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(Hebrews Adomi', àֲãֹîַé Sept. É᾿äïõìáῖïò , fem. plur. àֲãֹîַéֹּú , 1Ki_11:1, Sept. É᾿äïõìáßá ; but usually àֵֹãí , Edom, put collectively for the Edomites). The name Edom (fully written àãֵåֹí , red; see Gesenius, Hebrews Thesaur. 1:26) was originally the secondary name of Esau (Gen_25:30, compare Gen_25:25; Gen_36:8), but is used ethnographically in the O.T., his descendants ("children of Edom," áְּðֵé àãֵåֹí being the race who had settled in the south of Palestine, and who at a later period came into conflict with the kindred nation of the Israelites (Deu_23:7; Num_20:14). Comparatively seldom are the appellations children of Esau (Deu_2:4; Deu_2:8; 1Ma_5:3), house of Esau (Oba_1:18), mount Esau (Oba_1:8-9; Oba_1:19; Oba_1:21), or simply Esau (Jer_49:8; Jer_49:10;, Oba_1:6), used in Scripture for the Edomites or Idumaea; the people and country are oftener called merely Edom (Num_24:18; Jos_15:1; 2Sa_8:14; 1Ki_11:14; and especially by the prophets), hence, more fully, land of Edom, (Gen_36:16; Gen_36:21; Num_33:37), or field of Edom (Gen_32:3; Jdg_5:4). The territory of the Edomites was mountainous (Oba_1:8-9; Oba_1:19; Oba_1:21), situated at the southern (Jos_11:17; Jos_12:7), i.e., southeastern border of Palestine (Num_34:3), or more particularly of the tribe of Judah (Jos_15:1; Jos_15:21), in the neighborhood of the Moabites (Jdg_11:18; Isa_11:14; 2Ki_3:8), and was properly called the land or mountain of Seir ( ùֵׁòַéø Gen_26:20; Gen_32:4; Jos_24:2; Eze_35:3; Eze_35:7; Eze_35:15; compare Deu_2:4; Deu_2:29). See SEIR. Lofty and intersected by chasms in the rocks, it formed a natural fastness (Jer_49:16 sq.; Oba_1:3 sq.), yet it was by no means unfruitful (Gen_27:39). It contained, among other cities, the famous rock-hewn Sela (2Ki_14:7), and extended from the AElanitic Gulf to the Red Sea (1Ki_9:26; 2Ch_8:17). Hence it admits of no doubt that the cleft and craggy region traversed by fruitful valleys, now called el-Shira, which stretches from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the eastern arm of the Red Sea, and is separated on the west by the long sandy plain el-Ghor from the desert et- Tib (Seetzen, 18:390, 434; Burckhardt, Trav. 2:683), and bounded on the north by the wady el-Ahsa, which separates it from the land of Moab, near Kerak, in the district of Jebal, is the ancient land of Edom, as Saadias has long ago perceived, for he renders Seir in Gen_36:8 by the same Arabic name Shera (compare Raumer in Berghaus's Annal. d. Erd. u. Volskerkunde, 1:562 sq.). SEE SELA; SEE TEMAN; SEE UZ; SEE BOZRAH.
According to the division in Greek authors, the territory of Edom, Idumaea ( É᾿äïõìáßá , a name evidently derived from the Heb.), was reckoned as a part of Arabia Petriea (see Anthon's Class. Diet. s.v.). The early inhabitants of Mount Seir, who were called Horites, were destroyed by the Edomites (Deu_2:12; Deu_2:22), or rather supplanted and absorbed by them. SEE HORITE. Already, in the time of Moses, the Edomites showed a hostile feeling towards the Israelites by forbidding them to pass though their territories, and thus subjecting them to the hardship of journeying around it (Num_20:15-21; Num_21:4; compare Jdg_11:17 sq.; see Hengstenberg, Pent. 2:283); at act which Saul successfully avenged (1Sa_14:47), while David subjugated them (2Sa_8:14; compare 1Ki_11:15 sq.; Psa_60:2; Psa_60:10), and his successor Solomon fitted out a merchant fleet in the Edomitish harbors (1Ki_9:26), although under his reign a partially successful revolt took place (1Ki_11:14 sq.). In the division of the Hebrew commonwealth the Edomites continued under the sway of Judah (probably by means of viceroys, 2Ki_3:9; 2Ki_3:12; 2Ki_3:26; but compare 1Ki_22:48; 2Ki_8:20), so that their ports were at the disposal of Jewish commerce to the time of Joram (1Ki_22:49), under whose reign (B.C. 885) they threw off their allegiance (2Ki_8:20), and maintained their independence by force of arms against several succeeding princes of the weak kingdom of Judah (2Ki_8:21). Amaziah (2Ki_14:7; 2Ch_25:11), in B.C. cir. 836, and also Uzziah (2Ki_14:22; 2Ch_25:11), in B.C. cir. 802, again reduced the Edomites to subjection; but under Ahaz (B.C. cir. 738) they invaded Judaea (2Ch_28:17), while, at the same time, the harbor of Elath was wrested from the Jewish dominions by the Syrians (2Ki_16:6). From this time forward, the Edomites, favored by the increasingly formidable attitude of Assyria, and later of Chaldaea, remained in merely nominal connection with the kingdom of Judah, enjoying real independence, until they too at last were forced to succumb to the Chaldaean power (Jer_27:3; Jer_27:6). The early prophets, nearly contemporary with these events, had already announced Judah's future triumph over these rebellious subjects and persistent enemies (Isa_11:14; Joe_3:19; Amo_1:11); but, after they had made common cause with the foes of Israel at the capture of Jerusalem (Eze_35:15; Eze_36:5; Oba_1:10; Oba_1:13 sq.), the denunciations of the prophets became still more decisive (Jer_49:8; Jer_49:20; Lam_4:21 sq.; Eze_25:12 sq. — compare 35; Obadiah pass.; Psa_137:7; compare Isa_34:5 sq.; Isa_63:1 sq.).
The Edomites, it is true, likewise felt the ravages of the Chaldaean march (Mal_1:3 sq.), but they were left in their own land (in opposition to the view of Eichhorn, Hebr. Proph. 2:618, 624; Bertholdt, Einleit. 4:1440, 1626, who maintain that the Idumaeans were politically annihilated by Nebuchadnezzar; see Gesenius, Comm. on Isaiah 1:906: nor are the predictions of the utter desolation of Edom, e.g. Jer_49:17 sq., to be pressed to their extreme fulfillment; see Heinrich, De Idumaea ejusque vastatione, Lips. 1782), and they even rent away a portion of southern Palestine (comp. Eze_35:10), including the town of Hebron (1Ma_5:65). During the Syrian rule they continued to evince their old ill will against the Jews (1Ma_5:3; 1Ma_5:65; 2Ma_10:15; 2Ma_12:32 sq.), until they were wholly subdued by John Hyrcanus (B.C. cir. 129), and, by a compulsory circumcision, were merged in the Jewish state (Josephus, Ant. 13:9, 1; 15:7, 9; comp. War, 4:5, 5; yet they were invidiously termed half-Jews, Ant. 14:15, 2). From that time Idumaea continued under a Jewish praefect ( óôñáôçãüò , Joseph. Ant. 14:1, 3). One of these, Antipater, managed so to ingratiate himself with the Jewish court, and, during the disputes concerning the Maccabaean succession, wielded the procuratorship of all Judaea, with which the friendship of the emperor had invested him, with such efficiency (B.C. 47), that he eventually secured the supreme power instead of Hyrcanus II (Joseph. Ant. 14:8, 5). His son Herod became the acknowledged king of the Jews, and founded an Idumaean dynasty in Palestine. Idumaea formed a province of his dominions, and was under the administration of a special governor ( ἄñ÷ùí , Joseph. Ant. 15:7, 9). Concerning the farther history of this people, we can here only remark, that the Idumaeans in the last Jewish contest acted the same ruinous part with the Jews themselves (Joseph. War, 4:4, 1 and 5; 7:8, 1). The name of Edom or Edomite is to this day hateful to the Jews (Otho, Lex. Rabb. page 196; Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrews page 693). From the time of the overthrow of the Jewish nation, the name of Idumaea no longer occurs, but passes away in the wider denomination Arabia (comp. Steph. Byz. pages 334, 341; Strabo 16:760, 749); since already for a long period the southern part of the ancient land of the Edomites was reckoned, together with its metropolis Petra, to, Arabia, and entitled separately from (the Jewish province) Idumaea (Joseph. Ant. 14:1, 3; 17:3, 2; War, 1:13, 8); so that Idumaea, while on the north it included in addition a Jewish district (compare the term Idumaean for Jew, especially among the Roman poets, Celsii Hierob. 2:469 sq.), at the same time was contracted in its southern boundary (comp. Ptol. 5:16, 10; 5:17; Strabo, 16:760; Jerome in Oba_1:1); but this does not affect Biblical geography, and it would be difficult to reduce the point to full historical and topographical clearness (see Reland, Palaest. page 69 sq.), SEE ARABIA; SEE PETRA.
The form of government among the Edomitish people was, like that of surrounding nations, tribal (compare Gen_36:15 sq.), yet they originally (or at least earlier than the Israelites) had kings (Gen_36:32 sq.; Num_20:14; see Tuch on Gen_36:9 sq.; Bertheau, Israel. Gesch. page 207), who appear to have been freely chosen from among the clan-chieftains (princes, Gen_36:40; Eze_32:29; compare Isa_34:12, and Gesenius, in loc.; Hengstenberg, Pent. 2:299 sq.), until (in the time of Solomon) a hereditary dynasty had established itself (1Ki_11:14 sq.). While the country remained under Israelitish sway, the native royal government was nearly superseded (1Ki_22:48); although under Jehoshaphat mention is made (2Ki_3:9; 2Ki_3:26) of a king (viceroy) of the Edomites (in alliance with him), and from this time they seem to have had an uninterrupted line of kings (Amo_2:1; Jer_27:3; Eze_32:29). The principal mode of livelihood and employment of the Edomites were commerce by land by means of caravans (Heeren, Ideen, 1:1, page 107; Lengerke, Ken. 1:298; compare Eze_28:16, where, however, the true reading is Aram; see Havernick in loc.), probably to Elath and Ezion-geber, on the Red Sea; the raising of cattle, agriculture, and the cultivation of vines (Num_20:17; Eze_25:13); according to Jerome (Onom. s.v. Fenon), also mining (see C.G. Flade, De re metall. Midianit., Edomit., et Phoenic., Lips. n.d.). Respecting their religion the Old Test. is entirely silent, except that it was some form of polytheism (2Ch_25:20); Josephus (Ant. 15:7, 9) mentions one of their gods by the name of Coze ( ÊïæÝ ,? ÷ֹöֶä , the destroyer or ender; see Hitzig, Philist. page 265; and compare Epiphan. Haer. 55; Lengerke, Ken. 1:298). From the earliest times the wisdom of the Edomites, namely, of the Temanite branch, was celebrated (Oba_1:8; Jer_49:7). See Uz. (On the subject generally, see Van Iperen, Hist. crit. Edomaeor. et Amalek. Leonard. 1768; Hoffmann, in the Hall. Encyklop. II, 15:146). SEE IDUMAEA.