Zidon (or Sidon) was situated twenty miles north of Tyrus. Like Tyrus she was built offshore on island rocks. For many years Zidon was even more prominent and prosperous than Tyrus. She was burnt after a revolt against Artaxerxes Ochus, 351 B. C., but later rebuilt. See its mention in the New Testament in Mark iii:8, vii:24. Jehovah announces that He would execute judgments in Zidon and thus be glorified and sanctified in her. When a holy God deals in judgments with sin, with individuals and nations, He maintains thereby His holy character. He is light in whom there is no darkness at all and a consuming fire. It has been said that there is no special transgression mentioned why Zidon should be judged. No doubt she was as proud as her sister city Tyrus. But verse 24 tells us the reason; she was a pricking brier to the house of Israel. She sinned against her neighbor, the people of God, and for that judgment came on her. And so can present-day nations not escape judgment for their sins against the Jews. The last two verses are a prophecy relating to Israel's restoration. Needless to say up to this time their restoration has not taken place. The time is given when it will come, when the Lord executes judgment upon the nations. When our Lord comes again these judgments will fall. And how near all this must be when we behold nations filling full the measure of their wickedness and the Jews as a suffering people with faces turned towards their homeland. PROPHECIES CONCERNING EGYPT. Chapter xxix. The predictions about Tyrus and Zidon are followed by the prophecies against Egypt. These prophecies are of even greater interest than those preceding. First Pharaoh and Egypt are addressed; the coming judgment and the desolation of the land is announced. A restoration after forty years is promised when the captivity of Egypt is to be brought again; but the former glory will be departed and Egypt's decline, to be the basest of the kingdoms, is predicted. The King of Babylon is announced as the conqueror of Egypt (chapter xxix). In chapter xxx the destruction of Egypt, her people and her allies, is vividly described; at the close of this chapter the defeat of Pharaoh by Nebuchadnezzar is predicted. In chapter xxxi the King of Egypt is described as a mighty cedar; its fall is foretold as well as the effect of Pharaoh's fall among the nations. Chapter xxxii contains a lamentation over the King of Egypt. In the second half of this chapter, the concluding section of these prophecies against Egypt, we find a solemn dirge over the doomed people. The unseen regions are unveiled and those who enjoyed earthly honors and glory are seen in the place of dishonor, misery and shame. I. The Prediction of Egypt's Desolation.