Edom in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Idumea. ("red".) Esau's surname, the firstborn of Isaac; Jacob's twin brother, who sold his birthright for the red pottage (of yellow brown lentils, dashim; the cooking of which is still seen in Egyptian representations), from whence came his surname (Genesis 25:29-34). The name was appropriate to Edom's possession, "mount Seir," the mountainous territory having a reddish hue. Seir means rugged, applicable alike to Seir the hirsute (like Esau) progenitor of the Horites, Edom's predecessors, and to their rugged forest covered territory (Genesis 14:6; Genesis 32:3; Genesis 36:1-8; Genesis 36:20-22). It extended from the Dead Sea S. to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea. Esau, with his 400 armed men (Genesis 32:6), commenced driving out the Horites, and permanently settled in mount Seir after his father's death, yielding Canaan to Jacob, in accordance with his father's blessing. It is objected to Genesis 36:31 that the language supposes kings had already reigned over Israel. But in Genesis 35:11 "God Almighty" ('Eel Shaday) had promised Jacob "kings shall come out of thy loins." Moses, too, foretold of the Israelites having a king over them. Naturally then he notices that eight kings had reigned of Esau's family up to his own time, "before the reigning of any king to the children of Israel." The prosperity of the worldly is often immediate and brilliant, but it is transitory; that of God's people is slower in coming, that they may believingly and patiently wait for it, but when it does come it will abide for ever. Of the kingdom of the Messiah, Israel's king, there shall be no end (Luke 1:33). The dukes did not precede the line of Edomite kings, and afterward succeed again (Genesis 36); but a single king (emir) reigned in all Edom contemporaneous with several dukes (skeikhs) or princes of local tribes. The king is mentioned (Judges 11:17), and the dukes a short while before (Exodus 15:15). Moreover, the monarchy was not hereditary, but the kings apparently were elected by the dukes. The Edomites became "dwellers in the clefts of the rocks" (Jeremiah 49:16; compare 2 Chronicles 25:11-12), like their Horite predecessors who were troglodytes or "dwellers in caves" (Obadiah 1:3-4) Petra (Sela, Hebrew, rock), their chief city, was cut in the rocks. S. Idumea abounds in cave dwellings. Red baldheaded sandstone rocks are intersected by deep seams rather than valleys. In the heart of these, itself invisible, lies Petra (Stanley), Edom' s stronghold in Amaziah's days (2 Kings 14:7). Bozrah, now Buseireh, was its ancient capital, near the N. border. (See BOZRAH.) Elath and Ezion Geber were Edom's seaports; afterward taken by David and made by Solomon his ports for equipping his merchant fleet (2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Kings 9:26). Edom (100 miles long, 20 broad) stretched Edom of the Arabah valley, southward as far as Elath. Eastward of Elath lay the desert. Israel, when refused a passage through Moab N. of Edom, as also through Edom, went from Kadesh by the S. extremity of Edom past. Elath into the desert E. of Edom (Deuteronomy 2:8; Deuteronomy 2:13-14; Deuteronomy 2:18; Judges 11:17-18; 2 Kings 3:6-9). The Brook Zered (wady el Ahsy) was the boundary between Moab (Kerak) and Edom (now Jebal, Hebrew Gebal, mountainous, the N. district, along with Esh. Sherah, the S. district), Edom subsequently...