Where was Edom?

Question

Where was Edom?

Accepted Answer

Edom was the mountain country south of the Dead Sea and east of the Arabah, the dry valley that runs down to the Gulf of Aqaba: the red sandstone highlands of southern Jordan, called Mount Seir in Genesis, with the Nabataean city of Petra at their heart in later times. The map point stands on Bozrah, its chief city, the modern Buseira about 120 km south-east of Jerusalem in a straight line; Sela, “the rock”, which Amaziah of Judah captured, is usually placed at the crag of es-Sela 5 km away, though an older view made it Petra. The Edomites were Israel's kin and enemy: “Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom”, named for the “red pottage” he took for his birthright. When Moses asked for passage along the king's highway, “Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword”. David put garrisons in Edom, and “all they of Edom became David's servants”, but under Jehoram “Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves”. The prophets never forgave Edom's part in the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC: Obadiah's whole book is against “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock”, Amos charges that Edom “did pursue his brother with the sword”, and Malachi, after the exile, has the Lord say “I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste”. Excavations at Buseira, Tawilan and the copper mines of Faynan show a kingdom of Edom that reached its height in the eighth and seventh centuries BC as a vassal of Assyria. After Babylon broke Judah the Edomites spread west into the Negev and the hills south of Hebron, which the Greeks called Idumea, while Arab tribes, the Nabataeans, took the old highlands and built Petra. John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea late in the second century BC and made its people Jews; Herod the Great came of an Idumean family, so that when Jesus was born the king of the Jews was a man of Edomite descent.