The history of the relations of the Edomites and Israelites may be
briefly summarized. Saul, whose chief herdsman, Doeg, was an Edomite (1
Sam. xxi. 7), fought successfully against them (1 Sam. xiv. 47). Joab (1
Kings xi. 16) or Abishai, as his deputy (1 Chron. xviii. 11, 13),
occupied Edom for six months and devastated it; it was garrisoned and
permanently held by David (2 Sam. viii. 14). But a refugee named Hadad,
who escaped as a child to Egypt and grew up at the court of the Egyptian
king, returned in Solomon's reign and made a series of reprisal raids on
the Israelite territory (1 Kings xi. 14). This did not prevent Solomon
introducing Edomites into his harem (1 Kings xi. 1) and maintaining a
navy at Ezion-geber, at the head of the Gulf of Akaba (1 Kings ix. 26).
Indeed, until the time of Jehoram, when the land revolted (2 Kings viii.
20, 22), Edom was a dependency of Judah, ruled by a viceroy (1 Kings
xxii. 47). An attempt at recovering their independence was temporarily
quelled in a campaign by Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 7), and Azariah his
successor was able to renew the sea trade of the Gulf of Akaba (2 Kings
xiv. 22) which had probably languished since the wreck of Jehoshaphat's
ships (1 Kings xxii. 48); but the ancient kingdom had been
re-established by the time of Ahaz, and the king's name, Kaush-Malak, is
recorded by Tiglath Pileser. He made raids on the territory of Judah (2
Chron. xxviii. 17). The kingdom, however, was short-lived, and it was
soon absorbed into the vassalage of Assyria.
The later history of Edom is curious. By the constant westward pressure
of the eastern Arabs, which (after the restraining force of the great
Mesopotamian kingdoms was weakened) assumed irresistible strength, the
ancient Edomites were forced across the Jordan-Araba depression, and
with their name migrated to the south of western Palestine. In 1
Maccabees v. 65 we find them at Hebron, and this is one of the first
indications that we discover of the cis-Jordanic Idumaea of Josephus and
the Talmud.
Josephus used the name Idumaea as including not only Gobalitis, the
original Mount Seir, but also Amalekitis, the land of Amalek, west of
this, and Akrabatine, the ancient Acrabbim, S.W. of the Dead Sea. In
_War_ IV. viii. 1, he mentions two villages "in the very midst of
Idumaea," named Betaris and Caphartobas. The first of these is the
modern Beit Jibrin (see ELEUTHEROPOLIS), the second is Tuffuh, near
Hebron. Jerome describes Idumaea as extending from Beit Jibrin to Petra,
and ascribes the great caves at the former place to cave-dwellers like
the aboriginal Horites. Ptolemy's account presents us with the last
stage, in which the name Idumaea is entirely restricted to the
cis-Jordanic district, and the old trans-Jordanic region is absorbed in
Arabia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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