DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0234
Simyra, and Hamath); hence their descendants were
called Canaanites, the Greeks afterwards giving them
the name of Phoenicians. Their coast extended from
Mount Carmel to Mount Casius, along which numerous
ports and cities were placed, the inhabitants of which
appear to have attained a high degree of civilisation and
even of luxury. Dismaved, however, at the extraordinary
success of the divinely supported arms of Israel, as
step by step they victoriously subdued nearly the whole
°f Palestine, the Phoenicians emigrated in large numbers
"—"fleeing from the face of the robber Joshua," as
they expressed it — and planted kingdoms and colonies
throughout the coast of the Mediterranean, founding
cities in Africa, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the isles of
the JEge&n sea. They need not, however, have been so
ttiuch afraid, for Asher, to whom the land containing
Sidon fell, never took the city, or drove the Phoenicians
gut of the country*; and God, in his anger against
Israel, permitted these and some other tribes to dwell in
the land in order " to prove Israel," and " to teach them
war."f Unhappily the Israelites not onlyprofited by their
teaching in this and in other accomplishments}, but
they also learned from them their abominable idola-
tries : from them came the worship of Baal, the Sun,—
the ruins of whose Phoenician-built Temples abound in
Syria, and especially about Hermon, whence arose its
ttarue of Baal-hermon, although the Sidonians called it
"Sirion," or the "Breastplate,"—and from them came
also the worship of Astarte (or Venus), the enticing
goddess, after whom even the heart of the wise Solomon
turned from the paths of virtue, and to whose honour
0e erected an altar or " high place," on the Mount of
* Judges i. 31, 32. f Ibid. ii. 20—23, iii. 1, 2. } 1 Kings, v. 6.
called Canaanites, the Greeks afterwards giving them
the name of Phoenicians. Their coast extended from
Mount Carmel to Mount Casius, along which numerous
ports and cities were placed, the inhabitants of which
appear to have attained a high degree of civilisation and
even of luxury. Dismaved, however, at the extraordinary
success of the divinely supported arms of Israel, as
step by step they victoriously subdued nearly the whole
°f Palestine, the Phoenicians emigrated in large numbers
"—"fleeing from the face of the robber Joshua," as
they expressed it — and planted kingdoms and colonies
throughout the coast of the Mediterranean, founding
cities in Africa, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the isles of
the JEge&n sea. They need not, however, have been so
ttiuch afraid, for Asher, to whom the land containing
Sidon fell, never took the city, or drove the Phoenicians
gut of the country*; and God, in his anger against
Israel, permitted these and some other tribes to dwell in
the land in order " to prove Israel," and " to teach them
war."f Unhappily the Israelites not onlyprofited by their
teaching in this and in other accomplishments}, but
they also learned from them their abominable idola-
tries : from them came the worship of Baal, the Sun,—
the ruins of whose Phoenician-built Temples abound in
Syria, and especially about Hermon, whence arose its
ttarue of Baal-hermon, although the Sidonians called it
"Sirion," or the "Breastplate,"—and from them came
also the worship of Astarte (or Venus), the enticing
goddess, after whom even the heart of the wise Solomon
turned from the paths of virtue, and to whose honour
0e erected an altar or " high place," on the Mount of
* Judges i. 31, 32. f Ibid. ii. 20—23, iii. 1, 2. } 1 Kings, v. 6.