Edom

What is known

• Descended from Esau, whose name and territory ('Edom'/'red') are tied in Genesis to both his ruddy appearance and the red sandstone terrain of the region (Genesis 25:25, 30; 36:8)
• Edom refused Moses passage through its territory during the Exodus, forcing Israel to go around it (Numbers 20:14-21)
• The kingdom of Judah and Edom had a long adversarial history; Edom's participation in or approval of Jerusalem's fall to Babylon (586 BC) is denounced sharply in the short book of Obadiah and in Psalm 137:7
• Excavations at copper-production sites like Khirbet en-Nahas in the Faynan district have pushed evidence for organized, large-scale Edomite industry earlier than once assumed, into the 10th century BC

History

Founded

Traditionally traced to Esau, Jacob's brother (Genesis 36:1); archaeological evidence shows a developed Edomite kingdom emerging by the 8th-7th centuries BC, with earlier tribal/chiefdom-level settlement in the region going back further

Population

Sparsely settled highland and desert-fringe territory; population concentrated around fortified sites such as Bozrah and (later) Sela

Industry

Copper mining and smelting (notably at Khirbet en-Nahas and Faynan), caravan trade along the King's Highway between Arabia and the Levant

Coordinates

30.6200° N, 35.4700° E

Rulers and powers

• Tribal chiefs and early kings ('the kings who reigned in Edom before any king reigned over Israel') — Genesis 36:31-39
• Subject to the united kingdom under David and Solomon — c. 1000-930 BC
• Independent Edomite kingdom, later Assyrian and Babylonian vassal — 9th-6th century BC

Scripture references

• Genesis 36:1
• Numbers 20:14-21
• Numbers 24:18
• Deuteronomy 23:7
• 1 Samuel 14:47
• 2 Samuel 8:14
• 2 Kings 8:20-22
• Psalm 137:7
• Obadiah 1:1-14 — Entire book is a judgment oracle against Edom
• Amos 1:11-12

On a modern map

Edom today

Further reading

• Edom - Wikipedia