The Edomites: An Essay

The Edomites are presented as close relatives to Israel, as they supposedly descended from Jacob’s brother Esau. Esau’s nickname was ‘Edom’ in Genesis 25.30, and following his reconciliation with his brother, he took his family down to the region of Mount Seir. For this reason the Israelites addressed the Edomite king in Numbers 20.14 as ‘brother,’ but familial hospitality was ground to powder after the Edomites took advantage of Judah’s destruction by Babylon in 586 BC. Nevertheless the Old Testament affords the Edomites a level of respect given to no other foreign nation. Edom’s name literally means ‘red’ and references the red sandstone predominant in the region. The Edomites spoke a language known as ‘Edomite’; it was a Semitic language that resembled Hebrew and Phoenician but which had unusual alphabetic letter forms. The Bible doesn’t tell us who the Edomites worshiped, but in Assyrian records many Edomite kings are noted, and a majority of them have names built around the divine name ‘Qos’ or ‘Qaus.’ Josephus, writing centuries after Edom’s plunge from political power, wrote than an Idumean (formerly Edomite) family worshipped Koze, ‘the god of the Idumeans.’ As ‘Qos’ is related to the Arabic word ‘qaus’ (‘bow’), many scholars believe Qos was a storm god similar to the god Hadad of the Arameans (though many of the name compounds utilizing ‘Qos’ reflect a kinder deity than the traditional Mesopotamian storm god). It’s believed that the Edomites were not monotheistic; in other words, Qos was but the ‘top tier’ of an Edomite pantheon of deities. Interestingly, many scholars believe that Yahweh was given a position (albeit a subordinate one) in the Edomite pantheon: biblical writers neither attack Edom’s gods by name nor include Edom in lists of pagan nations practicing abominations, and during the time of David, Doeg the Edomite worshiped Yahweh at the Israelite sanctuary of Nob. If the Edomites did include Yahweh in their pantheon, this ‘religious commonality’ may have further prompted Israel to speak of the Edomites as ‘brothers’ despite their often hostile relationship. 

Edomite structures carved into the rock

Edom bordered southeast Palestine in the region of the Dead Sea and lie between the Zered River and the Gulf of Aqabah. The western part of Edom was part of the Wadi Arabah, which ran almost the entire length of the Jordan Rift Valley in a north-south orientation between the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee and the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. The Wadi included the Jordan River Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea (which was in Judean hands), the Dead Sea itself, and what is known today as the Arava Valley (which was in Edomite control). The eastern portion of the Wadi Arabah juts up against a towering plateau. The rocky crags of the plateau reach four thousand feet above the Arabah, and the Edomites had numerous towns and cities nestled among the cliffs and ravines so that Jeremiah could say that the Edomites ‘nested with eagles’ (Jeremiah 49.16). The plateau’s abrupt rise kept rainfall from falling heavy on the plateau, though the western side of the plateau facing the Arabah received decent rains. Scarce rainfall atop the plateau allowed meager seasonal grasslands and forced the residents to engage in pastoral nomadism. At the top of the plateau was the King’s Highway (which was in operation as far back as the Patriarchal Age; cf. Genesis 14), and then the plateau slopes eastward to the Arabian Desert. Israel (and then Judah) served as Edom’s western neighbors; the Red Sea was her southern border; the Arabian Desert with its nomadic tribes stretched to the west; and her immediate northern neighbor was Moab.

the modern port of Ezion-geber

Edom enjoyed a three-fold economy: forcing duties on trade crossing through their territory on the King’s Highway, producing abundant crops on terraced hillsides east of the mountains, and – most importantly – thriving off an extensive copper mining and smelting operation. Copper production had been practiced as early as the Bronze Age, and archaeologists have discovered numerous refineries at the port city of Ezion-geber that date back to the time of Solomon. Edom’s capital city was Bozrah (modern Buseirah); it was internationally renown for its weaving industry, dyed garments, and ornate palaces. Sela (known as ‘Petra’ during the Hellenistic Age and still called Petra today) was a caravan city high in the mountains. Though the Edomites had settled the Petra site prior to the Nabatean invasion (see below), most of the preserved buildings in modern day Petra – carved out of the natural rock – date to the Nabateans around 350 BC. On the Gulf of Aqabah, Ezion-geber was a major trade port. During the days of Israelite dominance, Ezion-geber (later called Elath) was an important commercial port. King Solomon utilized the port for his eastern trade, and Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahaziah of Israel used it as a base to try and fashion a revived Solomonic Fleet. The King’s Highway passed through this port, and it served as a funnel for Egyptian overland trade as well as a hot-spot for communication between Egypt and the Euphrates. 

There are no surviving Edomite records, so our information on ancient Edom comes from the writings of her neighbors. Egyptian records are the earliest, dating from the 15th century onwards. The Egyptians knew the Edomites as the Shasu, a nomadic group with whom they occasionally crossed swords. Interestingly, the Egyptians mention the ‘nomads of Edom’ and ‘nomads of Seir’ as two distinct groups, whereas the Bible often treats them as interchangeable terms. The likeliest explanation is that Edom and Seir were two adjacent locations that had merged into one civilization by the time of Israel’s United Monarchy. Archaeological excavations indicate that the region was inhabited by nomadic groups in the second millennium by BC (particularly the Hurrians), but by 1300-1000 BC a pattern of settlements began to emerge. The land was conquered and settled by Jacob’s brother Esau during the Patriarchal Age, and his descendants became known as the Edomites. The Edomite ‘kings’ mentioned prior to this cohesion were likely nomadic chieftains exercising considerable control over various tribes.

the King's Highway and Desert Highway, major
north-south trade routes that passed through Edomite
lands

During the Exodus, the Edomites refused to permit the Israelites use of the King’s Highway that cut through their land; God disavowed any military conflict with them because of their familial relationship with Israel and insisted that the Israelites detour around them to get to Canaan. Edomite settlements continued to increase during the era of the Conquest and Judges, and by the time of King Saul they were encroaching on southeastern Israelite territory. Their slow expansion may have prompted King David to conquer them out of fear that they would threaten the Judean hill country. After conquering Edom, David established garrisons throughout Israel’s new vassal state. Israel lorded over Edom for nearly 150 years until Edom revolted and regained their independence during the reign of Jehoram of Judah. Their revolt may have been encouraged by Moab’s successful rebellion against northern Israelite control during the reign of King Ahaziah of Israel. Moab, after all, was Edom’s northern neighbor. 

Edom enjoyed a brief period of independence before coming under the thumb of another Mesopotamian power: the Assyrians. King Adad-nirari III (r. 810-783) turned Edom into a vassal state of Assyria. Edom may have voluntarily entered into vassalage to merit Assyrian protection against her powerful neighbors; if this is the case, the ‘tipping point’ of Edom’s friendliness with Assyria may have been Uzziah of Judah’s determination to win a port facility at Elath (a.k.a. Ezion-geber) at the southern end of the Wadi Arabah. Sometime later Edom turned turncoat and supported an anti-Assyrian coalition led by King Rezin of Aram; Aram spearheaded the revolt against Assyria in 733 during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrian king attacked Aram, killed Rezin, and forced all the states involved in the coalition to pay heavy tribute; Edom is listed in Assyrian annals as one of those paying tribute. Edom settled down under Assyrian rule and prospered during the 7th century. Judah’s decline following Hezekiah’s revolt of 701 gave Edom opportunity to begin expanding into portions of the eastern Negev that had formerly belonged to Judah; Judah, weakened by war with Assyria, couldn’t resist Edomite incursions. An inscription at the Judean fortress of Arad mentions an ‘evil’ done by Edom in the eastern Negev, and it’s likely this ‘evil’ was the seizure of southern Judean lands. Judah was further weakened at the turn of 5th century by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II, and the Edomites continued to steamroll through southern Judah. Edom may have forged a fragile anti-Babylonian pact with Judah, but when push came to shove, Edom backed off from her word and let Judah face the Babylonians alone: when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Edomites just stood back and watched. Though they didn’t play an active role in Judah’s destruction, their backing out of the alliance and the way they greedily nibbled at Judah’s fractured remains earned them reprehension among the Judean survivors. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and many psalms rain fire and brimstone upon Edom for this treachery.

Edom had escaped Babylon’s wrath in 586, but King Nabonidus eventually attacked and destroyed Edom in the mid-500s BC. The prophet Malachi viewed this as God’s work; he reported Yahweh saying, ‘I have turned [Edom’s] mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’ (Mal 1.2-3) Archaeological excavations reveal a destruction and abandonment of major urban areas during this time, and surviving Edomites appear to have reverted back to pastoral nomadism. When Persia conquered Babylon in 539, the new Persian Empire turned several Edomite sites into administrative centers. While central Edom remained desolate, some western settlements found new life and thrived during the Persian Period. The Edomites remained rooted in settlements throughout southern Judea, perhaps reaching as far north as fifteen miles south of Jerusalem (but it’s more likely they reached only to Hebron). During the late Persian Empire, Edomite cities were consolidated into a province and a capital was established, likely at Lachish. By the Hellenistic Period following Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, the region became known as Idumea. When the Hasmonean Dynasty came to power in Jerusalem, the Idumeans were forced to convert to Judaism and follow Jewish laws and customs. Herod the Great (r. 47-44) was Idumean, and Mark 3.8 tells us that some of the earliest listeners to Jesus’ teachings were Idumean. Idumean territory differed from that of traditional Edom because another people group, the Nabateans, invaded Edom around 300 BC and settled the former Edomite centers. The Nabateans adapted to Edom’s arid and rough-and-tumble conditions and established a flourishing trade empire centered at Petra.