Ezekiel 28:21

21. Zidon Or, Sidon. The oldest, and for many millenniums the leading Phoenician city. A document written cir. 1400 B.C. proves, however, that even at that early date Tyre had dared to lift her hand, though as yet ineffectually, even with Egypt’s assistance, against the mother city. So high did Zidon stand above all the other cities of the coast that Sidonian is the general name for Phoenician in the early Old Testament history (Judges 18:7; Judges 18:28; Deuteronomy 3:9; 1 Kings 16:31). In David and Solomon’s day, and even earlier (from 1100 B.C.), Tyre appears as the greater city, and although Sennacherib sought in every way to strengthen Sidon as a rival to Tyre, which he wished to subjugate (701 B.C.), it was so completely destroyed by Esarhaddon (678 B.C.) that it disappears entirely even from the list of towns tributary to Assyria, giving place to the new city of Esarhaddonburg, erected on or near its site ( McCurdy, 2:341). At the time this prophecy was written it had evidently recovered sufficiently to deserve a passing notice (Ezekiel 27:8; Joel 3:4; Jeremiah 25:22; Jeremiah 27:3; Zechariah 9:2).