'Edom' In Scripture (Part 1 of 2)

Identifying Edom

In attempting to vizualise the significance of the prophecies relating to Edom, we are led to rely, in our search for the identity of Edom, upon Scriptural references, for we find that specialists in Arab history are unable to provide us with a continuous early record. Most books on the Arabs begin with the rise of Mahomet, and provide only a sketchy treat­ment of earlier developments, and it is not easy to accumulate much in the way of a profane history which can be linked with the brief Biblical record.

However, the Arabs appear to have been able to state genealogies, incomplete as to the sequence of generations, yet acknowledging descent from the early fathers mentioned in Scripture, Joktan heading up a Southern Arabian or Yemenite line, with Ishmael at the head of a Northern Arabian descent.(1) When, at the time of Mahomet’s uprise in the 7th cen­tury, a need for genealogies became urgent, it was left to individuals to construct these, in the absence of any existing body of written history.(2) This may be contrasted with the existence of the Israelitish record, both Biblical and tribal.

The Jewish family history records that Ab­raham fathered the nomad children before the birth of Isaac. Unquestionably, Ishmael was his first son, and it is reasonable to note the parallel with Jacob, where handmaidens were given to him by his wives, to increase the number of their children — in the light of this custom, does it not appear likely that Sarah gave to Abraham another servant, Keturah, as soon as she could see that he could father children, and that in the tents at Hebron there was thus a numerous family which she could call her own?(3)

To support this view, recall that, when he sent his children out into the wider world, all but Isaac are called the sons of the concubines,(4) which would not be so if Keturah were a second wife, married after Sarah’s death. In this connexion, it is instructive to note that the family of Abraham is listed in the Book of the Chronicles in the order of the sons of Hagar, Keturah and Sarah.(5)

We note that Abraham sent the sons of his concubines eastward, removing them from the likelihood of immediate strife with Isaac.(4)

Ishmael seems to have departed earlier, his choice of habitat being virtually a strip from S.E. to S.W. of the land of Canaan — from Havilah to Shur.(6) It follows that his half-brothers must move further toward the east, and to occupy country some distance to <the east of the Arabah.

Esau appears to leave his father’s tents at the same time as Jacob’s departure for Padan-Aram, and within the 20 years or so of separ­ation he seems to have amassed even better resources of animal wealth than those of his brother.(7) But he also has resources of man­power — whence come those 400 men who accompany him?(8)

Earlier than Jacob, Esau married, first two Canaanite women, then a daughter of Ishmael.(9) In Genesis 36 we gain an impression of fecundity which may be contrasted with the delayed and slow growth of the chosen side of Abraham’s family. If the families of Ishmael and Midian may be assumed to have growth rates similar to that of Esau’s family, their expansion, their apparent affinity and their shared nomadic existence at the time of Joseph’s betrayal into Egypt present us with little difficulty.

In the case of Ishmael, both before his birth, and at the time of the recording of his death, the Scripture indicates to us the nomadic style of his life”— this same life-style may be assumed in Esau, the family link enhancing the suggestion. And the family link suggests that Esau’s life among the Ishmaelites and the Midianites could have been one of co-opera­tion and co-existence, sharing the fruitful uplands at their disposal, finally providing a retinue of retainers for the journey north to the Jabbok.(8)

The life-style of Ishmael, with its concomi­tant aspects of harshness, impermanence and demands upon individual endurance, has re­mained through the centuries the stamp of the Bedu. And these nomads proudly claim their descent from Ishmael — though they acknow­ledge an earlier settlement in the south (Ye­men, Hadramaut, etc.), they also acknowledge a mixing of these with the late-corners, the ‘arabised’ people coming into northern Arabia. (11)

In accordance with the angelic promise to his mother, Ishmael is the wanderer, but we remark of Esau that he comes to rest in Mount Seir,(12) where he shares the country with the Horites, the sons of Seir. Yet it should be noted that, in support of the understanding of the promise to Ishmael that he should have no territory of his own, but that he should be a sojourner upon the lands of and in the presence of his brethren, there are, in the genealogy of Gen. 25:12, descendants of Ishmael whose names are given to localities within the area known to us as Mount Seir.(13)

Merging Of The Nomads

The writers of the mid-19th century have given us insights into the nomadic way of life, and its survival unto their own day — a pass­age of three and a half millenia. Thomson and Conder write of the Bedouin practice of mov­ing into settled areas such as Esdraelon in times of famine or of war in their own desert habitat.(14) Doughty, ever alive to the Biblical associations of the land through which he passes, writes discerningly of the people of the uplands of Edom, of the strife between this people and the sons of Jacob, of the corn and vine lands of these higher levels, and of the flocks of “small cattle”.(15)

Returning to the Bible, we seek for partici­pation by Midian and Ishmael in the continu­ing record, and find that they have no place therein after their defeat by Gideon.(16) They are confederate, both in the caravan train which was the medium of Joseph’s betrayal into Egypt,(“) and in the hordes which entered upon the valley of Jezreel and into Philistia so far as Gaza,(18) to be defeated by God’s hand in the presence of Gideon.(19) But, so far as the Scripture is concerned, they are no longer valid participants in the unfolding history. Why? How can this be so? Especially as the Arab peoples perpetuate the name and ‘family of Ishmael in themselves!

What we find, in pursuing this matter, is that only Edom, of the descendants of Abraham, is the later antagonist of Judah — we are thus led to understand that, in this sense, Edom stands as the titular head of all the desert (or eastern) people. Not that it subdues these by force of arms, but that in their nomad ways,they coalesce into a people of similar outlook, manners, customs, and with a single-minded attitude toward Israel.

And here is a truly remarkable thing! The Arabs, taking pride in their descent from Abraham, make so much of their patriarch, Ishmael. The Word of God, however, categor­izes them in a quite different way — they are not so much the descendants of Abraham as they are the children of Esau. They are born in that ancient enmity which first revealed it­self in the matter of the birthright, then in the deceit by which the paternal blessing was ob­tained, the enmity which is shortly recorded in the books of the Kings, but which is seen at its height in the words of the prophets. Not Ishmaelites are they, but Edomites! Or, not to misunderstand the point, not only are they sons of Ishmael, but God makes it plain that they are, at the same time, caught up in the strife of Esau, to be brought to the same end as he.

Not only are the sons of Abraham so cate­gorized, but it appears that. the sons of Lot are to be included. Ezekiel, in that section of his prophecy relevant to the future of those nations surrounding Israel/Judah, speaks of Ammon and Moab, whose existence to the east of the Jordan had been for so long an accepted fact; these are to be brought to their end by the “men of the east”. X20)

This suggests an enforced annexation of these two families into the wider pattern of the desert-based tribes — Moab and Ammon are to be no more identifiable, as their land is entered upon by the nomads. Certainly, this land is not at any later time referred to as belonging to either of the sons of Lot — by Roman times this connotation had ceased to exist; the area having come under Greek rule, the northern part being the location of the Decapolis, the southern part being known in Roman times as Peraea.

Edom, Moab And Ammon

In that same group of prophecies, Ezekiel makes reference to Edom, but it is significant that the vengeance upon Edom is to come by other hands than those which cut off Moab . and Ammon — in this case, the scourge is to be “my people Israel”.(21)The judgments upon Ammon, under this prophecy, follow upon that nation having gloried over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah at the time when the land was being desolated and the peoples going into captivity: a similar reason given for the judgments to fall upon Moab and Edom. These nations had made an earlier incursion upon Judah,(22) and at the time of the Babylonian invasion would be waiting “in the wings” for an opportunity for plunder, as the invaders destroyed the country’s defences. For this slight upon God’s people, the end is to come to the sons of Lot, but for Edom, judgment is deferred until such time as it shall be at the hands of Israel.

We have no record of any such action against Edom by Israel — it follows that it remains for the future. This is amplified in Ezekiel’s 35th chapter, where Yahweh ex­presses in the first person His determination to desolate Mount Seir and all Idumea. That this is a future judgment is clear, “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make thee deso-late!”(23)

The cause? “Because thou hast had a per­petual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end”.(24)

The perpetual hatred, we understand, as going back to the days when the twins con­fronted each other over the mess of pottage, but the prophecy is specific as to a late mani­festation of the enmity — it is to come in a time of calamity at the end of Israel’s iniquity. In the proximate sense, this may be referred to those events at the time of the downfall under Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, an overthrowing consequent upon Judah’s idolatrous ways.

But there is a secondary application of these words — the time when both their iniquity and its consequences are coming to an end. This sense of the prophecy is strongly supported by the sandwiching of this particular message into the sequence of restoration utterances (25) —clearly a true restoration of Israel is not pos­sible until the one obstacle is removed, the oppression and besieging of the land by the sons of Esau.

It is this application which escaped Bro. Thomas, who made no reference in his major works to the 35th chapter, because it was not able to be fitted into his philosophy on account of the important part then played by Russia in European and Eastern affairs, and the absence of any movements in the Arab world to draw particular attention to this passage.

Today, we are led by the ferments in the Mid-Eastern area to pay some attention to the importance of the placing of this prophecy, for these affairs have become an insistent call upon our thought, and we see the possible eventuality that they can bring about a shed­ding of Israel’s blood, to be followed by a final overthrow of these adversaries.

We can have no illusions that the present stand-to will continue, or that relations between Israel and the Arab world will cool off, and the two become reconciled. Their conflicts of 1967 and 1973 suggest that these antagon­ists are awaiting the opportunity for a further head-on confrontation in order to resolve the matter – to neither party is there any gain from negotiation, and the Arab initiatives in United Nations suggest that there can be no expectation of a cool-off.

Ezekiel is not alone in this particular aspect of Israel’s future: other passages relevant to this same event (the overthrow of Edom) are to be discovered in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Joel, Obadiah, Zedekiah. We hope, God willing, to study some of these prophetic passages in the next issue.

Notes:

  1. Biblica, item GENEALOGY. Gabrieli (after P. K. Hitti) A Short History of the Arabs. Robert Hale, London, 1963. Saudi Arabia. hraf Press, New Haven, 1959, p.65.
  2. Sir Richard Burton provides us with an interesting memoir (Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Mecca. Dover Books, U.S.A.): within a Freemasonry diploma which he repro­duces is a genealogy incorporating both relationship to Mahomet – the line passes through the grandfather of the Prophet – and descent from Ishmael, whose antecedents are recorded as Ibrahim, Korikh (Terah?), Kasir, Arghwa, Phaligh, Salikh, Kaynan, Arfakhsod, Sam, Noah, Shays (Seth?), Adam.
  3. Genesis 16:2, Gen. 30:3, Gen. 30:13, Gen. 25:1.
  4. Genesis 25:6.
  5. 1 Chronicles 1:28_31; 32-33; 34.
  6. Genesis 25:18.
  7. Genesis 33:9.
  8. Genesis 32:6; 33:1.
  9. Genesis 26:34; 28:9.
  10. Genesis 16:12; 25:18 R.V.
  11. Genesis 10:26-29 refers to the earliest settlers in the Yemen and the Hodramaut. See also Gabrieli, op.cit. P. K. Hitti: The History of the Arabs. Saudi Arable, op.eit.
  12. These sources speak of the original Arabs (al arab al araboh), who claim to stem from Yarub ibn Qahtan before the time of Abraham, and of the “arabized” Arabs, who come from the north and become Arabs only by adoption. These last trace their descent from Ishmael. The men from the south long ago moved north from Yemen, lost their ancient tongue and almost entirely merged with the men of the north (al arab al mustaribah). The Quraish, the lineage of Mohammed, reckon themselves descended from Ishmael: most of the Quraish are desert nomads.
  13. Genesis 36:6-8; also Genesis 32:3.
  14. Tema, o significant town in the area. Kedar is generally understood to be the area further to the north, about Palmyreno.
  15. Thomson – The Land and the Book, chapter XXVI.
    Conder – Tent Work in Palestine, Vol. 1 chapter IV.
  16. Doughty – Travels in Arubig Deserts- p-78, Cape Paperback Edition.
    Geog. of Holy Land; G. A. Smith, Harper Torchbooks Edition, p.363.
  17. Judges 6. It is worthy of note that here we have a confederacy of Midianites, Amalekites, and children of the east – Judges 6:3 & 33; 7:12. As well, the Ishmaelites among them (not a few) could be identified by their golden ear-rings – Judges 8:24-26.
  18. Genesis 37:25 & 23.
  19. Judges 6:3/4.
  20. Judges 7:19-25.
  21. Ezekiel 25:4 & 10.
  22. Ezekiel 25:14.
  23. 2 Kings 24:2.
  24. Ezekiel 35:14/15.
  25. Ezekiel 35:5.
  26. The restoration of Israel is confined in its fullest expression to chapters 36 & 37, apart from several earlier short references (11;17; 20:34-38, 42; 28:25-26; 34:12-13).