Biblical Nations - Edomites

Edomites

Key Scripture: Genesis 36

Figures: Esau, Hadad, Harod

As we pass 170,000 views over the history of this blog (thank you to all my readers!) we're going to take a few weeks to look at some of the near neighbors to Israel who are related to the patriarchs and heads of the original 12 tribes.  The first one we'll inspect is Edom, the offspring of Esau.  Located south of the Dead Sea, the Edomites lived in a tough land marked by wilderness and mountains.  In fact, the area was known and referenced in the Bible as Mount Seir.  The inhabitants, however, experienced a forced relocation and had a new home by the time of the New Testament.  Let's take a look at some of the details of their history and civilization.

After becoming the miracle child of a barren mother, Isaac experienced the same struggle of being unable to have children of his own.  He prayed for his wife, Rebekah, who had been infertile and his petition was granted with the birth of twin sons.  Esau was born first, with Jacob following immediately behind, clutching his older twin's heel.  Although he was older and would have been entitled to twice as much inheritance from Isaac upon his death, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for some food before also getting tricked out of his father's blessing.  Eventually the two brothers both became prosperous and, like Abraham and Lot years before, had to move apart to support the numbers of their herds.  And so Esau moved south to the land of the Horites, a mountainous place bounded by the Dead Sea to the north, a branch of the Red Sea to the south, the Negev Desert to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the east.

Like his brother, Esau married multiple women - two were Hittites and one was a cousin, descended from his uncle Ishmael.  His family forced the Horites out of the hill country where he had moved, and they remained there for many centuries.  The first encounter between Israel and Edom came during the Exodus when Moses asked to travel along the King's Highway through Edom's land.  The request was denied, forcing Israel to take a longer route through the Negev.  Before leaving Edom's border, however, God informed Moses that it was time for his brother Aaron to die, and the brothers ascended Mount Hor along with Aaron's son Eleazar to transfer to him the office of High Priest.  The Tomb of Aaron is a monument that marks the presumed spot, just over 5 miles from the nearby site of Petra.  Despite their inhospitable treatment of their kin, God did not grant Israel any of Edom's territory during Joshua's conquest of the Promised Land, and defined their southern border by the shared edge with their relatives.

During the time of Israel's kings, they had numerous conflicts with Edom.  Saul fought against his southern neighbor and David's top general, Joab, killed or chased away every adult male in Edom during a six-month campaign that entirely subjugated the region.  During the time of Solomon, however, one of the refugees from Edom named Hadad began to rebel and fight back against Israel.  Many years after the children of Israel divided their kingdom, Edom joined alongside the rulers of Israel and Judah to fight against Moab, but soon rebelled against Judah's king Joram to establish their own king.  During the reign of Amaziah, Judah once again fought against their southern neighbor, slaying 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt along their border, but the victorious king foolishly brought the gods he had plundered back to Jerusalem to worship.  Because of his idolatry, God allowed the king of Israel to defeat and capture Amaziah, and to damage and plunder Jerusalem itself.

Because of their cruelty toward Judah many prophets foretold the total destruction of Edom, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Malachi.  Indeed, the kingdom was entirely ruined after first joining with Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army, then being betrayed by it (just as Obadiah said would happen in verse 7).  The remnant of the Edomite population was forced westward into southern Judah, which was largely unpopulated after the Babylonian captivity, and they remained one of the dominant ethnic presence there, alongside the Arab Qedarites, until the Greek period of rule when it became a unique administrative district known is Idumea.  During the Maccabean era of Jewish history the population of Idumea was controlled by John Hyrcanus, and a debate remains among scholars whether he forced their conversion to Judaism or if they joined willingly.  Either way, one final descendant of Esau played a pivotal role in the Biblical narrative when an Idumean named Harod was elevated by Rome to the position of governor of Judea.  Although he rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, he is largely remembered by history as the power-hungry tyrant who not only murdered his wife, two sons, and other relatives who threatened his rule, but also ordered the massacre of Bethlehem's infants at the time of Jesus Christ's birth.  After the end of Herod's dynasty, the remnants of the Edomites were either assimilated into other cultures or lost to history altogether, and they are no longer a recognized population.