Phoenicia

VIEW:20 DATA:01-04-2020

red; purple
(same as Phenice)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


(See PHOENICE.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Phoenic'ia. (land of palm trees). A tract of country, of which Tyre and Sidon were the principal cities, to the north of Palestine, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bounded by that sea on the west, and by the mountain range of Lebanon on the east. The name was not the one by which its native inhabitants called it, but was given to it by the Greeks, from the Greek word for the palm tree. The native name of Phoenicia was Kenaan, (Canaan), or Kna, signifying lowland, so named in contrast to the land joining Aram, that is, highland, the Hebrew name of Syria. The length of coast, to which the name of Phoenicia was applied, varied at different times.
What may be termed Phoenicia proper was a narrow undulating plain, extending from the pass of Ras el-Beyad or Abyad, the Promontorium Album of the ancients, about six miles south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auly, the ancient Bostrenus, two miles north of Sidon. The plain is only 28 miles in length. Its average breadth is about a mile; but near Sidon, the mountains retreat to a distance of two miles, and near Tyre, to a distance of five miles.
A longer district, which, afterward, became entitled to the name of Phoenicia, extended up the coast to a point marked by the island of Aradus, and by Antaradus toward the north; the southern boundary remaining the same as in Phoenicia proper. Phoenicia, thus defined is estimated to have been about 120 miles in length; while its breadth, between Lebanon and the sea, never exceeded 20 miles, and was generally much less. The whole of Phoenicia proper is well watered by various streams from the adjoining hills. The havens of Tyre and Sidon afforded water of sufficient depth for all the requirements of ancient navigation, and the neighboring range of the Lebanon, in its extensive forests, furnished what then seemed a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber for ship-building.
Language and race. — The Phoenicians spoke a branch of the Semitic language so closely allied to Hebrew that Phoenician and Hebrew, though different dialects, may practically be regarded as the same language. Concerning the original race to which the Phoenicians belonged, nothing can be known with certainty, because they are found already established along the Mediterranean Sea at the earliest dawn of authentic history, and for centuries, afterward, there is no record of their origin.
According to Herodotus, vii. 89, they said of themselves, in his time, that they came, in days of old, from the shores of the Red Sea and, in this, there would be nothing in the slightest degree improbable as they spoke a language cognate to that of the Arabians, who inhabited the east coast of that sea. Still, neither the truth nor the falsehood of the tradition can now be proved. But there is one point respecting their race which can be proved to be in the highest degree probable, and which has peculiar interest as bearing on the Jews, namely, that the Phoenicians were of the same race as the Canaanites.
Commerce, etc. — In regard to Phoenician trade, connected with the Israelites, it must be recollected that, up to the time of David, not one of the twelve tribes seems to have possessed a single harbor on the seacoast; it was impossible, therefore, that they could become a commercial people. But from the time that David had conquered Edom, an opening for trade was afforded to the Israelites. Solomon continued this trade with its king, obtained timber from its territory and employed its sailors and workmen. 2Sa_5:11; 1Ki_5:9; 1Ki_5:17-18.
The religion of the Phoenicians, opposed to Monotheism, was a pantheistical personification of the forces of nature and, in its most philosophical shadowing forth of the supreme powers, it may be said to have represented the male and female principles of production. In its popular form, it was especially a worship of the sun, moon and five planets, or, as it might have been expressed according to ancient notions, of the seven planets — the most beautiful, and perhaps, the most natural form of idolatry ever presented to the human imagination. Their worship was a constant temptation for the Hebrews to Polytheism and idolatry. —
Because undoubtedly the Phoenicians, as a great commercial people, were more generally intelligent, and as we should now say civilized, than the inland agricultural population of Palestine. When the simple-minded Jews, therefore, came in contact with a people more versatile and, apparently, more enlightened than themselves, but who nevertheless, either in a philosophical, or in a popular, form admitted a system of Polytheism, an influence would be exerted on Jewish minds tending to make them regard their exclusive devotion to their own one God Jehovah, however transcendent his attributes, as unsocial and morose.
The Phoenician religion had, in other respects, an injurious effect on the people of Palestine, being, in some points, essentially demoralizing, For example, it mentioned the dreadful superstition of burning children as sacrifices to a Phoenician god. Again, parts of the Phoenician religion, especially the worship of Astarte, fended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations of the sexes, and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description. The only other fact respecting the Phoenicians that need be mentioned here is that, the invention of letters was universally asserted, by the Greeks and Romans, to have been communicated by the Phoenicians, to the Greeks. For further details respecting the Phoenicians, See Tyre; Sidon. Phoenicia is now a land of ruins.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

To the north of Palestine, along the narrow coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lebanon Range, was the land known in Bible times as Phoenicia. Today the land falls largely within the country known as Lebanon, though the Bible most commonly refers to it by the names of its chief towns, Tyre and Sidon (Ezr_3:7). Other important towns were Zarephath and Byblos (1Ki_17:9). The wealth of the Phoenicians came partly from their fleets of merchant ships and partly from the large forests of cedar trees in the Lebanon Range (see LEBANON).

Commercial power
Tyre and Sidon appear to have been founded in the period 3000-2500 BC (Gen_10:19). When Israel conquered Canaan about 1240 BC, Tyre and Sidon withstood the invasion and remained independent of Israel throughout most of their history. They were Israel’s closest northern neighbours (Tyre was almost on the border; Jos_19:29) and, apart from the occasional conflict, lived alongside Israel fairly peaceably (Jdg_18:7; cf. Jdg_10:12).
One of the greatest Phoenician kings, Hiram (who reigned from 979 to 945 BC), had very close trade relations with the Israelite kings, David and Solomon (2Sa_5:11; 1Ki_5:1; 1Ki_5:12). He supplied timber, stone and craftsmen for Solomon’s extensive building programs (1Ki_5:8-12; 1Ki_7:13-14; 1Ki_9:11) and joined with Solomon in developing a profitable trade transport. Goods from Mediterranean countries were received at Tyre, taken overland to Israel’s Red Sea port of Ezion-geber, then shipped east in the kings’ jointly owned fleet. Goods that the ships brought back from the east brought further profits to the two kings (1Ki_9:26-28; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_10:22; cf. 1Ki_22:48).
Phoenicia’s ships were beautifully made (Eze_27:3-7) and were sailed by skilful seamen (1Ki_9:27; Eze_27:8-9). They carried a huge variety of goods (Eze_27:12-25), which so enriched Phoenicia that other nations often tried to break through its defences and capture its wealth (Eze_26:3-4; Eze_26:7-14; Eze_27:10-11).
Religious influence
In the century after Hiram, another Phoenician king, Ethbaal, became involved in Israel’s affairs when he gave his daughter Jezebel to be the wife of the Israelite king Ahab (about 874 BC). Ethbaal was also high priest of the Baal religion in Phoenicia, and Jezebel soon set about making Phoenician Baalism the official religion of Israel (1Ki_16:31-33).
This Phoenician Baalism, centred as it was on the Baal god Melqart, was far more dangerous to Israel than the local Baalism practised by the country people in Canaan (see BAAL). The ministry of Elijah and Elisha was specifically concerned with opposing the Phoenician Baalism, by preserving the faithful minority in Israel and initiating judgment on the unfaithful majority (1Ki_19:13-18; see ELIJAH; ELISHA). Phoenician Baalism was later wiped out from Israel by the ruthless Jehu (2Ki_9:11-37; 2 Kings 10).
However, through the marriage of Jezebel’s daughter to the king of Judah, Phoenician Baalism had spread to Judah (2Ki_8:16-18). Again it was dramatically removed, though with less bloodshed (2 Kings 11).
Judgment and blessing
With the wealth it had obtained through clever trading, Phoenicia saw itself as all-powerful, a god among the nations. Because of its arrogance, God assured it of a fitting punishment (Isaiah 23; Eze_28:1-9; Eze_28:16-18; Eze_28:21-23; Zec_9:2-4). Phoenicia’s chief oppression of Israel was not through military might but through commercial power. It heartlessly seized Jerusalem’s wealth and even traded Israelite war prisoners solely for monetary profit (Joe_3:4-6; Amo_1:9).
In fulfilment of the judgments God announced on Phoenicia, the nation suffered repeatedly over the following centuries. In 587 BC the Babylonians besieged the main cities (Jer_27:3-6; Jer_47:4). They captured Sidon that year, but found Tyre more difficult to capture. This was mainly because the city was in two parts, one on the mainland coast, the other on an island a short distance from the shore. The Babylonians finally took the city in 574 BC, but they received very little reward, for the people of Tyre had apparently managed to ship out much of their wealth during the years of siege (Eze_29:18).
After the fall of Babylon to Persia (539 BC), the Phoenician cities recovered and enjoyed a lengthy period of prosperity. Eventually they fell to Alexander the Great, Sidon in 333 BC, Tyre the year after. In taking Tyre, Alexander first destroyed the mainland city, then emptied the rubble into the sea to form a road by which he attacked the island city. The inhabitants who previously thought they were safe were then slaughtered in a terrible bloodbath (cf. Eze_26:3-6; Eze_26:12-14).
Once more the cities of Phoenicia recovered. In spite of further conflicts, they were well populated in New Testament times, though under the overlordship of Rome (Luk_6:17; Act_12:20). Jesus visited the region on at least one occasion (Mar_7:24; Mar_7:26), and people from the region visited Galilee to hear Jesus teach (Mar_3:8).
In the early days of the church, when fierce persecution drove the Christians from Jerusalem, many of them fled to the cities of Phoenicia. There they preached the gospel and established churches (Act_11:19). Paul enjoyed a close fellowship with the Phoenician churches and visited them whenever possible (Act_15:3; Act_21:2-6; Act_27:3).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

Phoeni?cia, and the Phoenicians. This name was used by the ancients sometimes in a wider, sometimes in a narrower sense. Phoenicia, in its widest signification, embraces the whole coast of the Mediterranean situated between the River Orontes and Pelusium. In a more restricted sense it was regarded as the territory between the River Eleutheros on the north, and Dora on the south.
Phoenicia is situated between about lat. 33? and 35? N., and under long. 33? E. The whole of Phoenicia is situated at the western declivity of Mount Lebanon. Compare the article Lebanon.
Phoenicia was distinguished by the variety of its vegetable productions. This variety was occasioned by the great diversity of climate produced by the diversity in the elevation of the soil. The Lebanon is said to bear winter on its head, spring on its shoulders, autumn in its lap, and to have summer at its feet. The fertility of Phoenicia is increased by the numerous streams whose springs are in Mount Lebanon. Even in the Song of Solomon we read the praises of the spring of living waters which flows down from Lebanon. The dense population assembled in the great mercantile towns greatly contributed to augment by artificial means the natural fertility of the soil. The population of the country is at present very much reduced, but there are still found aqueducts and artificial vineyards formed of mold carried up to the terraces of the naked rock. Even now Phoenicia is among the most fertile in Western Asia. It produces wheat, rye, and barley, and, besides the more ordinary fruits, also apricots, peaches, pomegranates, almonds, citrons, oranges, figs, dates, sugar-cane, and grapes, which furnish an excellent wine. In addition to these products, it yields cotton, silk, and tobacco. The country is also adorned by the variegated flowers of oleander and cactus. The higher regions are distinguished from the bare mountains of Palestine by being covered with oaks, pines, cypress-trees, acacias, and tamarisks; and above all by majestic cedars, of which there are still a few very old trees, whose stems measure from thirty to forty feet in circumference. The inhabitants of Sur still carry on a profitable traffic with the produce of Mount Lebanon, namely, wood and charcoal. Phoenicia produces also flocks of sheep and goats; and innumerable swarms of bees supply excellent honey. In the forests there are bears, wolves, panthers, and jackals. The sea furnishes great quantities of fish, so that Sidon, the most ancient, among the Phoenician towns, derived its name from fishing.
The inhabitants of Phoenicia might at the first view appear to have derived their origin from the same source (pre-Abrahamite) as the Hebrews; for they spoke the same language.
In the Old Testament the Phoenicians and Canaanites are, however, described as descending, not from Shem, but from Ham. Herodotus, also, on the authority of some Persian historians, states that the Phoenicians came as colonists to the Syrian coasts from the Erythr?an Sea.
The first Phoenician colony was Sidon, which is therefore called in Genesis (Gen_10:15) the firstborn of Canaan. But soon other colonies arose, like Arka (Gen_10:17), Aradus, and Simyra (Gen_10:18), etc., whose power extended beyond the Jordan, and who drove out before them the earlier inhabitants of Palestine. Hence it arose that the appellation, 'the land of Canaan' (the netherlands or lowlands), was transferred to the whole of Palestine, although it is by no means a country of a low level, but is full of high elevations. However, the Canaanites, in a stricter sense, were the people who resided in the lower regions along the coast, and on the banks of the Jordan.
When the Israelites conquered the country, the Canaanites on the Phoenician coast, who resided in powerful maritime towns, preserved their independence, and were called Canaanites in particular. Thus we read, in Isa_23:11, Canaan, in the signification of Phoenicia.
The Carthaginians, as Phoenician colonists, maintained, even in the days of St. Augustine, that they were Canaanites.
During the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the Phoenicians possessed the following towns, which we will enumerate successively, in the direction from south to north:?Dora (Jos_11:2; Jos_17:11, sq.); Ptolemais (Jdg_1:33); Ecdippa (Jos_19:29, Achzib); Tyre (Jos_19:29); Sarepta (1Ki_17:9, sq.; Luk_4:26); Sidon (Gen_10:15); Berytus (Eze_47:16; 2Sa_8:8); Byblus (Jos_13:5); Tripolis, Simyra (Gen_10:18); Arka (Gen_10:17); Simna (Gen_10:16); Aradus (Gen_10:18).
Heeren, in his work, On the Commerce and Politics of the Ancients, vol. i. part ii. p. 9, G?ttingen, 1824, justly observes that the numerous towns which were crowded together in the narrow space of Phoenicia covered almost the entire coast, and, together with their harbors and fleets, must have presented an aspect which has scarcely ever been equaled, and which was calculated to impress every stranger on his arrival with the ideas of wealth, power, and enterprise.
As the annals and public documents of the Phoenicians have all been lost, our knowledge of their history is consequently confined to occasional notices in the Hebrew and classical authors of antiquity. This deficiency of historical information arises also from the circumstance that the facts of Phoenician history were less connected than the events in the history of other nations. The Phoenicians never formed one compact body politic, and consequently did not always gradually advance in their political constitution and in the extent of their power. Every town endeavored to advance its commerce in its own way. Thus there constantly entered into the life of the Phoenicians new elements, which disturbed a gradual historical progress. Phoenicia was a country favorable to the growth of maritime towns, but did not afford room for great political events. The history of the Phoenicians is that of their external commerce.
A mercantile nation cannot bear despotic government, because the greatest external liberty is requisite in order constantly to discover new sources of gain, and to enlarge the roads of commerce. The whole of Phoenicia consisted of the territories belonging to the various towns. Each of these territories had its own constitution, and in most of them a king exercised supreme power. We hear of kings of Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, and Byblus. It seems that after Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Tyre in vain, the royal dignity ceased for some time, and that there existed a kind of republican administration, under suffetes or judges. The regal power was always limited by the magistracy and the priesthood. The independent Phoenician states seem to have formed a confederation, at the head of which stood for some time Sidon, and at a later period Tyre. Tripolis was built conjointly by the various states in order to form the seat of their congress. The smaller states were sometimes so much oppressed by Tyre, that they preferred rather to submit to external enemies.
The position of Phoenicia was most favorable for the exchange of the produce of the East and West. The Libanus furnished excellent timber for ships. Corn was imported from Palestine. Persians, Lydians and Lycians frequently served as mercenaries in the Phoenician armies (Eze_27:10-11). Phoenicia exported wine to Egypt. Purple garments were best manufactured in Tyre. Glass was made in Sidon and Sarepta. In Phoenicia was exchanged the produce of all known countries. After David had vanquished the Edomites and conquered the coasts of the Red Sea, King Hiram of Tyre entered into a confederacy with Solomon, by which he ensured for his people the right of navigation to India. The combined fleet of the Israelites and Phoenicians sailed from the seaports of Ezion-geber and Elath. These ports were situated on the eastern branch of the Red Sea, the Sinus Aelaniticus, or Gulf of Aqaba. Israelitish-Phoenician mercantile expeditions proceeded to Ophir, perhaps Abhira, situated at the mouth of the Indus. It seems, however, that the Indian coasts in general were also called Ophir. Three years were required in order to accomplish a mercantile expedition to Ophir and to return with cargoes of gold, algum-wood, ivory, silver, monkeys, peacocks, and other Indian produce.
It seems, however, that these mercantile expeditions to India were soon given up, probably on account of the great difficulty of navigating the Red Sea. King Jehoshaphat endeavored to recommence these expeditions, but his fleet was wrecked at Ezion-geber (1Ki_22:49). About B.C. 616 or 601, Phoenician seamen undertook, at the command of Pharaoh-Necho. a voyage of discovery, proceeding from the Red Sea round Africa, and returning after two years through the columns of Hercules to Egypt (Herod. iv. 42). Ezekiel 27 mentions the commerce by land between India and Phoenicia. The names of mercantile establishments on the coasts of Arabia along the Persian Gulf have partly been preserved to the present day. In these places the Phoenicians exchanged the produce of the west for that of India, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Arabia especially furnished incense, gold, and precious stones. The Midianites (Gen_37:28) and the Edomites (Eze_27:16) effected the transit by their caravans. The fortified Idumean town Petra contained probably the storehouses in which the produce of southern countries was collected. From Egypt the Phoenicians exported especially byssus (Eze_27:7, linen) for wine. According to an ancient tradition, the tyrant of Thebes, Busiris, having soiled his hands with the blood of all foreigners, was killed by the Tyrian Hercules. This indicates that Phoenician colonists established themselves and their civilization successfully in Upper Egypt, where all strangers usually had been persecuted.
At a later period Memphis was the place where most of the Phoenicians in Egypt were established. Phoenician inscriptions found in Egypt prove that even under the Ptolemies the intimate connection between Phoenicia and Egypt still existed.
From Palestine the Phoenicians imported, besides wheat, especially from Judea, ivory, oil, and balm; also wool, principally from the neighboring nomadic Arabs. Damascus furnished wine (Eze_27:5-6; Eze_27:17-18; Eze_27:21,) and the mountains of Syria wood. The tribes about the shores of the Caspian Sea furnished slaves and iron. Horsemen, horses, and mules, came from the Armenians.
The treasures of the East were exported from Phoenicia by ships which sailed first to Cyprus, the mountains of which are visible from the Phoenician coast. Cyprus was subject to Tyre up to the time of Alexander the Great. There are still found Phoenician inscriptions which prove the connection of Cyprus with Tyre. At Rhodes also are found vestiges of Phoenician influence. From Rhodes the mountains of Crete are visible. This was of great importance for the direction of navigators before the discovery of the compass. In Crete, and also in the Cycladic and Sporadic Isles, are vestiges of Phoenician settlements. On the Isle of Thasos, on the southern coast of Thrace, the Phoenicians had gold mines; and even on the southern shores of the Black Sea they had factories. However, when the Greeks became more powerful, the Phoenicians sailed more in other directions. They occupied also Sicily and the neighboring islands, but were, after the Greek colonization, confined to a few towns, Motya, Soloes, Panormus. The Phoenician mercantile establishments in Sardinia and the Balearic Isles could scarcely be called colonies.
Carthage was a Phoenician colony, which probably soon became important by commerce with the interior of Africa, and remained connected with Tyre by means of a common sanctuary. After Phoenicia had been vanquished by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, the settlements in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain came into the power of Carthage. The Phoenicians had for a long period exported from Spain gold, silver, tin, iron, lead (Eze_38:13), fruit, wine, oil, wax, fish, and wool. Their chief settlement was Tarshish.
There are other names of towns in Spain which have a Phoenician derivation, such as Gades, Malaga, and Belon.
The voyage to Tarshish was the most important of those undertaken by the Phoenicians. Hence it was that their largest vessels were all called ships of Tarshish, although they sailed in other directions (1Ki_10:22).
It appears, also that the Phoenicians exported tin from the British Isles, and amber from the coasts of Prussia. Their voyages on the western coasts of Africa seem to have been merely voyages of discovery, without permanent results. The Spanish colonies were probably the principal sources of Phoenician wealth, and were founded at a very remote period. The migration of the Phoenician, Cadmus, into Boeotia, likewise belongs to the earlier period of Phoenician colonization.
Phoenicia flourished most in the period from David to Cyrus, B.C. 1050-550. In this period were founded the African colonies, Carthage, Utica, and Leptis. These colonies kept up a frequent intercourse with the mother country, but were not politically dependent. This preserved Phoenicia from the usual stagnation of Oriental states. The civilization of the Phoenicians had a great influence upon other nations. Their voyages are described in Greek mythology as the expeditions of the Tyrian Hercules. The course of the Tyrian Hercules was not marked like that of other conquerors?viz., Medes and Assyrians?by ruined cities and devastated countries, but by flourishing colonies, by agriculture, and the arts of peace.
According to the Phoenician religion, the special object of worship was the vital power in nature, which is either producing or destroying. The productive power of nature, again, is either procreative, masculine, or receptive, feminine. These fundamental ideas are represented by the Phoenician gods, who appear under a great variety of names, because these leading ideas may be represented in many different ways.
We need not here enter into details concerning the Phoenician gods, as the principal of them have been noticed under their names [BAAL, ASHTORETH]. It suffices to state generally, that the procreative principle was worshipped as Baal, lord, and as the sun. The rays of the sun are, however, not only procreative, but destructive; and this destructive power is especially represented in the Ammonitish fire-god Moloch. Thus Baal represented both the generative and destructive principles of nature; in which latter capacity the Hebrews worshipped him by human sacrifice (1Ki_18:28; Jer_19:5). He was the tutelary god of Tyre, and hence had the name of Melkar, equivalent to Melech-kereth, 'king of the city,' whom the Greeks called the Tyrian Hercules.
Of Baaltis, or Astarte, which are usually identified, although they seem to have been originally different, we shall here add nothing to what has been already stated under Ashtoreth.
Besides these principal deities, the Phoenicians worshipped seven kabirim, mighty ones, whose numbers corresponded with the seven planets. These kabirim were considered as protectors of men in using the powers of nature, especially navigation. With these seven kabirim was associated Esmun (the eighth), representing the sky full of fixed stars, surrounding the seven planets, the refreshing air and the warmth of life. Many Phoenician names are compounded with Esmun. Hence we infer that he was frequently worshipped.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Phoenicia
(Φοινίκη), a country whose inhabitants necessarily held important and intimate relations, not only to the Hebrews, but to all antiquity. The latest and most complete authority on this subject is Rawlinson's History of Phelnicia (London, 1889).
I. The Land. —
1. Name. — "Phoenice" was not the name by which its native inhabitants called it, but was given to it by the Greeks, who called those merchants who came from that coast of the Mediterranean Sea which runs parallel with Mount Lebanon Φοινικες. In Cicero (De Fin. 4:20) there occurs the doubtful reading Phoenicia (comp. the Vulgate in Num_33:51). However, this latter form of the name has come into general use (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phenicia [Leips. 1837], page 338; Forbiger, Handbuch der alien Geographie [ibid. 1842-1844], page 659 sq.). This name has been variously derived. It is possibly from Phoenix the son of Agenor and the brother of Cadmus. It perhaps arose from the circumstance that the chief article of the commerce of these merchants was φοινός, purple. The word φοινός means blood-red, and is probably related to φόνος, mzurder. This derivation of the name is alluded to by Strabo (1:42). Others imagine as naturally that the color does not give name to the people, but is named after them: as our damask, from Damascus; or our "calico," from Calicut. The term, as an epithet of color, may also apply, as Kenrick supposes, to the sunburnt complexion of the people. But after all, in the opinion of others, a Greek derivation may not be admissible, for the name may be original or Shemitic — though it is ridiculous in Scaliger, Fuller, and Glassius to identify it with פנג, "to live luxuriously," in allusion to the results of Phoenician wealth and merchandise. Strabo, however, maintains that the Phoenicians were called Φοίνικες , because they resided originally on the coasts of the Red Sea. Bochart, in his Canaan (1:1), derives the name from the Hebrew בני ענק, sons of Anak. Reland, in his Palcestina ex Monumentis Veteribus IIlustrata, derives it from φοίνιξ, palm-tree; and this is the etymology now generally acquiesced in. The palmtree is seen, as an emblem, on some coins of Aradus, Tyre, and Sidon; and there are now several palm-trees within the circuit of modern Tyre, and along the coast at various points; but the tree is not at the present day one of the characteristic features of the country. The native name of Phoenicia was Kendan (Canaan) or Kna, signifying Lowland, so named in contrast to the adjoining Aram, i.e., Highland, the Hebrew name of Syria. The name Kenaan is preserved on a coin of Laodicea of the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, whereon Laodicea is styled "a mother city in Canaan," ללארכא אם בכנעןKna or Chnd (Χνᾶ) is mentioned distinctly by Herodian the grammarian as the old name of Phoenicia. Hence, as Phoenicians or Canaanites were the most powerful of all tribes in Palestine at the time of its invasion by Joshua, the Israelites, in speaking of their own territory as it was before the conquest, called it "the land of Calnaan." SEE CANAAN.
In the O.T. the word Phoenicia does not occur, as might be expected from its being a Greek name. In the Apocrypha it is not defined, though spoken of as being, with Coele-Syria, under one military commander (2Ma_3:5; 2Ma_3:8; 2Ma_8:8; 2Ma_10:11; 3Ma_3:15). In the N.T. the word occurs only in three passages, Act_11:19; Act_15:3; Act_21:2; and not one of these affords a clew as to how far the writer deemed Phoenicia to extend. On the other hand, Josephus possibly agreed with Strabo; for he expressly says that Csesarea is situated in Phoenicia (Ant. 15:9, 6); and although he never makes a similar statement respecting Joppa, yet he speaks, in one passage, of the coast of Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt, as if Syria and Phoenicia exhausted the line of coast on the Mediterranean Sea to the north of Egypt (War, 3:9, 2).
The Phoenicians in general are sometimes called Sidonians (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, 2:267 sq.; Thesaurus Linguce Hebraicae, under the word צידון). Justinus (18:3) alludes to the etymology of this name: "A city being built which they called Sidon, from the abundance of fishes; for the Phoenicians call a fish sidon." This statement is not quite correct. But the root צוד, which in Hebrew means only to catch beasts and birds, can also be employed in Arabic when the catching of fishes is spoken of. This root occurs also in the Aramaic, in the signification of both hunting and fishing ( SEE ZIDON ).
2. Extent. — Phoenicia in general is the name applied to a country on the coast of Syria, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west and Lebanon on the east; Syria and Judaea forming its northern and southern limits respectively, situated between about 34° to 366 N. lat., and 45° to 36° E. long. Yet the extent of its territory varied so considerably at different times that the geographical definitions of the ancient writers differ in a very remarkable manner. Thus, while in Gen_10:19 Canaan does not reach northwards beyond Sidon-a place which in early times gave the name to the whole people (יושבי צידון צידנים, Deuteronomy, Judges) — and Byblus and Berytus are considered as lying beyond it (Gen_10:15 sq.; Jos_13:5), it comprised in the Persian period (Herod. 3:91) Posidium, as high as 35° 52'. Later still (Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy) the Eleutherus (340 60'), and subsequently (Mela, Stephanus) the island of Aradus (34° 70'), were considered its utmost northern, limits. To the south it was at times Gaza (Gen_10:19; Zep_2:5; Herod., Philo, Eustath.), at others Egypt (Num_24:5; Jos_15:4; Jos_15:47; Strabo, Procop., etc.); and, from the Macedonian period chiefly, Csesarea is mentioned as its extreme point. Eastward the country sometimes comprised parts of Syria and Palestine, beyond the mountain-ridges of the former and the hill-chains of the latter.
It will thus be seen that the length of coast to which the name Phoenicia was applied varied at different times, and may be regarded under different aspects before and after the loss of its independence.
(1.) What may be termed Phoenicia proper was a narrow undulating plain, extending from the pass of Ras el-Beyad or Abyad, the "Promontorium Album" of the ancients, about six miles south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auly, the ancient Bostrenus, two miles north of Sidon (Robinson, Bib. Res. 2:473). The plain is only twenty-eight miles in length, and, considering the great importance of Phoenicia in the world's history, this may well be added to other instances in Greece, Italy, and Palestine, which show how little the intellectual influence of a city or state has depended on the extent of its territory. Its average breadth is about a mile (Porter, Handbookfor Syria, 2:396); but near Sidon the mountains retreat to a distance of two miles, and near Tyre to a distance of five miles (Kenrick, Phoenicia, page 19). The whole of Phoenicia, thus understood, is called by Josephus (Ant. 5:3, 1) the great plain of the city of Sidon (τὸ μέγα πεδίον Σιδῶνος πόλεως). In it, near its northern extremity, was situated Sidon, in the north latitude of 330 34' 05"; and scarcely more than seventeen geographical miles to the south was Tyre, in the latitude of 33° 17' (admiral Smyth's Mediterranean, page 469): so that in a straight line those two renowned cities were less. than twenty English miles distant from each other. Zarephath, the Sarepta of the N.T., was situated between them, eight miles south of Sidon, to which it belonged (1Ki_17:9; Oba_1:20; Luk_4:26).
(2.) A still longer district, which afterwards became fairly entitled to the name of Phoenicia, extended up the coast, to a point marked by the island of Aradus, and by Antaradus towards the north; the southern boundary remaining the same as in Phoenicia proper. Phoenicia, thus defined, is estimated by Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, 3:354) to have been about one hundred and twenty miles in length; while its breadth, between Lebanon and the sea, never exceeded twenty miles, and was generally much less. This estimate is most reasonable, allowing for the bends of the coast; as the direct difference in latitude between Tyre and Antaradus (Tortosa) is equivalent to one hundred and six English miles; and six miles to the south of Tyre, as already mentioned, intervene before the beginning of the pass of Ras el-Abyad. The claim of this entire district to the name of Phoenicia rests on the probable fact that the whole of it, to the north of the great plain of Sidon, was occupied by Phoenician colonists; not to mention that there seems to have been some kind of politicalconnection, however loose, between all the inhabitants (Diodorus, 16:41). Scarcely sixteen geographical miles farther north than Sidon was Berytus; with a roadstead so well suited for the purposes of modern navigation that, under the modern name of Beirut, it has eclipsed both Sidon and Tyre as an emporium for Syria. Whether this Berytus was identical with the Berothah and Berothai of Eze_47:16, and of 2Sa_8:8, is a disputed point. Still farther north was Byblus, the Gebal of the Bible (Eze_27:9), inhabited by seamen and calkers. Its inhabitants are supposed to be alluded to in the word Giblim, translated "stonesquarers" in the A.V. of 1Ki_5:18 (32). It still retains in Arabic the kindred name of Jebeil. Then came Tripolis (now Tarabulus), said to have been founded by colonists from Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, with three distinct towns, each a furlong apart from one another, each with its own walls, and each named from the city which supplied its colonists. General meetings of the Phoenicians seem to have been held at Tripolis (Diod. 16:41), as if a certain local jealousy had prevented the selection for this purpose of Tyre, Sidon, or Aradus. Lastly, towards the extreme point north was Aradus itself, the Arvad of Gen_10:18 and Eze_27:8, situated, like Tyre, on a small island near the mainland, and founded by exiles from Sidon.
During the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the Phoenicians possessed the following towns, which we will enumerate successively in the direction from south to north: Dora (דור. Jos_11:2; Jos_17:11 sq.); Ptolemais (עכו, Jdg_1:33); Ecdippa (אכזיב, Jos_19:29); Tyre (צור, Jos_19:29); Sarepta (צרפת, 1Ki_17:9 sq.; Luk_4:26); Sidon (צידון, Gen_10:15); Berytus (ברותה, Eze_47:16; 2Sa_8:8); Byblus (גבל, Jos_13:5); Tripolis, Simyra (הצמרי, Gen_10:18); Arka (הערקי, Gen_10:17); Simna (הסיני, Gen_10:16); Aradus (הארודי, Gen_10:18). Comp. the respective articles on these towns. Sidon is the only Phoenician town mentioned in Homer (see Iliad, 6:239; 23:743; Odyss. 15:415; 17:424).
3. Geographical Features. — The whole of Phoenicia proper is well watered by various streams from the adjoining hills; of these the two largest are the Khasimiyeh, a few miles north of Tyre — the ancient name of which, strange to say, is not certain, though it is conjectured to have been the Leontes and the Bostrenus, already mentioned, north of Sidon. The soil is fertile, although now generally ill-cultivated; but in the neighborhood of Sidon there are rich gardens and orchards. The havens of Tyre and Sidon afforded water of sufficient depth for all the requirements of ancient navigation, and the neighboring range of the Lebanon, in its extensive forests, firnished what then seemed a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber for ship-building. To the north of Bostrenus, between that river and Beirfit, lies the only desolate and barren part of Phoenicia. It is crossed by the ancient Tamyras or Damuras, the modern Nahr ed-Damur. From Beirut the plains are again fertile. The principal streams are the Lycus, now the Nahr el-Kelb, not far north from Beirat; the Adonis, now the Nahr Ibrahim, about five miles south of Gebal; and the Eleutherus, now the Nahr el-Kebir, in the bend between Tripolis and Antaradus.
The climate of Phoenicia — an item of immense moment in the history of a nation — varies very considerably. Near the coast, and in the lower plains, the heat in summer is at times tropical, while the more mountainous regions enjoy a moderate temperature, and in winter even heavy falls of snow are not uncommon. In the southern parts the early rains begin in October, and are, after an interval of dry weather, followed by the winter rains, which last till March, the time of the "latter" rains. From May till October the sky remains cloudless. The rare difference of temperature found in so small a compass is thus happily described by Volney: "If the heat of July is oppressive, a six hours' journey to the neighboring mountains transports you into the coolness of March; and if, on the contrary, the hoar-frost troubles you at Besharrai, a day's travel will bring you into the midst of blooming May;" or, as an Arabic poet has it, "Lebanon bears winter on its head, spring on its shoulders, autumn on its lap, and summer at its foot." The dense population assembled in the great mercantile towns greatly contributed to augment by artificial means the natural fertility of the soil. The population of the country is at present very much reduced, but there are still found aqueducts and artificial vineyards formed of mould carried up to the terraces of the native rock. Ammianus Marcellinus says (14:8), "Phoenicia is a charming and beautiful country, adorned with large and elegant cities." Even now this country is among the most fertile in Western Asia. It produces wheat, rye, and barley, and, besides the more ordinary fruits, also apricots, peaches, pomegranates, almonds, citrons, oranges, figs, dates, sugar-cane, and grapes, which furnish an excellent wine. In addition to these products, it yields cotton, silk, and tobacco. The country is also adorned by the variegated flowers of oleander and cactus. The higher regions are distinguished from the bare mountains of Palestine by being covered with oaks, pines, cypress-trees, acacias, and tamarisks; and above all by majestic cedars, of which there are still a few very old trees, whose stems measure from thirty to forty feet in circumference. The inhabitants of Sur still carry on a profitable traffic with the produce of Mount Lebanon, namely, in wood and charcoal. Phoenicia produces also flocks of sheep and goats; and innumerable swarms of bees supply excellent honey. In the forests there are bears, wolves, panthers, and jackals. The sea furnishes great quantities of fish, so that Sidon, the most ancient among the Phoenician towns, derived its name from fishing.
II. The People. —
1. Respecting the ethnography of the Phoenicians, we have only to observe that the opinions are as much divided on the subject as ever. According to Gen_10:15, Canaan had eleven "sons" ("Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad"), six of whom had settled in the north of Palestine; and although all his descendants are sometimes included, both by classical writers and the Sept. (e.g. in Jos_5:1; Jos_5:12), in the name of Φοίνικες, yet in general the term chiefly applies to the inhabitants of the north. Scripture speaks of them as descendants of primeval giants (Autochthons) who had inhabited Canaan since the flood-that is, from times immemorial. Considering the careful attention paid by the Biblical writers to the early history of Palestine, and the close contact between the Phoenicians and Israelites, it would appear as if all traditions of a time anterior to their sojourn in that land had been long lost. Gen_10:6, on the other hand, calls Canaan a descendant of Ham — a statement which, unless explained to refer to their darker skins, would seem to war against their being indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, or a Shemitic population, an assumption much favored by their language. Herodotus, however, makes them, both on their own statements and by accounts preserved in Persian historians, immigrants from "the Erythreean Sea;" and Justin backs the notion of immigration by recording that the Tyrian nation was founded by the Phoenicians, and that these, being forced by an earthquake to leave their native land, first settled on the Assyrian lake (Dead Sea or lake of Gennesareth), and subsequently on a shore near the sea, where they founded a city called Sidon. The locality of the "Erythreean Sea," however, is a moot point still. It is taken by different investigators to stand either for the Arabian or Persian Gulf; the latter view being apparently favored by the occurrence of Phoenician names borne by some of its islands (Strabo) — though these may have been given them by late Phoenician colonists. Some have seen in them the Hyksos driven to Syria. Without entering any further into these most difficult, and, in the absence of all trustworthy information, more than vague speculations, so much appears certain, that many immigrations of Shemitic branches into Phoenicia, at different periods and from different parts, must have taken place, and that these gradually settled into the highly civilized nationality which we find constituted as early as the time of Abraham (Gen_12:6, או = then, already; comp. Aben-Ezra, ad loc., and Spinoza, Tract. Theol.Pol. chapter 8). It would be extremely vain to venture an opinion on the individuality of the different tribes that, wave-like, rushed into the country from various sides, at probably widely distant dates. The only apparently valuable tradition on the subject seems contained in the above- quoted passage of Gen_10:15-18. But there is one point which can be proved to be in the highest degree probable, and which has peculiar interest as bearing on the Jews, viz. that the Phoenicians were of the same race as the Canaanites. This remarkable fact, which, taken in connection with the language of the Phoenicians, leads to some interesting results, is rendered probable by the following circumstances:
1st. The native name of Phoenicia, as already pointed out, was Canaan, a name signifying "lowland." This was well given to the narrow slip of plain between the Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, in contrast to the elevated mountain range adjoining; but it would have been inappropriate to that part of Palestine conquered by the Israelites, which was undoubtedly a hill-country (see Movers, Das Phoenizische Alterthum, 1:5); so that, when it is known that the Israelites at the time of their invasion found in Palestine a powerful tribe called the Canaanites, and from them called Palestine, the land of Canaan, it is obviously suggested that the Canaanites came originally from the neighboring plain, called Canaan along the sea-coast.
2d. This is further confirmed through the name in Africa whereby the Carthaginian Phoenicians called themselves, as attested by Augustine, who states that the peasants in his part of Africa, if asked of what race they were, would answer, in Punic or Phoenician, "Canaanites" (Opera Omnia, 4:1235; Exposit. Epist. ad Rom. § 13).
3d. The conclusion thus suggested is strongly supported by the tradition that the names of persons and places in the land of Canaan — not only when the Israelites invaded it, but likewise previously, when "there were yet but a few of them," and Abraham is said to have visited it-were Phoenician or Hebrew: such, for example, as Abimelek, "father of the king" (Gen_20:2); Melchizedek, "king of righteousness" (Gen_14:18); Kirjath-sepher, "city of the book" (Jos_15:15). As above observed, in Greek writers also occurs the name χνά for Phcenicia (comp. Gesenii Thesaurus Linguae Hebraicae [Leips. 1839], 2:696, and Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 570 sq.). The dialect of the Israelites perhaps resembled more the Aramaean, and that of the Phoenicians more the Arabic; but this difference was nearly effaced when both nations resided in the same country, and had frequent intercourse with each other. Concerning the original country of the Phoenicians and their immigration into Canaan, comp. especially Bertheau, Zur Geschichte der Israeliten (Gottingen, 1840), pages 152-186, and Lengerke, Kanaan, Volks- und Religionsgeschichte Israels (Kinigsberg, 1844), 1:182 sq.
2. Government. — Two principal divisions existed anciently among these Canaanites: these were those of the interior of Palestine, and the tribes inhabiting the sea-coast, Phoenicia proper. By degrees three special tribes, more powerful than the rest, formed, as it were, the nucleus around which the multitude of minor ones gathered and became one nationality, viz. the inhabitants of Sidon, of Tyre, and of Aradus. Three principal elements are to be distinguished, according to classical evidence (Cato, comp. Serv. ad En. 4:682), in the constitution of Phoenician states: 1. The aristocracy, consisting of certain families of noble lineage, which were divided into tribes (שבט), families (משפחה, Phoen. חבין), and gentes (בית אבות), the last generally of the number of 300 in each state or colony. Out of the "tribes" were elected thirty principes (Phoen. רב), who formed a supreme senate; besides which there existed another larger representative assembly of 300 members, chosen from the gentes. 2. The lower estates of the people, or "plebs" itself, who do not seem to have had their recognised special representatives, but by constant opposition, which sometimes broke out in open violence, held the nobles in check. 3. The kingdom, at first hereditary, afterwards became elective. Nor must the priesthood be forgotten; one of the most powerful elements in the Phoenician commonwealth, and which in some provinces even assumed, in the person of the highpriest, the supreme rule. There was a kind of federal union between the different states, which, according to their importance, sent either their kings or their judges, at the head of a large number of their senators, to the general councils of the nation, held at stated periods either at Sidon or Tyre. The colonies were governed much as the home-country, except that local affairs and the executive were intrusted to two (annual, as it would seem) judges (שופטים, suffetes) elected by the senate — an institution which for some time also replaced the monarchical form in Tyre. When Tripolis was founded by Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, as a place of joint meeting for their hegemony, every one of these cities sent 100 senators to watch her special interests at the common meeting; and the senate of Sidon seems, in the 4th century B.C., at least, to have consisted of 500 to 600 elders, some of whom were probably selected more for their wealth than for their noble lineage. The king sometimes combined in his person the office of highpriest. The turbulent seething mass of the people, consisting of the poorer families of Phoenician descent, the immigrants of neighboring tribes, the strangers, and the whole incongruous mass of workmen, tradespeople, sailors, that must have abounded in a commercial and maritime nation like the Phoenicians, and out of whose midst must have arisen at times influential men enough — was governed, as far as we can learn, as "constitutionally" as possible. The unruly spirits were got rid of in Roman fashion somehow in the colonies, or were made silent by important places being intrusted to their care, under strict supervision from home. Only once or twice do we hear of violent popular outbreaks, in consequence of one of which it was mockingly said that Phoenicia had lost all her aristocracy, and what existed of Phoenicians was of the lowest birth, the offspring of slaves. As the wealth of all the world accumulated more and more in the Phoenician ports, luxury) and too great a desire to rest and enjoy their wealth in peace, induced the dauntless old pirates to intrust the guard of their cities to the mariners and mercenary soldiers, to Libyans and Lydians — "they of Persia and of Lud and of Phut," as Ezekiel has it; although the wild resistance which this small territory offered in her single towns to the enormous armies of Assyria, Babylonia and Greece shows that the old spirit had not died out. The smaller states were sometimes so much oppressed by Tyre that they preferred rather to submit to external enemies (comp. Heeren, Ideen, etc., page 15 sq.; Beck, Anleitung zur genaueren Kenntniss der Welt- und Volkergeschichte, page 252 sq., and 581 sq.).
3. History. — One of the most powerful and important nations of antiquity, Phoenicia has yet left but poor information regarding her history. According to Josephus, every city in Phoenicia had its collection of registers and public documents (comp. Targum to Kirjath-Jearim, Jdg_1:11; Jdg_1:15). Out of these, Menander of Ephesus, and Dias, a Phoenician, compiled two histories of Tyre, a few fragments of which have survived (comp. Josephus, Contra Rev_1:17-18; Ant. 8:5, 3; 13:1 sq.; 9:14, 2; Theophil. Ad Autol. 3:22; Syncellus, Chron. page 182). Sanchoniatho is said to have written a history of Phoenicia and Egypt, which was recast by Philo of Byblus, under the reign of Hadrian, and from his work Porphyrius (4th century A.D.) took some cosmogonical quotations, which found their way into Eusebius (Praep. Evang. 1:10). Later Phoenician historians' works (Theodotus, Hesycrates, Moschos, mentioned as authors on Phoenicia by Tatianus, Contra Grcecos, § 37) are likewise lost. Gesenlius mentions, in his Monumenta Phoenicia (page 363 sq.), some later I;hoenician authors, who do not touch upon historical subjects. Thus nothing remains but a few casual notices in the Bible, some of the Church fathers, and classical writers (Josephus, Syncellus, Herodotus, Diodorus, Justin), which happen to throw some light upon the history of that long- lost commonwealth. A great part of this history, however, being identical with that of the cities mentioned, in which by turns the hegemony was vested, fuller information will be found under their special headings. The names of the kings from Hiram to Pygmalion are preserved by Josephus (Apion, 1:18) in a fragment from the history of Tyre by Menander of Ephesus. We give them, with the computations of the reigns by Movers (ut sup. II, 1:140, 143, 149), Duncker (Gesch. des A lterthums [3d ed. Berl. 1863-7], 1:526 sq.), and Hitzig (Urgesch. und Mythol. der Philistber, page 191). See also Herzog, Encyklop. 11:620 sq.
Name.
Menander.
Movers.
Duncker.
Hitzig.
Hiram I ....
34 years
980-947
1021-991.
1031-997
Balcazar....
7 (17) years
946-940
991-994
997-990
Abdastartus
9 years
939-931
974-965
990-981
Unknown ..
12 years
930-919
965-953
981-969
Astartus....
12 years
918-907
953-941
969-957
Astaryimus.
9 years
906-898
941-932
957-948
Pheles......
8 months
Ithobal ....
32 (12) years
897-866
931-898
948-916
Balezorus..
6 (8, 18) years
865-858
898-890
916-910
Myttonus...
9 (25, 12) years
857-833
890-861
910-901
Pygmalion.
47 (40,48) years
832-785
861-813
900-853
Broadly speaking, we may begin to date Phoenician history from the time when Sidon first assumed the rule, or about B.C. 1500. Up to that time it was chiefly the development of the immense internal resources, and the commencement of that gigantic trade that was destined soon to overspread the whole of the then known world, which seem to have occupied the attention of the early and peaceful settlers. The symbolical representative of their political history during that period is El, or Belitan, builder of cities, supreme and happy ruler of men. The conquest of Canaan by the Israelites marks a new epoch, of which lists of kings were still extant in late Greek times. We now hear first of Sidonian colonies, while the manufactures and commerce of the country seem to have reached a high renown throughout the neighboring lands. The Israelites drove out Sidonian settlers from Laish, near the sources of the Jordan. Somewhat later (beginning of 13th century), Sidonian colonization spread farther west, founding the (island) city of Tyre, and Citium and Hippo on the coast of Africa. About 1209, however, Sidon was defeated by the king of Askalon, and Tyre, assuming the ascendency, ushered in a third period, during which Phoenicia reached the summit of her greatness. At this time, chiefly under the brilliant reign of Hiram, we hear also of a close alliance with the Israelites, which eventually led to common commercial enterprises at sea. After Hiram's death, however, political dissensions began to undermine the unparalleled peace and power of the country. His four sons ruled, with certain interruptions, for short periods, and the crown was then assumed by Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel. His grandson, Mattan, left the throne to his two children, Pygmialion and Dido (Elissa). The latter, having been excluded from power by her brother, left the country, together with some of the aristocratic families, and founded Carthage (New-Town), about B.C. 813. Of the century that followed, little further is known save occasional allusions in Joel and Amos, which tell of the piratical commerce of Tyrians and Sidonians. Assyrian, Chaldsean, Egyptian invasions followed each other in turns during the last phase of Phoenician history, dating from the 8th century, and soon reduced the flourishing country to insignificance.
Deeds of prowess, such as the thirteen years' siege sustained by Tyre against overwhelming forces, could not save the doomed country. Her fleet destroyed, her colonies wrested from her or in a state of open rebellion, torn by inner factions, Phoenicia was ultimately (together with what had been once Nebuchadnezzar's empire) embodied with Persia B.C. 538. Once more, however, exasperated by the enormous taxes imposed upon them, chiefly during the Greek war, together with other galling measures issued by the successive satraps, the Phoenicians, under the leadership of Sidon, took part in the revolution of Egypt against Artaxerxes Mnlemon and Ochus, about the mnide die of the 4th century B.C., which ended very unhappily for them. Sidon, the only city that refused to submit at once at the approach of the Persian army, was conquered, the citizens themselves setting fire to it, and more than 40,000 people perished in the flames. Although rebuilt and repeopled shortly afterwards, it yet never again reached its ancient grandeur, and to Tvre belonged the hegemony, until she, too, had to submit, after a seven years' siege, to Alexander, who through the battle on the Issus (B.C. 333) had made all Phoenicia his as part and parcel of the gigantic Persian empire. Under Antiochus the Great, all except Sidon became subject to Seleucidian sway. Pompey, incorporating Phoenicia with Syria (B.C. 65), made it a Roman province. During the civil wars of Rome, when Cassius divided Syria into small provinces, and sold them separately, Tyre again became for a short period a principality, with a king of its own. Cleopatra in her turn received Phoenicia as a present from Antony. What shadow of independence was still left to the two ancient cities was taken from them by Augustus (A.D. 20). Tyre, however, retained much of her previous importance as an emporium and a manufacturing place through the various vicissitudes of Syrian history during the sixteen centuries that followed, until the Ottoman Turks conquered the country, and the opening up of the New World on the one hand, and of a new route to Asia on the other, destroyed the last remnant of the primitive grandeur of one of the most mighty empires of the ancient world, and one which has contributed one of the largest shares to the civilization of all mankind.
4. Occupations. — Commerce and colonization were the elements by which this grandeur was chiefly accomplished. Regarding the former, we have already hinted at the overflowing wealth and almost unparalleled variety of home products which this small country furnished forth, and which, far too abundant for their own consumption, easily suggested the idea of exportation and traffic of exchange. Their happy maritime position further enabled them to do that which Egypt and Assyria, with all their perfection of industry and art, were debarred from doing; partly, it is true, through their isolated habits and narrow laws, but chiefly by the natural limits of their countries. To Phoenicia alone it was given to supply the link that was to connect the East with the West, or at least with Europe and Western Africa. Communicating by means of Arabia and the Persian Gulf with India and the coast of Africa towards the equator; and on the north, along the Euxine, with the borders of Scythia, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, with Britannia, if not with the Baltic, their commerce divides itself into different great branches according to those natural highways. From the countries on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, the coasts of Arabia, Africa, and India, they exported spice, precious stones, myrrh, frankincense, gold, ivory, ebony, steel, and iron, and from Egypt embroidered linen and corn. In exchange they brought not only their own raw produce and manufactures, but gums and resins for embalming, also wine and spices. From Mesopotamia and Syria came the emeralds and corals of the Red Sea; from Babylon the manifold embroideries; wine and fine wool from Aleppo and the Mesopotamian plains; from Judaea the finest wheat, grape-honey, oil, and balm. Another remote region, Armenia, furnished troops of riding and chariot horses and mules; and this same country, or, rather, the south-eastern coast of the Euxine, further furnished the Phoenician emporiums with slaves of a superior market-value-for pirating and slave-dealing went hand in hand with their maritime calling- with copper, lead, brass (or ichalcum), and tunnies, which they also fetched, together with conger-eels, from the Atlantic coast. Their extensive early commerce with Greece is frequently alluded to in Homer, and is further shown by the remarkable fact of the abundance of Shemitic or Phoenician words in Greek for such things as precious stones, fine garments, vessels, spices, and Eastern plants in general, musical instruments, weights and measures, etc. (comp. μύῤῥα, מר; κίνναμον, קנמון; κάννα, קנה; λίβανος , לבנה; χαλβάνη, galbanum, : חלבנה; νάρδος, נרד; σάμφειρος שפיר; ἴασπις, ישפה; βύσσος, בווֹ; κάρπασος, כרפס; νάβλα, נבל; τύμπανον, ת; σαμβύκη, סבכא; κύπρος, כפר; ὕσσωπος, אזוב; κιβώρυον, כפור; σάκκος, שק; χάρτς,; δέλτος, חדט; ἀῤῥαβών, ערבון; μνᾶ, מנה; κάβος, קב; δραχμή, דרכמון; κόρος, כר, etc.). Beyond the Strait, along the north and west coast of Africa, they received skins of deer, lions, panthers, domestic cattle, elephants' skins and teeth, Egyptian alabaster, castrated swine, Attic pottery and cups, probably also gold. Yet the most fabulously rich mines of metalssuch as silver, iron, lead, tin — they found in Tartessus. So extensive and proverbial was this commerce that we enumerate its elements in detail.
The position of Phoenicia, as we have seen, was most favorable for the exchange of the produce of the East and West. Persians, Lydians, and Lycians frequently served as mercenaries in the Phoenician armies (Eze_27:10-11). Phoenicia exported wine to Egypt (Herod. 3:5, 6). Purple garments were best manufactured in Tyre (Amati, De Restitutione Purpurarunm, 3d ed. Casenee, 1784). Glass was made in Sidon and Sarepta (comp. Heeren, page 86 sq.; Beck, page 593 sq.). In Phoenicia was exchanged the produce of all known countries. After David had vanquished the Edomites and conquered the coasts of the Red Sea, king Hiram of Tyre entered into a confederacy with Solomon, by which he insured for his people the right of navigation to India. The combined fleet of the Israelites and Phoenicians sailed from the seaports of Ezion-geber and Elath. These ports were situated on the eastern branch of the Red Sea, the Sinus Elaniticus, or Gulf of Akabah. Israelitish-Phoenician mercantile expeditions proceeded to Ophir, perhaps Abhira, situated at the mouth of the Indus (comp. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde [Bonn, 1844], 1:537 sq.). It seems, however, that the Indian coasts in general were also called Ophir. Three years were required in order to accomplish a mercantile expedition to Ophir and to return with cargoes of gold, algum-wood, ivory, silver, monkeys, peacocks, and other Indian produce.
Some names of these products are Indian transferred into Hebrew, as אלמגים, almuggim, Sanscr. valgu, or, according to the Decanic pronunciation, valgum; שןאּבּים, shen-habbim (ivory), Sanscr. קו; ' koph (ape), Sanscr. kapi; תוכיים, tukkiyim (peacock), Sanscr. cikhi, according to the Decanic pronunciation (comp. 1Ki_9:27; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_10:22). SEE OPHIR. It seems, however, that these mercantile expeditions to India were soon given up, probably on account of the great difficulty of navigating the Red Sea. King Jehoshaphat endeavored to recommence these expeditions, but his fleet was wrecked at Ezion-geber (1Ki_22:48). The names of mercantile establishments on the coasts of Arabia along the Persian Gulf have partly been preserved to the present day. In these places the Phoenicians exchanged the produce of the West for that of India, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Arabia especially furnished incense, gold, and precious stones. The Midianites (Gen_37:28) and the Edomites (Eze_27:16) effected the transit by their caravans. The fortified Idumaean town Petra probably contained the storehouses in which the produce of southern countries was collected. From Egypt the Phoenicians exported especially byssus (Eze_27:7) for wine. According to an ancient tradition, the tyrant of Thebes, Busiris, having soiled his hands with the blood of all foreigners, was killed by the Tyrian Hercules. This indicates that Phoenician colonists established themselves and their civilization successfully in Upper Egypt, where all strangers had usually been persecuted. At a later period Memphis was the place where, most of the Phoenicians in Egypt were established. Phoenician inscriptions found in Egypt prove that even under the Ptolemies the intimate connection between Phoenicia and Egypt still existed (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, 13:224 sq.). From Palestine the Phoenicians imported, besides wheat, especially from Judaea, ivory, oil, and balm; also wool, principally from the neighboring nomadic Arabs. Damascus furnished wine (Eze_27:5-6; Eze_27:17-18; Eze_27:21), and the mountains of Syria wood. The tribes about the shores of the Caspian Sea furnished slaves and iron; for instance, the Tibaraeans (תובל, Tubal) and Moschi (משׁ,ִ Meshech). Horsemen, horses, and mules came from the Armenians (תגרמה, Togarmah) (see Heeren, pages 86-130). The treasures of the East were exported from Phoenicia by ships which sailed first to Cyprus. the mountains of which are visible from the Phoenician coast. Citium was a Phoenician colony in Cyprus, the name of which was transferred to the whole of Cyprus, and even to some neighboring islands and coasts called כתים (Gen_10:4; Isa_23:1; Isa_23:12).
Hence also חתים, the name of a Canaanitish or Phoenician tribe (Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 153). Cyprus was subject to Tyre up to the time of Alexander the Great. There are still found Phoenician inscriptions which prove the connection of Cyprus with Tyre. At Rhodes (רדנים) also are found vestiges of Phoenician influence. From Rhodes the mountains of Crete are visible. This was of great importance for the direction of navigators, before the discovery of the compass. In Crete, and also in the Cycladic and Sporadic Isles, are the vestiges of Phoenician settlements. On the Isle of Thasos, on the southern coast of Thrace, the Phoenicians had gold-mines; and even on the southern shores of the Black Sea they had factories. However, when the Greeks became more powerful, the Phoenicians sailed more in other directions. They occupied also Sicily and the neighboring islands, but were, after the Greek colonization, confined to a few towns, Motya, Soloes, Panormus (Thucydides, 6:2). The Phoenician mercantile establishments in Sardinia and the Balearic Isles could scarcely be called colonies. Carthage was a Phoenician colony, which probably soon became important by commerce with the interior of Africa, and remained connected with Tvre by means of a common sanctuary. After Phoenicia had been vanquished by the Assyrians. Babylonians, and Persians, the settlements in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain came into the power of Carthage. The Phoenicians had for a long period exported from Spain gold, silver, tin, iron, lead (Eze_38:13), fruit, wine, oil, wax, fish, and wool. Their chief settlement was Tarshish, תרשׁישׁ, subjection, from the root רשׁשׁ, he vanquished, subjected. The Aramaeans pronounced תרתישׁ; hence the Greek Tartessos. This was probably the name of a town situated to the west of the Pillars of Hercules (Calpe and Abyla, now Gibraltar and Ceuta), and even more west than Gades, at the mouth of the Baetis (Herod. 4:62; Scymnus Chius, 5:161 sq.). This river was also called Tartessus (Arist. Meteor. 1:13; Pausan. 6:19, 3; Strabo, 3, page 148). At a later period the town of Tartessus obtained likewise the Phoenician name Carteja, from קרת, town (Strabo, 3, page 151).
There are other names of towns in Spain which have a Phoenician derivation: Gades, גדר, septum, fence (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 304 sq., 349); Malaga (מלח), on account of much salt fish thence exported; or, according to Gesenius (id. page 312 sq., and 353), from מלאכהאּמלכה, officinaf abrorum, iron-works, or manufactory of other metals, on account of the mines to be found there; Belon, בעלה, civitas, city (id. page 311 sq., and 348). The voyage to Tarshish was the most important of those undertaken by the Phoenicians. Hence it was that their largest vessels were all called ships of Tarshish, although they sailed in other directions (1Ki_10:22). It appears also that the Phoenicians exported tin from the British Isles, and amber from the coasts of Prussia. Their voyages on the western coasts of Africa seem to have been merely voyages of discovery, without permanent results. The Spanish colonies were probably the principal sources of Phoenician wealth, and were founded at a very remote period. The migration of the Phoenician, Cadmus, into Bceotia likewise belongs to the earlier period of Phoenician colonization. Homer seems to know little of the Sidonian commerce; which fact may be explained by supposing that the Phoenicians avoided all collision and competition with the increasing power of the Greeks, and preferred to direct their voyages into countries where such compe tition seemed to be improbable. Herodotus describes the Phoenicians as beginning soon after their settlement to occupy themselves in distant voyages (1:1). From the construction of rude rafts, they must speedily have reached to a style of substantial ship-building. Their commercial vessels are represented either as long in shape, and fitted both for sailing and being rowed with fifty oars — “ships of Tarshish;" or as rounder in form, and more capacious in stowage, but slower in speed- tubs or coasting-vessels — bearers of cargo on short voyages. Xenophon (Economics, 8) passes a high eulogy on a Phoenician ship — "the greatest quantity of tackling was disposed separately in the smallest stowage."
Their merchantmen also carried arms for defence, and had figures on their prows, which the Greeks named πάταικοι. They steered by the Cynosure, or the last star in Ursa Minor; and they could cast reckonings, from the combined application of astronomy and arithmetic (Strabo, 16:2, 24). This nautical application of astronomy is ascribed by Callimachus to Thales, a Phcenician by descent (Frag. ed. Blomfield, page 213; Diog. Laert. Thales). Lebanon supplied them with abundance of timber, and Cyprus gave them all necessary equipments, from the keel to the topsails — "a fundamento ipso carinee ad supremos ipsos carbasos" (Amm. Marcell. 14:8-14). These daring Phoenician navigators in the reign of Pharaoh — Necho circumnavigated Africa — departing from the Red Sea and returning by the Strait of Gibraltar. They reported that in sailing round Libya they had the sun on their right hand — a story of which Herodotus says, "I, for my part, do not believe them," and yet it is the positive proof that they had gone round the Cape (Herod. 4:42). Diodorus speaks also of Phoenician mariners — being driven westwards beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the ocean, and reaching at length a very fertile and beautiful island — "a dwelling of gods rather than of men" — one probably of the Azores or Canary Islands. The Phoenicians furnished to Xerxes 300 ships, but they were defeated at Salamis. It is said that of all the nations employed in digging the famous canal across the isthmus of Athos, they alone had sufficient engineering skill to begin its banks on their section at a slope, and thus prevent caving in (7:23). The remote periods of Phoenician commerce and colonization are wrapped in myths. Phoenician ships may have first carried the produce of Assyria and Egypt but their own wares and manufactures were soon largely exported by them (Ezekiel 28). The commerce of Tyre reached through the world (Strabo, 3:5, 11).
There was also a great trade in the tunny fisheries, and the Tyrians sold fish in Jerusalem (Neh_13:16). Phoenicia excelled in the manufacture of the purple dye extracted from the shell-fish murex, so abundant on parts of its coasts. This color in its richest hue was at length appropriated to imperial use, and the silk so dyed was of extraordinary value. The glass of Sidon was no less famous than the Tyrian dye — the fine white sand used for the process being very abundant near Mount Carmel. Glass has been found in Nineveh, and glass-blowing is figured at Beni-Hassan in Egypt. The art might have come from Egypt, but the discovery in Phoenicia is represented as accidental. The pillar of emerald shining brightly in the night, which Herodotus speaks of as being in the temple of Hercules, was probably a hollow cylinder of glass with a lamp within it (Kenrick, Phenicia, page 249). Phoenicia produced also drinking-cups of silver and gold. Homer describes Sidon as abounding in works of brass. Its building- stone was not of very good quality, but cedar-wood was largely employed. When stone was used the joints were bevelled — a practice which also characterizes Hebrew architecture, and gives it a panelled appearance. The mining operations of the Phoenicians were also celebrated. Herodotus says they turned a mountain over ἐν τῇ ζητήσει — in the search for gold. Mines were wrought in the various colonies — in the Grecian islands and in Spain — by processes much the same as those employed in more modern times. The marine knowledge and experience of Phoenicia led to the plantation of numerous colonies in Cyprus, Rhodes, Cilicia, and the islands of the AEgean-the Cyclades and Sporades (Thucyd. 1:8) — in Sicily, in Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and in Spain. Strabo says that the Phoenicians possessed the best parts of Iberia before the days of Homer (3:22, 14). One principal colony was in Northern Africa, and Strabo asserts that they occupied the middle part of Africa soon after the Trojan war.
The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage is well known, the event being placed by some in B.C. 813. Byrsa, the name of the hill on which the city was built, denotes a fortress, being בָּצְרָה. (Bozrah), the name also of the Idumaean capital; though its Greek form, Βύρσα, gave rise to the story about the purchase of as much land as a hide would measure. Carthage means "new town" (קרת חדשה), and Punici is only another spelling of Phuonici. Intercourse with many strange and untutored races led the Phoenicians to indulge in fictions, and love of gain taught them mercantile deceits and stratagems. "Phoenician figment" — ψεῦσμα φοινικικόν — or a traveller's tale, was proverbial in former times, likefides Punica at a later period (Strabo, 12, page 55). The Etymologium Magnum bluntly φοινικικόν by τὸ ψεῦδος, the lie. In the Odyssey they are described as "crafty" ναυσίκλυτοι (Odyss. 13:415), or as "crafty and wicked." As a trading nation they were ready sometimes to take advantage of the ignorant and savage tribes with which they bartered, and they cared nothing for law or right on the high seas, where no power could control or punish; so that Ulysses uses the phrase Φοίνιξ ἀνὴρ ἀρατήλια εἰδὼς τρώκτης, "a Phoenician man knowing deceitful things — crafty" (id. 14:285). The term "Canaan," "Canaanite," or "man of Canaan," the native name of the Phoenician, is sometimes rendered "merchant" in the English version (Isa_23:8; Zep_1:11; Job_41:6; Pro_31:24; Zec_14:21; Hos_12:7; Eze_17:4). "Phoenician" and "merchant" were thus interchangeable terms; so that Φοῖνιξ γίνομαι means, "I become a trader." But the phrase seems to have sunk in moral meaning, and trader was but another name for a hucksterer, or a pedler going from house to house, as in Pro_31:24. Nay, the prophet Hosea (12:7) says, "He is a Canaanite," or "Phenician," or "as for Canaan, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet am I become rich, I have found me out substance." A common proverb expressive of fraud matching fraud was Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας. No coined money of Phoenicia is extant prior to its subjugation by the Greeks. The standard seems to have been the same as the Jewish; the shekel being equal to the Attic tetradrachm; and the zuz, which occurs on the tablet of Marseilles, being of the value of a denarius. On the same tablet keseph (silver) occurs, with the probable ellipse of "shekel," as in Hebrew. Foreign silver money (זר) is also there referred to. Among the antiquities dug up in Nineveh are several bronze weights in the form of lions; having both cuneiform legends with the name of Sennacherib, and also Phoenician or cursive Shemitic inscriptions (Layard, Nin. and Bab. page 601). The cor was a Phoenician measure, the same as the Hebrew chomer, and holding ten Attic metretee.each metretes being equal to about ten and a half gallons. The arithmetical notation was carried out by making simple strokes for the units; 10 was a horizontal stroke or a semicircle, and 100 was a special sign, the unit strokes added to it denoting additional hundreds (Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 85).
It appears almost incredible how, with the comparatively small knowledge of natural science which we must attribute to them, the Phoenicians could thus on theirfrail rafts traverse the wide seas almost from one end of the globe to the other, with apparently no more difficulty than their inland caravans, their chapmen and dealers, found in traversing the neighboring countries. Yet it must not, on the other hand, be forgotten that theirs appears to have been an uncommon knowledge of astronomy and physical geography — witness their almost scientifically planned voyage of discovery under Hiram — and that, above all, an extraordinary amount of practical sense, of boldness, shrewdness, unscrupulousness, untiring energy, and happy genius, went far to replace some of the safe contrivances with which modern discoveries have made our mariners familiar. These qualities also made and kept them the unrivalled masters of ancient commerce and navigation. They were, moreover, known rather to destroy their own ships and endanger their lives than let others see their secret way and enterprise; and it would be very surprising if theirs had not been also the greatest discoveries, the greatest riches and splendor and power for many a long century, though they owned but a small strip of country at home. Well might Tyre once say, "I am of perfect beauty" (Eze_27:3), and the prophet address Sidon, "Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel, there is no secret they can hide from thee: with thy wisdom and thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: by thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches" (28:3-5). There can, indeed, not be fancied a fuller and more graphic account of the state of Phoenicia, especially as regards her commercial relations, than the two chapters of Ezekiel (27 and 28) containing the lamentation on Tyre: which, indeed, form our chief information onl this point.
In regard to Phoenician trade, as connected with the Israelites, the following points are worthy of notice.
(1.) Up to the time of David, not one of the twelve tribes seems to have possessed a single harbor on the sea-coast: it was impossible, therefore, that they could become a commercial people. It is true that according to Jdg_1:31, combined with Jos_19:26, Accho or Acre, with its excellent harbor, had been assigned to the tribe of Asher; but from the same passage in Judges it seems certain that the tribe of Asher did not really obtain the possession of Acre, which continued to be held by the Canaanites. However wistfully, therefore, the Israelites might regard the wealth accruing to their neighbors the Phoenicians from trade, to vie with them in this respect was out of the question. But from the time that David had conquered Edom, an opening for trade was afforded to the Israelites. The command of Ezion-geber, near Elath, in the land of Edom, enabled them to engage in the navigation of the Red Sea. As they were novices, however, at sailing, as the navigation of the Red Sea, owing to its currents, winds, and rocks, is dangerous even to modern sailors, and as the Phoenicians, during the period of the independence of Edom, were probably allowed to trade from Ezion-geber, it was politic in Solomon to permit the Phoenicians of Tyre to have docks and build ships at Ezion- geber on condition that his sailors and vessels might have the benefit of their experience. The results seem to have been strikingly successful. The Jews and Phoenicians made profitable voyages to Ophir in Arabia or India, whence gold was imported into Judaea in large quantities; and once in three years still longer voyages were made, by vessels which may possibly have touched at Ophir, though their imports were not only gold, but likewise silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (1Ki_10:22). SEE TARSHISH.
There seems at the same time to have been a great direct trade with the Phoenicians for cedar-wood (1Ki_10:27), and generally the wealth of the kingdom reached an unprecedented point. If the union of the tribes had been maintained, the whole sea-coast of Palestine would have afforded additional sources of revenue through trade; and perhaps even ultimately the "great plain of Sidon" itself might have formed part of the united empire. But if any possibilities of this kind existed, they were destroyed by the disastrous secession of the ten tribes; a heavy blow from which the Hebrew race has never yet recovered during a period of nearly 3000 years.
(2.) After the division into two kingdoms, the curtain falls on any commercial relation between the Israelites and Phoenicians until a relation is brought to notice, by no means brotherly, as in the fleets which navigated the Red Sea, nor friendly, as between buyers and sellers, but humiliating and exasperating, as between the buvers and the bought. The relation is meant which existed between the two nations when Israelites were sold as slaves by Phoenicians. It was a custom in antiquity, when one nation went to war against another, for merchants to be present in one or other of the hostile camps, in order to purchase prisoners of war as slaves. Thus at the time of the Maccabees, when a large army was sent by Lysias to invade and subdue the land of Judah, it is related that "the merchants of the country, hearing the fame of them, took silver and gold very much with servants, and came into the camp to buy the children of Israel for slaves" (1Ma_3:41); and when it is related that at the capture of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes, the enormous number of 40,000 men were slain in battle, it is added that there were "no fewer sold than slain" (2Ma_5:14; Credner's Joel, page 240). Now this practice, which is thus illustrated by details at a much later period. undoubtedly prevailed in earlier times (Odyssey, 15:427; Herod. 1:1), and is alluded to in a threatening manner against the Phoenicians by the prophets (Joe_3:4, and Amo_1:9-10), about B.C. 800. The circumstances which led to this state of things may be thus explained. After the division of the two kingdoms there is no trace of any friendly relations between the kingdom of Judah and the Phoenicians: the interest of the latter rather led them to cultivate the friendship of the kingdom of Israel; and the Israelitish king, Ahab, had a Sidonian princess as his wife (1Ki_16:31). Now, not improbably in consequence of these relations, when Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, endeavored to restore the trade of the Jews in the Red Sea, and for this purpose built large ships at Ezion-geber to go to Ophir for gold, he did not admit the Phoenicians to any participation in the venture, and when king Ahaziah, Ahab's son, asked to have a share in it, his request was distinctly refused (22:48,49). That attempt to renew the trade of the Jews in the Red Sea failed, and in the reign of Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's son, Edom revolted from Judah and established its independence; so that if the Phoenicians wished to despatch trading-vessels from Ezion-geber, Edom was the power which it was mainly their interest to conciliate, and not Judah. Under these circumstances the Phoenicians seem, not only to have purchased and to have sold again as slaves, and probably in some instances to have kidnapped inhabitants of Judah, but even to have sold them to their enemies the Edomites (Joel, Amos, as above). This was regarded with reason as a departure from the old brotherly covenant, when Hiram was a great lover of David, and subsequently had the most friendly commercial relations with David's son; and this may be considered as the original foundation of the hostility of the Hebrew prophets towards Phoenician Tyre (Isaiah 23; Ezekiel 28).
(3.) The only other notice in the Old Testament of trade between the Phoenicians and the Israelites is in the account given by the prophet Ezekiel of the trade of Tyre (Eze_27:17). While this account supplies valuable information respecting the various commercial dealings of that most illustrious of Phoenician cities, SEE TYRE, it likewise makes direct mention of the exports to it from Palestine. These were wheat, honey (i.e., sirup of grapes), oil, and balm. The export of wheat deserves attention [concerning the other exports, SEE BALM; SEE HONEY; SEE OIL, ] because it shows how important it must have been to the Phoenicians to maintain friendly relations with their Hebrew neighbors, and especially with the adjoining kingdom of Israel. The wheat is called wheat of Minnith (q.v.), which was a town of the Ammonites, on the other side of the Jordan, only once mentioned elsewhere in the Bible: and it is not certain whether Minnith was a great inland emporium, where large purchases of corn were made, or whether the wheat in its neighborhood was peculiarly good, and gave its name to all wheat of a certain fineness in quality. Still, whatever may be the correct explanation respecting Minnith, the only countries specified for exports of wheat are Judah and Israel, and it was through the territory of Israel that the wheat would be imported into Phoenicia. It is suggested by Heeren (in his Historical Researches, 2:117) that the fact of Palestine being thus, as it were, the granary of Phoenicia, explains in the clearest manner the lasting peace that prevailed between the two countries. He observes that with many of the other adjoining nations the Jews lived in a state of almost continual warfare; but that they never once engaged in hostilities with their nearest neighbors the Phoenicians. The fact itself is certainly worthy of special notice; and is the more remarkable, as there were not wanting tempting occasions for the interference of the Phoenicians in Palestine if they desired it.
When Elijah at the brook Kishon, at the distance of not more than thirty miles in a straight line from Tyre, put to death 450 prophets of Baal (1Ki_18:40), we can well conceive the agitation and anger which such a deed must have produced at Tyre. At Sidon, more especially, which was only twenty miles farther distant from the scene of slaughter, the first impulse of the inhabitants must have been to march forth at once in battle array to strengthen the hands of Jezebel, their own princess, in behalf of Baal, their Phoenician god. When again afterwards, by means of falsehood and treachery, Jehu was enabled to massacre the worshippers of Baal in the land of Israel, we cannot doubt that the intelligence was received in Tyre, Sidon, and the other cities of Phoenicia, with a similar burst of horror and indignation to
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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