The Edomites
Welcome to Bible Fiber. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
One thing that makes reading the Hebrew scriptures difficult is that while the Bible is telling the story of one people, the Israelites, other ancient people groups enter and exit the scene. The Israelites did not live in a bubble, and they still do not. They were constantly interacting with their neighbors and subjugated by the rotating door of ancient empires. In our effort to be more informed Bible readers, we are doing a miniseries on the Peoples of the Bible. Today’s history lesson is on the Edomites.
The Edomites are unique in our miniseries because much of what we know about them is from the Bible. Although archaeologists have excavated ancient Edom, they have found few inscriptions or epigraphic evidence shedding light on the religion, language, or government of the Edomites. Yet, the Bible pays more attention to the Edomites than any other ancient people group. The Bible presents their origin story in Genesis, depicts their enmity with the Israelites in Numbers, frequently predicts their downfall through the prophets, and includes prayers for vengeance against Edom in the Psalms.
Region
Ancient Edom was in the mountainous region in modern day Jordan and southern Israel that extends from the southern part of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. The capital city of Edom was Bozrah. Sela was another important Edomite city.
According to the account in Deuteronomy, Yahweh was directly responsible for the gifting of Mount Seir to Esau’s descendants (Deut. 2:5) and Yahweh aided the Edomites in defeating her enemies (Deut. 2:22). Indeed, the Edomite territory was an awe and a wonder. The rugged terrain and protective cliffs created natural defenses for the kingdom, making it almost impenetrable to attack. On the flip side, the combination of desert and rock made it a tough place to cultivate or sustain water supplies. Despite the challenging terrain, Edom was strategically along important trade routes that connected the Arabian Peninsula, the southern Levant, and Egypt. This made Edom a key player in regional trade, and the control of trade routes contributed to the economic significance of the region.
What they lacked in agriculture, they made up for with copper resources. Archaeologists have identified ancient mining operations in the Edomite region. The copper industry played a crucial role in their economy.
Edomites and the Bible
The Torah relates two encounters between the Edomites and Israelites during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. In Deuteronomy 2, the Israelites needed to pass through Edom on the King’s Highway to enter the promised land. Yahweh instructed them to avoid battling with the Edomites. If they required any food or water during their passage, they were to purchase what they needed and to take nothing (Deut. 2:4-6). According to Numbers, they passed through without incident.
In Numbers 20:14-20, the story of the encounter happened differently. In the Numbers account, the Edomites did not respond in kind. They refused passage to Moses and his band of freed slaves. An armored Edomite force positioned themselves to make certain that the Israelites did not encroach on their land. The Israelites, following Yahweh’s earlier command to avoid battle with the Edomites (Deut. 2:4), rerouted their march, but they never forgot Edom’s rejection.
Scholars debate whether the Israelites tried passing through Edomite territory on two separate occasions. Or if there was one attempt told twice in the Torah, different each time.
Archaeological records confirm that during the Late Bronze Age, Edomites were a mostly nomadic people. Around the Iron Age, they settled in large numbers. Strategically positioned, the kingdom benefited from the international trade routes that passed through their territory. They also controlled the Red Sea port. By the ninth century BCE, or even earlier, the kingdom’s copper production industry thrived and prompted more permanent settlements and prosperity.
The Israelites’ sensitivity towards Edom was not long-lasting. Kings, Chronicles, and Samuel describe their ongoing rivalry in brief accounts. By the time of King Saul, the Edomite kingdom and United Monarchy of Judah and Israel were most often at odds, although there were brief times of peace (2 Kings 3:9). Saul defeated the Edomites to secure his border east of the Jordan, but we are not told the extent of the fighting (1 Sam. 14:47).
King David defeated Edom in the Valley of Salt, killing 18,000 Edomites in battle, and making the survivors David’s servants (2 Sam. 8:13-14). David’s commander Joab remained in Edom for six months trying to kill every surviving male in Edom (1 Kings 11:15-16). Hadad, a prince from Edom’s royal household, fled to Egypt and gained the esteem of the Pharaoh. During this period, Edom was an Israelite vassal. After the death of David and Joab, Hadad returned to Edom to lead a rebellion against Judah but to no avail. Edom remained under Judah’s thumb.
At one point, Edom allied with Ammon and Moab and tried to overwhelm Judah’s forces, but Yahweh intervened on behalf of the righteous King Jehoshaphat so that the allies destroyed each other and never attacked Judah (2 Chron. 20:10-23). Edom rebelled successfully against Jehoram around 850 BCE (2 Chron. 21:8-10). They could then appoint their own king and restore their independence on the highland plateau (2 Kings 8:20-22). During the reign of Judah’s ungodly King Amaziah (800-783 BCE), Judah and Edom met again for battle in the Valley of Salt. This time, Judah’s army killed 10,000 Edomites in battle; they pushed another 10,000 Edomites off a cliff (2 Chron. 25:11). In a disturbing scene that displayed how far Judah’s monarchy had strayed from Yahwism, King Amaziah looted the gods of Edom and bowed down to them and sacrificed to them (2 Chron. 25:14).
When the Assyrian Empire destroyed the Kingdom of Israel and quickly dominated all the Levant, Edom submitted to Assyria’s authority. Assyrian records list Edom as one vassal in Transjordan that paid tribute. The archaeological record shows that the Assyrian takeover allowed Edom to gain in strength while Judah got weaker. Military fortresses in the eastern Negev that had once belonged to Judah show signs around 670 BCE of Edomite occupation.
With the ascendancy of the Babylonians, Judah’s resistance to Nebuchadnezzar’s strong-arming ensured her destruction. But Edom was not one of the neighboring kingdoms to join Zedekiah’s resistance against Babylon (Jer. 27:1-3), and they stood as a kingdom for longer.
This marks the probable moment that Obadiah stepped onto the stage. The prophet seems to have been an eyewitness to the Babylonian’s destruction of Jerusalem and ravaging of the First Temple. Obadiah had no stomach for Edom’s participation in the destruction of her own kin.
Other biblical accounts confirm Obadiah’s witness. The Hebrew scriptures contain several accounts of Edom’s lack of compassion. Amos, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Psalms all tell the same story. Edom’s lack of compassion, and her gloating over Judah in her weakest moment disgusted them.
Amos blamed Edom in his oracle for exploiting their old enmity and attacking their own kin with no mercy (Amos 1:11). Ezekiel blamed Edom for “taking vengeance” on the house of Judah (Ezek. 25:12). They not only pillaged Jerusalem’s smoldering ruins, but they also blocked the way for the fleeing Jewish refugees and turned them over to Babylon. The psalmist in exile held onto a haunting memory of Edom’s calls for further destruction in Jerusalem: “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’” (Ps. 137:7).
Loyalty was crucial in the tribal culture of the ancient Near East. The Bible used the language of brotherhood and kinship in every mention of Israelite and Edomite encounters. The Deuteronomist was the most explicit: “You shall not regard an Edomite with abhorrence, because he is your brother” (Deut. 23:7). How did the Bible’s brotherhood language about Edom turn into severe oracles of judgement? According to Amos, the Edomites were to blame for rejecting their “covenant of kinship” (Amos 1:9).
Predictions of Edom’s complete doom pop up throughout the prophets. Amos predicted her fiery destruction (Amos 1:12); Obadiah foretold complete pillaging (vs. 5); Isaiah painted a picture of bloody slaughter (Isa. 34:5-8); and Jeremiah described it all as drinking the cup of Yahweh’s wrath (Lam. 4:21). Ezekiel swore that because Edom did not hate bloodshed, “bloodshed will pursue you” (Ezek. 35:6). Soon after Jerusalem’s fall, in 554 BCE, the prophecies came true. The last Babylonian King, Nabonidus, captured and set aflame Edom’s fortress city Busaira (Bozrah).
By the fourth century BCE, nomadic groups pushed the Edomites out of their ancestral territory and they began migrating westward. During the Roman period, Nabateans settled in the mountainous terrain that had once been home to the Edomite kingdom. The Nabateans built the now famous city of Petra, maximizing the strategic trading position of their new settlement for their own economic ambitions. By the Hellenistic period in Israel, Edomites were no longer mountain dwellers. They lived on as a distinct people group. They adopted the Greek form of the name Edom, Idumea, and they became known as the Idumeans.
In the story of Hanukkah, the Maccabean leader John Hyrcanus launched a religious purge after shaking off the Greek oppressors. Part of his missionizing by the sword included the forceful conversion of the Idumeans, including their forced circumcision.
King Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, is the most well-known Idumean from the Roman era. Herod is infamous to Christians because of his role in the nativity account in the Gospel of Matthew. After the birth of Jesus, the magi from the east paid a visit to King Herod I in their attempt to locate the “King of the Jews.” Rome appointed Herod I as king, but he was a Jewish convert and a descendant of Judah’s ancient enemy. The insecurity of his background had something to do with his violent overreaction to the news of Christ’s birth.
What happened to Edom?
We do not know exactly what happened to the Edomites after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. The historical details about the fate of the Edomites are speculative, and the archaeological record, while providing valuable insights, does not offer a complete picture. What we do know is that there is no longer an ethnic or cultural group that identifies as Edomites in the modern era.
You might have noticed that is a common theme as we have explored peoples and empires of the biblical period. As we close out this miniseries on Peoples of the Bible, I will end with an observation by Mark Twain which I believe ties a bow around the complete study.
In 1898, Twain wrote in Harper’s Magazine his explanation for why the Jews always seem to be targeted for ill, no matter where they lived, and yet they survived and thrived.
Twain wrote, “He [the Jewish person] has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
That’s a wrap on our Peoples of the Bible miniseries. Thank you for listening. Next week we start our first major prophet, Ezekiel. Get ready for the bizarre and spiritual journey alongside the exiled priest turned prophet. For the show transcript, go to our blog or sign up for our emails at www.thejerusalemconnection.us/
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Am Israel Chai