Edom
Edom (
אֱ"וֹם,
Standard Hebrew Edom,
Tiberian Hebrew ), a
Hebrew word meaning "
red", is a name given to
Esau in the
Hebrew Bible, as well as to the nation purportedly descended from him. The nation's name in
Assyrian was
Udumi; in
Syriac,
ܐܕܘܡ); in
Greek,
Ἰδουμαία (Idoumaía); in
Latin,
Idumæa or
Idumea.
The Edomite people were a
Semitic-speaking tribal group inhabiting the
Negev Desert and the
Aravah valley of what is now southern
Israel and adjacent
Jordan. The region has much reddish sandstone, which may have given rise to the name "Edom". The nation of Edom is known to have existed back to the
8th or
9th Century BCE, and the Bible dates it back several centuries further. Recent archeological evidence may indicate an Edomite nation as long ago as the
11th Century BCE, but the topic is controversial. The nation ceased to exist with the
Jewish-Roman Wars.
The Edomites may have been connected with the
Shasu and
Shutu, nomadic raiders mentioned in
Egyptian sources. Indeed, a letter from an Egyptian scribe at a border fortress in the
Wadi Tumilat during the reign of
Merneptah reports movement of nomadic "shasu-tribes of Edom" to watering holes in Egyptian territory.
[Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Princeton Univ. Press, 1992. p.228, 318.]In the Bible
The Bible explains the name "Edom" with no mention of red rock. It refers to the Edomites as descendants of Esau, and the
Book of Genesis mentions "red" a number of times in describing Esau and explaining his alternate name Edom. "The first one [Esau] came out
reddish [
admoni in
Hebrew], as hairy as a fur coat. They named him Esau."
[Genesis 25:25, ORT translation, material in brackets added.] Years later, "
Jacob was once simmering a stew, when Esau came home exhausted from the field. Esau said to Jacob, 'Give me a swallow of that
red stuff [
ha-adom, ha-adom, i.e., using the word
ha-adom twice]! I'm famished!' He was therefore given the name
Edom ['Red' or 'Ruddy']."
[Genesis 25:29"30, ORT translation, material in brackets added.]The Edomites' original country, according to the
Tanakh, stretched from the
Sinai peninsula as far as
Kadesh Barnea. Southward it reached as far as
Eilat, which was the seaport of Edom.
[Deut. 1:2; 2:1-8] On the north of Edom was the territory of
Moab.
[Judges 11:17-18; II Kings 3:8-9] The boundary between Moab and Edom was the
Wadi Zered.
[Deut. 2:13-18] The ancient capital of Edom was
Bozrah[Gen. 36:33; Isa. 34:6, 63:1, et al.] According to Genesis, Esau's descendents settled in this land after displacing the
Horites. It was also called the land of
Seir;
Mount Seir appears to have been strongly identified with them and may have been a cultic site. In the time of
Amaziah (838 BCE),
Selah (
Petra) was its principal stronghold;
[II Kings 14:7] Eilat and
Ezion-geber its
seaports.
[I Kings 9:26] Genesis 36 chronicles Esau's family and the kings of Edom:
These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before a king ruled the children of Israel. And Bela ben Beor ruled in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah. And Bela died, and Jobab ben Zerah from Bozrah ruled in his place. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani ruled in his place. And Husham died, and Hadad ben Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, ruled in his place, and the name of his city was Avith. And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah ruled in his place. And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth on the river ruled in his place. And Saul died, and Baal-hanan ben Achbor ruled in his place. And Baal-hanan ben Achbor died, and Hadar ruled in his place, and the name of his city was Pau (Edom), and his wife's name was Mehetabel bat Matred bat Mezahab. And these are the names of the clans of Esau by their families, by their places, by their names: clan Timnah, clan Alvah, clan Jetheth, clan Aholibamah, clan Elah, clan Pinon, clan Kenaz, clan Teman, clan Mibzar, clan Magdiel, clan Iram.[Genesis 36:31-43]
[The Hebrew word translated as "clan" is
aluf, also translated as "chief", "general", or "duke", and used in this sense only in connection with Edom and Hori.
Since 1948 it has been used for senior ranks in the
Israeli Defense Force).]
If the account may be taken at face value, the kingship of Edom was, at least in early times, not
hereditary,
perhaps
elective.
First Chronicles mentions both a king and
chieftains.
[ I Chron. 1:43"54] When the King of Edom refused to allow the
Jews to pass through his land on their way to
Canaan, they detoured around the country because of his show of force
[Num. 20:14"21] or because God ordered them to do so rather than wage war
[Deut. 2:4"6]. The King of Edom did not attack the Israelites, though he prepared to resist aggression.
 |
Map showing kingdom of Edom (in red) at its largest extent, c. 600 BCE. Areas in dark red show the approximate boundary of classical-age Idumaea. |
Nothing further is recorded of the Edomites in the Tanakh until their defeat by
King Saul of Israel in the late 1000's BCE. Forty years later
King David and his general
Joab defeated the Edomites in the "valley of salt," (probably near the
Dead Sea).
[II Sam. 8:13"14; I Kings 9:15"16] An Edomite prince named Hadad escaped and fled to
Egypt, and after David's death returned and tried to start a rebellion, but failed and went to Syria.
[ib. 9:14"22; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities viii. 7, § 6] From that time Edom remained a
vassal of Israel. David placed over the Edomites Israelite governors or prefects
[II Sam. 8:14,] and this form of government seems to have continued under
Solomon. When Israel divided into two kingdoms Edom became a dependency of the
Kingdom of Judah. In the time of
Jehoshaphat (c. 914 BCE) the Tanakh mentions a
king of Edom,
[II Kings 3:9"26] who was probably an Israelite appointed by the
King of Judah. It also states
[II Chron. 20:10"23] that the inhabitants of Mount Seir invaded Judea in conjunction with Ammon and Moab, and that the invaders turned against one another and were all destroyed. Edom revolted against
Jehoram and elected a king of its own.
[II Kings 8:20"22; II Chron. 21:8] Amaziah attacked and defeated the Edomites, seizing Selah, but the Israelites never subdued Edom completely.
[II Kings 14:7; II Chron. 25:11"12]In the time of
Nebuchadnezzar II the Edomites helped plunder Jerusalem and slaughter the Jews.
[Ps. 137:7; Obad. 11-14] For this reason the Prophets denounced Edom violently.
[Isa. 34:5"8; Jer. 49:7"22; Obadiah passim]According to the
Torah,
[Deut. 23:8"9] the congregation could not receive descendants of a marriage between an Israelite and an Edomite until the fourth generation. This law was a subject of controversy between
Shimon ben Yohai, who said it applied only to male descendants, and other
Talmudists, who said female descendants were also excluded.
[Yevamot 76b]Economy
The Kingdom of Edom drew much of its livelihood from the caravan trade between Egypt, the
Levant,
Mesopotamia, and southern
Arabia, along the
Incense Route. Astride the
King's Highway, the Edomites were one of several states in the region for whom trade was vital due to the scarcity of arable land. Edom's location on the southern highlands left it with only a small strip of land that received sufficient rain for farming.
Edom probably exported
salt and
balsam (used for perfume and
temple incense in the ancient world) from the
Dead Sea region.
Post-Biblical Times
Edom is mentioned in
Assyrian
cuneiform inscriptions in the form
"Udumi" or
"Udumu"; three of its kings are known from the same source:
Ḳaus-malaka at the time of
Tiglath-pileser III (c. 745 BCE),
Malik-rammu at the time of
Sennacherib (c. 705 BCE), and
Ḳaus-gabri at the time of
Esarhaddon (c. 680 BCE). According to the Egyptian inscriptions, the "Aduma" at times extended their possessions to the borders of Egypt.
[Müller, Asien und Europa, p. 135.] After the conquest of Judah by the
Babylonians, the Edomites were allowed to settle in the region south of
Hebron. They prospered in this new country, called by the Greeks and Romans "Idumaea" or "Idumea", for more than four centuries.
[Mark 3:8; Ptolemy, "Geography," v. 16] At the same time they were driven by the
Nabatæans from their ancestral lands to the south and east.
During the revolt of the
Maccabees against the
Seleucid kingdom,
II Maccabees refers to a Seleucid general named
Gorgias as "Governor of Idumaea"; whether he was a Greek or a
Hellenized Edomite is unknown.
[II Maccabees 12:32] Some scholars maintain that the reference to Idumaea in that passage is an error altogether.
Judas Maccabeus conquered their territory for a time in around 163 BCE.
[Josephus, "Ant." xii. 8, §§ 1, 6] They were again subdued by
John Hyrcanus (c. 125 BCE), who forced them to observe
Jewish rites and laws.
[ib. xiii. 9, § 1; xiv. 4, § 4] They were then incorporated with the Jewish nation.
The Hasmonean official Antipater the Idumaean was of Edomite origin. He was the progenitor of the Herodian dynasty that ruled Judea after the Roman conquest. Under Herod the Great Idumaea was ruled for him by a series of governors, among whom were his brother Joseph ben Antipater and his brother-in-law Costobarus.
Immediately before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 20,000 Idumaeans, under the leadership of John, Simeon, Phinehas, and Jacob, appeared before Jerusalem to fight in behalf of the Zealots who were besieged in the Temple[Josephus, Jewish Wars iv. 4, § 5]
After the Jewish Wars the Idumaeans ceased to be a separate people, though the geographical name "Idumea" still existed at the time of St. Jerome.Edomite religion
The nature of Edomite religion is largely unknown. As close relatives of other Levantine Semites, they may have worshipped such gods as El, Baal, Asherah, and possibly even YHWH. A national god named Kaus (possibly analogous with the Moabite god Chemosh) is known from personal names and from an altar inscription discovered near Mamre.Identification with Rome
Later in Jewish history, the Roman Empire came to be identified with Esau and "Edom". In medieval rabbinic writing, "Edom" is used to refer to the Byzantine Empire and Christendom in general (cf. the use of "Ishmael" to refer to the Islamic world). See extended discussion of this aspect under Esau.For over a century, archeologists specializing in the Middle East maintained that there was no evidence of an organized state society in Edom earlier than the 800's or 700's BCE. Biblical minimalists touted this fact as one piece of evidence of the Bible's mythical nature and ultimate unreliability as a historical source.[Redford 305.]
Recently, however, excavations such as the 2004-2004 UCSD dig at Khirbat an-Nahas in Jordan have shed new light on the history of Edom, unearthing artifacts and evidence of settled state society as early as the tenth century BCE,1 2), although whether and to what extent these sites reflect Edomite statehood is debated.3Thomas E. Levy, among other scholars, concluded from a survey of the an-Nahas cite that Edom was a sophisticated, industrialized society as early as the eleventh century BCE.[Levy, Thomas E. and Mohammed Najjar. "Edom and Copper." Biblical Archaeology Review. July/August, 2006.]*Children of Eber
*Edomite language
*Habiru
*Hebrews
*Nabataea
*Gottheil, Richard and M. Seligsohn. "Edom, Idumea." Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 19011906; which cites::*Buhl, Die Edomiter, 1893;:*Nöldeke, in Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl. ii. 1181;:*Trumbull, Kadesh Barnea;:*Baethgen, Beiträge zur Semit. Religionsgesch. p. 10;:*Hommel, Ancient Hebr. Trad., Index;:*Rapoport, Erech Millin, p. 14.
*Edom on Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies
*EDOM eBooks
*UCSD article on age of Edom
*Article on age of Edom from the Jerusalem Post
*Mail & Guardian Article on Edom's age, includes Dever's reaction
*Edom on Ancientroute.com
