Meaning of SIDON

Ancient Canaanite city (Gen. 10:15, 19), on the coast, about 35 km north of Tyre. In the 15th century B.C. Sidon was subject to Egypt. Homer testifies to the importance of Sidon, whose name he frequently mentions, while he never mentions Tyre.

The poet uses the terms Sidon, Sidonians, as synonyms for Phoenicia, Phoenicians. In a strict sense, Sidon constituted the northern limit of the Canaanites (Gen. 10:19). Their territory was close to Zebulun (Gen. 49:13) and was limited to the south by Asher.

In Joseph. 11:8 and 19:28 is called "great Sidon." The tribe of Asher did not dispossess the Canaanites of Sidon (Judg. 1:31). In the time of the Judges, the Sidonians oppressed the Israelites (Judges 10:12); the v. 6 accuses the latter of having worshiped the gods of Sidon, of which Baal was the chief (1 Kings 16:31).

The most widespread cult, however, was that of Astarte, goddess of fertility (1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13).

Et-baal, king of Sidon, was the father of Jezebel (1 Kings 16:31). The prophet Isaiah announced that judgment would fall on Sidon, whose inhabitants would be forced to flee to Chittim (Cyprus) (Is. 23:12).

Sidon was for a time subject to Tire (Ant. 9:14, 2). In the year 701 B.C. He submitted to Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Esar-haddon destroyed it in 677 BC. Jeremiah predicted that Sidon would fall to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon (Jer. 27:3, 6).

Ezekiel prophesies against Sidon because it has been a "grinding thorn" to the house of Israel (Ez. 28:20-24). Joel says that the Sidonians and other peoples have sacked Jerusalem, taken its silver and gold, and sold its inhabitants into slavery (Joel 3:4-6).

Around 526 BC, Sidon surrendered to Cambyses, son of Cyrus, king of Persia.

The Sidonians sold cedar wood from Lebanon to the Jews for Zerubbabel's rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 3:7). Sidon rebelled against Artaxerxes III Oxus, king of Persia (c. 351 BC), but was retaken and destroyed in 345.

In the year 333, to free itself from the Persians, it opened the doors to Alexander the Great. The city then passed to Alexander's successors and, in 64 BC, to the Romans.

There were Sidonians who went to Galilee to hear Jesus preach and see his miracles (Mark 3:8; Luke 6:17, etc.). The Lord went to the territory of Sidon, and it is likely that he entered the city itself (Mt. 15:21; Mark 7:24, 31).

Herod Agrippa I, hostile to the Tyrians and Sidonians, received a request for peace from them, "because his territory was supplied by the king's" (Acts 12:20). During his trip to Rome, Paul received permission to stop at Sidon and visit the Christians there (Acts 27:3).


Modern Sidon, called Saïda, is located in the modern State of Lebanon; It is located on the northwestern slope of a small promontory that juts out into the sea. Some rocks parallel to the coast formed the old port.

In the 17th century, Fakhr ed-Din, chief of the Druze, partially filled it with stones and rubble. Sidon, protected by a wall on the landward side, is dominated by a citadel to the east.

Inside and around the city there are some cracked granite columns. Several sarcophagi, including the very famous one at Esmunazar, have been exhumed from surrounding tombs and taken to Sidon.