as having been brought from Zidon in Zidonian vessels or by Zidonian sailors. Perhaps, at this time the Phoenician vessels were principally fitted out at; seaports of Phoenicia to the north of Zidon.
But very soon after that: period the splendior and power of Zidon began to pale before Tyre, which existed already at the time of Joshua, but as a dependency of Zidon. After the memorable defeat, which the Zidonianas suffered in the war with the king of Ashkelonu (13th century B.C.), reported by Justin, when the Zidonians are said to have "retired to their ships and to have founded [refounded] Tyre," Zidon almost disappears from history for a time, so utterly enfeebled and insignificant had it become through the sudden and brilliant rise of its own daughter and rival, to whom all the noblest and most skilful of her children had fled. Its fate was almost the same as was that of Tyre herself when Dido-Elissa had founded Carthage, and drew all the most important elements from the old city to the new town, which, it must not be forgotten had originally been a Zidonian settlement under the name of Kakkabe, s.v.
From the time of Solomon to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, Zidon is not often directly mentioned in the Bible, and it appears to have been subordinate to Tyre. When the people called. "Zidonians" is mentioned, it sometimes seems that the Phoenicians of the plain of Zidon are meant, as, for example, when, Solomon said to Hiram that there was none among the Jews that could skill to hew timber like the Zidonlians (1Ki 5:6); and, possibly, when Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel, is called their king (1Ki 16:31), who, according to Menander, in Josephus (Ant. 8:13, 2), was king of the Tyrians. This may likewise be the meaning when Ashtoreth is called the goddess, or abomination, of the Zidonians (1Ki 11:5,33; 2Ki 23:13); or when women of the Zidonians are mentioned in reference to Solomon (1Ki 11:1). And this seems to be equally true of the phrases "daughter of Zidon," and "merchants of Zidon," and even once of "Zidon" itself (Isa 23:2; Isa 4:6) in the prophecy of Isaiah against Tyre. There is no doubt, however, that Zidon itself, the city properly so called, was threatened by Joel (Joe 3:4) and Jeremiah (Jer 27:3). Still, all that is known respecting it during this epoch is very scanty, amounting to scarcely more than that one of its sources of gain was trade in slaves, in which the inhabitants did not shrink from, selling inhabitants of Palestine; that the city was governed by kings (Jer 25:22); that., previous to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, it had furnished mariners to Tyre (Eze 27:8); that, at one period, it was subject, in some sense or other, to Tyre; and that, when Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, invaded Phoenicia, Zidon seized the opportunity to revolt. It seems strange to hear of the 'subjection of one great city to another great city only twenty miles off, inhabited by men of the same race, language, and religion; but the fact is rendered conceivable by the relation of Athens to its allies after the Persian war, and by the history of the Italian republics in the Middle Ages. It is not improbable that its rivalry with Tyre may have been influential in inducing Zidon, more than a century later, to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, apparently without offering any serious resistance.
During the Persian domination, Zidon seems to have attained its highest point of prosperity; and it is recorded that., towards the close of that period, it far excelled all other Phoenician cities in wealth and importance (Diod. Sic. 116, 44; Mela, 1:12). It. is very probable that the long siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar had tended not only to weaken and impoverished Tyre, but likewise to enrich Zidon at the expense of Tyre; as it was an obvious expedient for any Tyrian merchants, artisans, and sailors, who deemed resistance useless or unwise, to transfer their residence to Zidon. — However this may be, in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Zidonians were highly favored, and were a pre-eminently important element of his naval power. When, from a hill near Abydos, Xerxes witnessed a boat-race in his fleet, the prize was gained by the Zidonians (Herod. 7,44); when he reviewed his fleet, he sat beneath a golden canopy in a Zidonian galley (ibid. 7:100); when he wished to examine the months of the river Peneus, he entrusted himself to a Zidonian galley, as was his wont on similar occasions (ibid. 7:128); and when the Tyrants and general officers of his great expedition sat in order of honor, the king of the Zidonians sat first (ibid. 8; 67). Again, Herodotus states that the Phoenicians supplied the blest vessels of the whole fleet; and of the Phoenicians, the Zidonians (7, 96). Lastly, as Homer gives a vivid idea of the beauty of Achilles by saying that Nireus (thrice-named) was the most beautiful of all the Greeks who went to Troy, after the son of Peleus, so Herodotus completes the triumph of the Zidonians when he praises the vessels of Artemisia (probably for the daring of their crews) by saying that they were the most renowned of the whole fleet, "after the Zidonians" (7, 9).
The prosperity of Zidon was suddenly cut short by an unsuccessful revolt against Persia, which led to one of the most disastrous catastrophes recorded in history. Unlike the siege and capture of Tyre by Alexander the Great, which is narrated by several writers, and which is of commanding interest through, its relation to such a renowned conqueror, the fate of Zidon is only known through the history of Diodorus (16, 4245), and is mainly connected with Arttaxerxes Ochus (B.C. 359-338), a monarch who is justly regarded with mingled aversion and contempt. Hence the calamitous overthrow of Zidon has not, perhaps, attracted so much attention as it deserves. The principal circumstances were these. While the Persians were making preparations in Phoenicia to put down the revolt in Egypt, some Persian satraps and generals behaved oppressively and insolently to Zidonians in the Zidonian division of the city of Tripolis. On this the Zidonian people projected a revolt; and, having first concerted arrangements with other Phoenician cities and made a treaty with Nectanebus, they put their designs into execution. They commenced by committing outrages in a residence and park (παράδεισος) of the Persian king; they burned a large store of fodder which had been collected for the Persian cavalry; and they seized and put to death the Persians who, had been guilty of insults towards the Zidonians. Afterwards, under their king Tennes, with the assistance from Egypt of four thousand Greek mercenaries under Mentor, they expelled the Persian satraps from Phoenicia; they strengthened the defenses of their city; they equipped a fleet of one hundred triremes; and prepared for a desperate resistance. But their king Tennes proved a traitor to their cause; and, in performance of a compact with Ochus, he betrayed into the king's power one hundred of the most distinguished citizens of Zidon, who were all shot to death with javelins. Five hundred other citizens, who went out to the king with ensigns of supplication, shared the same fate; and, by, concert between Tennes and Mentor, the Persian troops were admitted within the gates and occupied the city walls. The Zidonians, before the arrival of Ochus, had burned their vessels to prevent any one leaving the town; and when they saw themselves surrounded by the Persian troops, they adopted the desperate resolution of shutting themselves up with their families, and setting fire each man to his own house (B.C. 351). Forty thousand persons are said to have perished in the flames. Tennes himself did not save his own life, as Ochus, notwithstanding his promise to the contrary, put him to death. The privilege of searching the ruins was sold for money.
After this dismal tragedy Zidon gradually recovered from the blow; fresh immigrants from other cities must have settled in it; and probably many. Zidonian sailors survived who had been plying their trade elsewhere in merchant vessels at the time of the capture of the city. The battle of Issus was fought about eighteen years afterwards (B.C. 333); and then the inhabitants of the restored city opened their gates to Alexander of their own accord, from hatred, as is expressly stated, of Darius and the Persians (Arrian, Anab. 2, 15). The impolicy as well as the cruelty of Ochus in his mode of dealing with the revolt of Zidon now became apparent; for the Zidonian fleet, in joining Alexander, was an essential element of his success against Tyre. After aiding to bring upon Tyre as great a calamity as had afflicted their own city, they were so far merciful that they saved the lives of many Tyrians by concealing them in their ships and then transporting them to Zidon (Quint. Curtius, 4:4,15). From this time Zidon, being dependent on the fortunes of war in the contests between the successors of Alexander, ceases to play any important political part in history. It became, however, again a flourishing town; and Polybius (5, 70) incidentally mentions that Antiochus, in his war with Ptolemy Philpator, encamped over against Zidon (B.C. 218), but did not venture to attack it from the abundance of its resources and the great number of its inhabitants, either natives or refugees. Subsequently, according to Josephus (Ant. 14, 21), Julius. Cesar wrote a letter respecting Hyrcanus, which he addressed to the "Magistrates, Council, and Demos of Sidon." This shows that up to that time the Zidonians enjoyed the forms of liberty, though Dion I Cassius says (64, 7) that Augustus, on his arrival in the East, deprived them of it for seditions conduct. Not long after Strabo, in his account of Phoenicia, says of Tyre and Sidon, "Both were illustrious and splendid formerly, and now; but which should be called the capital of Phoenicia is a matter of dispute between the inhabitants" (16, 756). He adds that it is situated on the mainland, on a fine naturally formed harbor. He speaks of the inhabitants as cultivating the sciences of arithmetic and astronomy; and says that the best opportunities were afforded in Zidon for acquiring a knowledge of these and of all other branches of philosophy. He adds that in his time there were distinguished philosophers natives of Zidon as Boethus, with whom he studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and his brother Diodotus. It is to be observed that both these names were Greek; and it is to be presumed that in Strabo's time Greek was the language of the educated classes at least, both in Tyre and Zidon. This is nearly all that is known of the state of Zidon when it was visited by Christ. It is about fifty miles distant from Nazareth, and is the most northern city, which is mentioned in connection with his journeys. Pliny notes the manufacture of glass at Zidon (Nat. Hist., 5, 17, 19); and during the Roman period we may conceive Tyre and Zidon as two thriving cities, each having an extensive trade, and each having its staple manufacture the latter of glass, and Tyre of purple dyes from shell- fish.
Zidon is mentioned several times in the New Test. Jesus went once to the coasts of Tyre and Zidon (Mt 15:21); Sarepta, a city of Sidon, is referred to (Lu 4:26); and Paul touched at Zidon on his voyage from Caesarea to Rome (Ac 27:3). Whatever be the doom of Tyre and Zidon, it shall be "more tolerable in the day of judgment" than that of Chorazin and Bethsaida, which saw the Savior's mighty works, but were unconvinced by them; for had these towns been so privileged, "they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."
Zidon was sometimes dignified with the Greek title of Nacuarchis (commander of ships), and was also called by the Romans Colonia Augusta and Metropolis. Christianity appears to have been introduced here at an early period (Ac 27:3), and a bishop of Zidon attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. After the conquest of Syria by the Moslems (in 636), Zidon surrendered to her new masters without resistance, and it was then in an enfeebled condition. It shared generally the fortunes of Tyre, with the exception that it was several times taken and retaken during the wars of the Crusades, and suffered, accordingly, more than Tyre previous to the fatal year B.C. 1291. Since that time it never seems to have fallen quite so low as Tyre. Through Fakhr ed-Din, emir of the Druses between 1594 and 1634, and the settlement at Saida of French commercial houses, it had a revival of trade in the 17th and part of the 18th century, and became the: principal city on the Syrian coast for commerce between the East and the West (see Memoires du Clevalier d'Arieux [Paris, 1735], 1, 294-379). This was put an end to at the close of last century by violence and oppression. (Ritter, Erdkunde, 17. Theil, 1. Abth. 3. Buch, p. 40, 406), closing a period of prosperity in which the population of the city was at one time estimated at 20,000 inhabitants. Under the Egyptian rule the place again somewhat revived, but in 1840 its fortress was destroyed by the European allies.
3. Present Condition. — The town still shows signs of former wealth, and the houses are better constructed and more solid than those at Tyre, being many of them built of stone. Its chief exports are silk, cotton, and nutgalls (Robinson, Bibl. Res. 3, 418, 419). The trade between Syria and Europe, however, now mainly passes through Beirut, as its most important commercial center; and the natural advantages of Beirut, in this respect, for the purposes of modern navigation, are so decided that it is certain to maintain its present superiority over Zidon and Tyre.
The modern Saida has thus lost all and everything, and has once more become a poor, miserable place, without trade or manufactures worthy of the name. To add to its desolation, an earthquake, which took place in 1837, destroyed about one, hundred of its insignificant houses. Yet such is its favorable-natural position, and the fruitfulness of the surrounding country, that in 1840 the district of Saida contained about 70,000 inhabitants (above 36,000 Christians and Jews), whose annual tax amounted to about $570,000. It only requires some favorable turn in the tide of its affairs to make it once more lift up its head again as of yore. The population of Saida is estimated at 10,000, of whom about 7000 are Moslems, 500 Jews, and the rest Catholics, Maronites, and Protestants. The city that once divided with Tyre the empire of the seas is now-almost without a vessel, and its commerce is so insignificant that it would not repay even a periodical call of one of the passing steamers. Silk and fruit are its staple products; the latter is not surpassed in variety or quality by any other place in Syria. The harbor was formed by a low ridge of rocks running out from the northern point of the peninsula, parallel to the shoreline. On one of these stands an old castle, which is connected with the town by a bridge of nine arches, forming the picturesque group so well known from engravings. The harbor was counted large in the days of ancient commerce, being sufficient to contain fifty galleys; but the Druse chief Fakhr ed-Din, fearing the Turks, caused it to be filled up with stones and earth, so that now only small boats can enter. Larger vessels, when they come here at all, anchor off to the northward, sheltered only from the south and east winds.
4. Antiquities. — Around the island, on which stand the ruins of the medieval castle, particularly on the south-west side, are remains of quays built of large hewn stones, and similar remains flank the whole of the ridge which forms the northern, harbor. The broad tongue of land which bounds the harbor on the west also bears remains of ancient walls, and on the east side there are two artificial square basins. Antiquities, chiefly of the Christian period, consisting of sarcophagi, cippi, statuettes, trinkets, and tear-vessels, are frequently dug up in the gardens around the town. The necropolis, situated in the limestone rocks adjacent, contains tombs of various plans and styles, which are minutely described by Renan (Mission en Phoenicia, p. 117). Saida, however, possesses another most vital interest, apart from its faded historical memories. It is the only spot in Phoenicia where Phoenician monuments with Phoenician inscriptions have been found as yet. While the great bulk of paleographical relics of this most important people had been found in; its colonies, Saida alone has furnished no less than three of the most ancient and lengthy inscriptions extant. On Jan. 19, 1855, one of the many sepulchral caves near the city was opened by chance, and there was discovered in it a sarcophagus, the lid of which represented the form of a mummy with the uncovered face of a man. Twenty two lines of Phoenician writing were found engraved upon the chest of the royal personage — king Ashmanezer II — whom it represents. A smaller, abbreviated inscription runs round the neck. The age of this monument has variously been conjectured as of the 11th century B.C. (Ewald), which is unquestionably wrong; further, as of the 7th, 6th, or 4th respectively by Hitzig, the due de Luynes, Levy, and others. The inscriptions contain principally a solemn injunction, or rather an adjuration, not to disturb the royal remains. Besides this, there is an enumeration of the temples erected by the defunct in honor of the gods. This sarcophagus is now in the Nineveh division of the sculptures in the Louvre. At first sight the material of which it is composed may be easily mistaken, and it has been supposed to be black marble. On the authority, however, of M. Suchard of Paris, who has examined it very closely, it may be stated that the sarcophagus is of black syenite, which, as far 'as is known, is more abundant in Egypt than elsewhere. It may be added that the features of the countenance on the lid are decidedly of the Egyptian type, and the head- dress is Egyptian, with the head of a bird sculptured on what might seem the place of the right and left shoulder. There can therefore be little reason to doubt that this sarcophagus was either made in Egypt and sent thence to Zidon, or that it was made in Phoenicia in imitation of' similar works of art in Egypt. The inscriptions themselves are the longest Phoenician inscriptions which have come down to our times. A translation of them was published by Prof. Dietrich at Marburg in 1855, and by Ewald at Göttingen in 1856. The king's title is "king of the Zidonians;" and, as is the case with Ethbaal, mentioned in the book of Kings (1Ki 16:31), there must remain a certain doubt whether this was a title ordinarily assumed by kings of Zidon, or whether it had a wider signification. We learn from the inscription that the king's mother was a priestess of Ashtoreth.
The following is a portion of the most remarkable (larger) inscription divided into words (there is no division even of the letters in the original) according to the sense-in some instances merely conjectured-and transcribed into Hebrew characters, to which is subjoined a translation, principally following Munk and Levy, but occasionally differing from either:
בירח בל בשנת עסר וארבע ר למלכי 1 בן מל ִתבנת מל ִצדנם דבר מל ִאשמנעזר מל ִאשמנעזר מל ִצדנם 2 בל עתי בן מס ִימם אז רם יתם בן אל מת מל ִצדנם לאמר נגזלת 3 אית חלת משכבי ואל יעמ אל ינקש בן מנם כ אי שם בן מנם ואל ישא אל יפתח אית משכב ז ו במרם אש בנת קנמיאת כל ממלכת וכל אד ושכב אנ ִבחלת ז ובפבר ז 5 פר למעל ותאי בחים תחת השמש אל יכן לם שרש למט ו חלת ז ואית זרע ממל כ ת הא אם אדם מהמת משכב ז אם אש ישא אית צתנם אית ממלכת אם אדם הא אש יפתח עלת אש משל בנם לק תחתנם ויסגרנם האלנם הקדשם אתם מל ִאדר בקבר ואל יכן לם בן וזרע שכב ז אל יכן לם משכב את רפאם ואל יקבר אית חלת משכבי אם אש יעמסן במ כל אדם אש יפתח עלת משכב ז אם אש ישא ידברנ ִאל תשמע בדנם כ כל ממלכת ו סן במשכב ז עלת משכב שני אŠ אם אדמ(1.) In the month of Bul, in the year 14. (XIV) of my reigning, [I,] king Ashmanezer, king of the Zidonians, (2) son" of king Tabnith, king of the Zidolionias spake king Ashmanezer, king of the Zidonians, saying, I have been stolen away (3), before my time — a son of the flood [?] of days. The whilom Great is dumb-the Son of God is dead. And I rest in this grave, even in this tomb, (4) in the place which I have built My adjuration, to all the ruling-powers and all men. Let no one open this resting place, and (5) not search with us for treasure, for there is no treasure with us; and let him not bear away the couch of my rest, and not trouble (6) us on this resting- place by disturbing the couch of my slumbers. Even if people should persuade thee, do not listen to their speech. For all the ruling powers and (7) all men who should open the tomb of this my rest, or any man who should carry away the couch of my rest, or any man who troubles me or (8) this my couch, unto them there shall be no rest with the departed; they shall not be buried in a grave, and there shall be to them neither son nor seed (9) in their stead, and the holy gods will send over them a mighty king who will rule over them, and (10) cut them off with their dynasty. If any human being should open this resting place, and any man should carry away (11) this tomb be he of royal seed or a man of the people there shall be unto them neither root below nor (12) fruit above, nor honor among the living under the sun. The shorter inscription round the king's neck contains seven lines, as follows:
בירחבלבשנתעסרוארבער צדנ 1 לאמרנגזלתבלעתיבנמסכיממאז אליפתחאי 2 כאנכאשמנע מתאנכ מתזואיתזרעממלכתהאאמאדממהמת ישאאית אליכנלמבנוזרעתחתנמויסגרנמהאלנט בדנמככלממל כ תוכלאדמאשיפתחעל בקבר משכבזואליבקשבנמנמכאיממ אלתשמעThe third inscription we have mentioned was discovered a few years ago by consul Moore on another locality Near Saida. It is found on a block sixty-nine centimeters in height, thirty-eight in length, which evidently was once used for building purposes. It is now in the possession of count de vogue. The inscription reads as follows.
לילעשתרת מלגִדנםאיתשרנאר צדנםכבןבדעשתרת ימלבִדעשתרתמל ִבירח מ בשתThe fragmentary nature of this inscription allows of literary certainty in its deciphering, save with respect to a few proper names. See PHOENICIA.
