Edom extended from the Dead Sea on the north to the Elanitic Gulf on the south, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. It was about one hundred miles in length, and about twenty miles broad. The country, although not wanting in rich meadows and fertile plains, was, yet on the whole, a mountainous one, rising in some places to an altitude of 3000 feet. It was anciently a kingdom of considerable importance and figures largely in prophecy and history, the ruins of no less than thirty towns, and that within a three days' journey of the Red Sea, fully attest to the eyes of the western world the position which Edom at one time occupied.
The Edomites were governed by dukes and kings long before Israel was formed into a kingdom (Gen. 3612And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife. (Genesis 36:12)), and maintained a haughty independence until subdued by David, after an immense slaughter of its people. The country was then garrisoned, and the Edomites became tributary to David (1 Chron. 18:12, 1312Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of salt eighteen thousand. 13And he put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. (1 Chronicles 18:12‑13)); afterward a deputy was appointed for its government under the Judean kings (1 Kings 22:4747There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king. (1 Kings 22:47)). Hadad, an Edomite, singularly preserved from the almost universal massacre of his countrymen by Joab (1 Kings 11:14-2514And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king's seed in Edom. 15For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in Edom; 16(For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:) 17That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child. 18And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran: and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt; which gave him an house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land. 19And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen. 20And the sister of Tahpenes bare him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house: and Genubath was in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh. 21And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country. 22Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what hast thou lacked with me, that, behold, thou seekest to go to thine own country? And he answered, Nothing: howbeit let me go in any wise. 23And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah: 24And he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when David slew them of Zobah: and they went to Damascus, and dwelt therein, and reigned in Damascus. 25And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, beside the mischief that Hadad did: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria. (1 Kings 11:14‑25)), attempted in vain to regain his country's independence. They revolted on several occasions, but suffered a terrible check under Amaziah, king of Judah, who took their principal city, Sela, and cruelly killed ten thousand of the people. The awful cliffs and precipitous rocks, some of which rise to a height of a thousand feet, were the scene of a truly dreadful deed. Ten thousand of the Edomites, spared from the destruction under Amaziah, were led up to the top of their own heights, and then cast down to the awful depths beneath (2 Chron. 25:11, 1211And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. 12And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces. (2 Chronicles 25:11‑12)). It was a cruel act, and although the
Edomites were Israel's bitterest enemies, and the people against whom Jehovah hath a perpetual hatred, yet without direct Divine sanction, such a mode of stamping out a revolt is indefensible. After the destruction of their renowned and almost impregnable city, Sela, better known as Petra, the cities Teman and Bozrah, became important centers of commerce, and are frequently referred to in the Prophets. It was in the harbors of Edom on the Red Sea, then under Israel, that Solomon built and equipped, a navy, which brought the produce of the south and east to Jerusalem.
Again and again was Edom "impoverished" and her mountains laid waste by Israel, and as often did she resolve to return and build her desolate places, but in vain, for they are "the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever" (Mal. 1:1-41The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 2I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 4Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. (Malachi 1:1‑4)). They were closely allied to Israel, being the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. The seeds of discord sown between the brothers, the founders of the nations of Israel and Edom (Gen. 271And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. 2And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 3Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 4And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. (Genesis 27:1‑4)), in course of time ripened into open and determined hostility on the part of the Edomites. Their haughty refusal to allow their brethren of Israel to pass through their country out of the Arabian desert, although permission to do so was most courteously requested (Num. 20:14-2114And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us: 15How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: 16And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border: 17Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders. 18And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. 19And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet. 20And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand. 21Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him. (Numbers 20:14‑21)), was the first decided act of animosity. Their hatred to the people of Jehovah's choice intensified as time wore on, and at the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, the Edomites voluntarily joined the besiegers, and greatly rejoiced in the opportunity afforded them of wreaking their vengeance on the land and people of Judah. "Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof" (Psa. 137:77Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. (Psalm 137:7)) was the bitter cry of the Edomites, as they eagerly hastened to assist in the destruction of Jerusalem. Alas! the Chaldeans needed no such cry to urge them on in executing judgment upon the guilty city. Jehovah says,. "I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction" (Zech. 1:1515And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. (Zechariah 1:15)). The help the Edomites afforded the Chaldeans in the ever memorable invasion of Judea and successful capture of Jerusalem, with their exultation and triumph on the complete downfall of the kingdom, is the great burden of the prophet Obadiah, and forms the main ground of judgment upon the land and people of Idumea, foretold by the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and others. On the deportation of Judah to Babylon, the Edomites took possession of Judean territory on the south. The degradation of Judah was complete, and the triumph of the Edomite also, when not only Judea became a mere province of the Roman Empire, being governed by a procurator sent from the imperial city, but when in Jerusalem itself, sat a race of Idumean kings. After the sack and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, Edom or Idumea disappears from the page of history until the time of the Crusaders, who, seeing its importance in a military point of view, entered it on several occasions, and built a pretty strong fortress, ten or twelve miles from Petra. From that time till the year 1812, when the traveler Buckhardt, wandering in the desolate regions of the east, accidentally discovered Petra—the ancient country of Edom was quite unknown. The English people have now been made acquainted with that grand region of departed greatness from the splendid drawings and sketches which successive travelers from the year 1828 have furnished.
Is the cry of the Edomite hushed forever? Will those rock-hewn dwellings ever again be inhabited? Will those mountain fastnesses be occupied, those precipitous cliffs ever be scaled, those awful and gloomy defiles again trod by the descendants of its ancient inhabitants? Yes. And here we turn, gladly turn, to the precious pages of Inspiration, in which the veil is lifted as to Edom's future doom. The prophetic lamp is turned to the Mount of Seir, once more occupied by the people having a "perpetual hatred" to Israel (Ezek. 35:55Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: (Ezekiel 35:5)). It is only of recent date that the fearless children of the Desert could be prevailed upon to pass through the gloomy recesses of Petra, and then only during daylight. The whole district is one shunned and dreaded by the Arabs, who regard it as specially under the ban of the Divine displeasure, and in this they are right (Ezek. 35:9; 25:139I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 35:9)
13Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. (Ezekiel 25:13)). But the might and wisdom of Edom will again be gathered on her mountains, and play her part in the scenes of the coming crisis. From the prophet Daniel, (Dan. 1113For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches. (Daniel 11:13)), we learn that the future king of the North (then occupying the present Asiatic possessions of the Sultan) will assault the nations lying contiguous to the Holy Land, but Edom, Moab, and Ammon will escape out of his hand, while the stronger and more powerful country of "Egypt shall not escape" (Dan. 11:40-4340And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. (Daniel 11:40‑43)). Why is Edom spared? Why is not full and final judgment then executed upon that proud and bitterly hostile people to Israel? Why? because the sword of Jehovah must first be bathed in the land of Idumea, and the glorious apparel of the Conqueror stained in the blood of its people (Isa. 63:1-61Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 6And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. (Isaiah 63:1‑6)). But besides this awful judgment which the Lord will alone execute (Isa. 63:55And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. (Isaiah 63:5)) in accomplishing the redemption of His earthly people, there is another reason why Edom escapes the vengeance of the king of the North, or "the Assyrian." The prophets Isaiah (Isa. 11:1414But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (Isaiah 11:14)) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 25:1414And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 25:14)) foretold that these very nations, Edom, Moab, and Ammon, were to be destroyed by Israel in the day that her captivity is turned by Jehovah, and so the prophetic lamp reveals their doom.
The discoveries of travelers in late years in the mountains and plains of Edom have brought to light numerous interesting facts bearing upon the history of that people—a history more ancient even than that of Israel's. These ruins "present such a collection of novelties as can be seen nowhere else on this globe." The first historical notice in Scripture of Edom is in Gen. 14:66And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness. (Genesis 14:6), where Edom is called " Mount Seir," the name of the progenitor of the Horites, the original inhabitants of the country; the last historical notice of Edom is in Malachi 16A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? (Malachi 1:6), and between these, the first and last books of the Old Testament, the notices regarding it are very numerous. The capital of this very ancient kingdom is one of the grandest sights in the east. What a full and corroborative testimony to the written Word of God is furnished by these grand and solitary ruins. The cliffs and perpendicular rocks, rising from 80 to 250 feet—the ruined temples, with their solitary Corinthian pillars and really handsome architecture and masonry—the theater cut out of the solid rock, and evidently seated to contain from three to four thousand spectators—the numerous chambers, rooms, and recesses cut out of the front of these overhanging cliffs, and other monumental remains too numerous to mention, make Petra one of the grandest spectacles in these eastern lands. Why have those rock-hewn dwellings, tombs, and stately edifices stood amidst the general crash? Empires have risen, flourished, and fallen; but here is a kingdom, hoary with age, whose antiquity is unquestionable, standing before us after a history of nigh 4000 years, a silent, standing and eloquent protest against the unbelief of the nineteenth century. Has God preserved these noble ruins from decay merely to feast the eyes of the traveler with their rare grandeur? Nay, the attacks now so freely hurled against the Pentateuch and Prophets, are sternly rebuked by the incontestible evidence of their Divine inspiration, furnished by the ruins of Petra.
The discovery of this old city from the era of the "Crusades" by the traveler Burckhardt, afterward visited by Laborde, and since fully described by pen and pencil by succeeding explorers, is thus spoken of by Dr. Kitto in his Bible Illustrations:—
"Of the Edomites not even a name remains; and their city has for ages remained broken and desolate. The very site, indeed, was long uncertain, and its place was undetermined in the maps. But, as in the index which closes a book, the various events of centuries are crowded into a few pages: so in these latter days, events that used to be spread over centuries are crowded together into days and years, and the old world history seems tame to the history we live. In this wonderful age events come in ‘multitudes—multitudes to the valley of decision;' and old nations and cities—Egypt, Assyria, Edom; Thebes, Nineveh, Petra—are called forth from their tombs... Edom was called—and Petra answered to her name. There she stands, beautiful in her coat of many colors; yet empty, and void, and waste... Singularly beautiful even in ruin, and with the freshness of youth still upon her brow, the utter desolation in which the daughter of Edom' lies shut up amidst the silence of her mountains, is most impressive, and even affecting. But all this was foreseen and foretold with great distinctness by the prophets; and these fearful denunciations and their exact fulfillment furnish an invulnerable argument for the inspiration of the Scriptures; while the present state of the rich and beautiful region in which Edom dwelt, is a most awful monument of the Lord's displeasure against idolatry and wickedness... With the book ( Malachi) containing this prediction concerning Edom, the roll of Old Testament prophecy closes."