Lebanon's Connection With Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                                  Ancient city of Tyre of Lebanon

There has been a Lebanon ever since before Solomon(reigned 961-920 BCE)  was born. This means Solomon sat on his throne 2,985 years ago, almost three thousand years ago. He was a lover.  It is said he had 1,000 wives and also concubines as well.  

   Solomon had help building the Temple in Jerusalem from Hiram (10th century BCE)  of Tyre (King of Tyre-which was in Lebanon.  Tyre was founded in the 3rd millennium BCE on an island 1.5 miles off the shore of Phoenecia.  It had a double harbor and was the rival of Sidon.                                    

Hiram sent artisans and cedar wood to Solomon.  The two kings both contributed to the commerce between Elath and Ophir via the Red Sea.                                       

                    Jezebel and husband, King Ahab (876-853 BCE)

The Tyrian Princess Jezebel married King Ahab, causing a religious and  cultural influence of Tyre to penetrate the land of Israel and even Judah.  Tyre was denounced by Ezekiel, the prophet.  This city, Tyre, suffered many sieges and in 332 BCE was captured by Alexander the Great.                

Jezebel had been the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon.  She was very strong minded, forceful and vindictive;  and ruled over Ahab in every way.  He was putty in her palm. It was she who introduced her native religion of the cult of Baal into Israel, and how they were caught and spellbound by is beyond my imagination  just like I cannot fathom by our youth goes for their present music that I detest, either.  To me it's just dissident noise.  Baal is so non-Jewish!  The Canaanites believed in Baal, in many gods, and Baal was represented by a bull, worshipped as a god of fertility of the field and of the womb.   In times of great turbulence human sacrifices, particularly children, were made to this father of the gods!

Under the Romans, Tyre, which had been endowed with a temple by Herod, became a center of commerce with all their purple dying process and had a large Jewish population that included rabbis.  

The Jewish Palestinian Gaonate (body of intellectual leaders)  was transferred to Tyre after 1071.Benjmin Tudela, a traveling historian, in 1170 found 500 scholarly Jews still living there.  Some of these Jews owned ships while others had jobs in manufacturing glass.  Tyre was held by the Crusaders of Europe (1124-1291) and then the city declined from there on.  It's now known as a small Lebanese port with a population of 10,000 as of 1992.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/ancient-history/baalbek-temple-and-human-sacrifice-worship-to-baal.html