Edom

Edom (Hebrew Edom, "red") is at once a byname of Esau and the territory and nation of his descendants. The name carries a double sense: Esau was called Edom after he sold his birthright for Jacob's "red" stew (Genesis 25:30), and the land itself is marked by red sandstone. Edom lay south and southeast of the Dead Sea in the rugged highlands of Seir (Mount Seir), its strongholds carved into the cliffs at Sela — later the Nabataean city of Petra — and it commanded vital caravan routes along the King's Highway between the Red Sea and Canaan (Genesis 36:8–9). Edom had kings and chiefs "before any king reigned over the Israelites" (Genesis 36:31), making it an established regional power early in the biblical story.

The relationship of Edom and Israel was one of perpetual, fratricidal tension, rooted in the struggle of the twins Jacob and Esau and the word, "two nations are in your womb" (Genesis 25:23). When Israel came up from Egypt, Edom churlishly refused them passage through its land (Numbers 20:14–21), though the law still bade Israel not abhor an Edomite, "for he is your brother" (Deuteronomy 23:7). David subdued Edom and set garrisons throughout it (2 Samuel 8:13–14), and Solomon worked its copper and built a port at Ezion-geber; but Edom repeatedly rebelled against Judah's kings (2 Kings 8:20–22).

Edom's lasting infamy lay in its conduct when Jerusalem fell to Babylon: it gloated, looted, and cut down the fugitives. For this betrayal of "your brother Jacob," the prophets pronounced judgment with singular severity, nowhere more than in the book of Obadiah (Obadiah 10–14), and also in oracles of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos (Isaiah 34:5–6; Jeremiah 49:7–22; Ezekiel 35:1–15; Amos 1:11–12). So Edom became Scripture's emblem of the proud, godless nations opposed to God's people, summed up in the contrast of election: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Malachi 1:2–4; Romans 9:13).

In the Greek and Roman period Edom was known as Idumaea. Pressed northward by the Nabataeans, the Edomites settled in the southern hill country of Judah and were subjugated and forcibly brought into Judaism by the Hasmonean John Hyrcanus — out of which line came the Herods, Idumaean rulers of Judea, including Herod the Great. Idumaea appears in the Gospel among the regions whose crowds streamed to hear Jesus (Mark 3:8). Yet even over Edom hope is not wholly closed: Amos foresaw that the restored people of God would possess "the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name" — words James cited at the Jerusalem Council to show the ingathering of the Gentiles (Amos 9:11–12; Acts 15:16–17). Edom thus stands as a sober warning against pride and brotherly hatred, and a reminder that judgment on the nations serves God's wider purpose of grace.