Judgments of Edom
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighboring nations, the Edomites or Idumeans were a small people.—Note, In loco.
Verse 3.—The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—The habits of the Idumeans were singular. The Horites, their predecessors in Mount Seir, were, as their name implies, troglodytes, or dwellers in caves; and the Edomites seem to have adopted their dwellings as well as their country. Jeremiah and Obadiah both speak of them as "dwelling in the clefts of the rocks," and making their "habitations high" in the cliffs, like the eyries of eagles; language which is strikingly illustrated by a survey of the mountains and glens of Edom. Everywhere we meet with caves and grottos hewn in the soft sandstone strata. Those at Petra are well known. Their form and arrangements show that most of them originally were intended for habitations. They have closets and recesses suitable for family uses, and many have windows.... During a visit to this region in 1857, the writer had an opportunity of inspecting a large number of these caverns, and has no hesitation in ranking them among the most remarkable of their kind in the world. The nature of the climate, the dryness of the soil, and their great ' size render them healthy, pleasant, and commodious habitations; while their security made them specially suitable to a country exposed in every age to incessant attacks of robbers.—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, p. 664.
Verse 4.—Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down.
BURCKHARDT.—Some of the excavated chambers and dwellings in Petra are so high, and the side of the mountain is so perpendicular, that it seems impossible to approach the uppermost.—Travels in Syria, p. 422.
Thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—The long line of the kings and of the nobles of Idumea has for ages been cut off; they are without any representative now, without any memorial but the multitude and the magnificence of their unvisited sepulchers.—Evid. of Proph., p. 154.
Verse 8.—Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—The minds of the Bedouins are as uncultivated as the deserts they traverse.... They view the indestructible works of former ages, not only with wonder, but with superstitious regard, and consider them as the work of genii.—Evid. of Proph., p. 158.
Verses 15, 18.—As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.... And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them.
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—After their return from captivity the Jews, here called “the house of Jacob and of Joseph," did break out as a flame upon the Idumeans; they reduced them into slavery; and obliged them to receive circumcision, and practice the rights of the Jewish religion.—Note, In loco.
JOSEPHUS.—Judas and his brethren did not leave off fighting with the Idumeans, but pressed upon them on all sides, and took from them the city of Hebron, and demolished all its fortifications, and set its towers on fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners, and the city Marissa.... Hyrcanus took also Dora and other cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers that they submitted to the use of circumcision, and of the rest of the Jewish way of living, at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.— Antiq., xii., 8, 6, and xiii., 9, 1.
And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for the Lord hath spoken it. ORIGEN.-The Idumeans mingled with the Nabatheans as well as with the Jews. And in the third century of the Christian era, their language was disused, and their very name, as designating any people, soon perished.— See Orig., lib. iii., in Job.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—In the seventh century the Mohammedan conquest gave a death-blow to the commerce and prosperity of the whole country of Edom. Under the withering influence of Mohammedan rule, the great cities fell to ruin, and the country became a desert. The followers of the false prophet were here, as elsewhere, the instruments in God's hand for the execution of his judgments.— Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 663.