Genesis 25:25 describes the birth of the elder son of Ya'akov (Jacob), named Esav in the Yehudit though it is always rendered as Esau in English.
The text describes him as "ADMONI KULO KE ADERET SE'AR- אַדְמוֹנִי כֻּלּוֹ כְּאַדֶּרֶת שֵׂעָר", which is to say "red all over, and hairy as a coat made of goat-skin", thereby picking up in two words several more than two of the key facts about him:
the red hair which is the sign of Set, the Egyptian deity;
the same redness which will be the "adom adom" stew which he will purchase in exhange for his birthright in Genesis 25:29;
the word "red" whose root also gives the land of Edom and the ancestor Adam;
the goat skin (the Yehudit word here is SA'AR - שער - but not to be confused with SA'AR = "storm" which is spelled with a first-letter samech - םער) that links him to Se'ir, and which will later denote him as the eponymous ancestor of the Edomites, whose capital was Se'ir.
The land of Edom covered the desert region from the southern shores of the Dead Sea as far as the Red Sea, though at some points in its history - notably at the time of Yehoshu'a and under the Romans - it extended northwards through Yehudah as far as Chevron. Legends identifying Adam with Chevron (e.g. that Adam buried Chavah in the cave of Machpelah) are from the later period. King Herod was an Idumaean - the Roman name for Edom.
The rivalry between Yisra-El and Edom seems to have continued throughout their histories, and is reflected in some measure at least in the patriarchal stories. Kayin (Cain), Yishma-El and Esav - the three disinherited elder sons of the patriarchs - are all identified with Se'ir, the capital of Edom. Se'ir (שער) means "hairy", which is how Esav is described (Genesis 25:25, see the note above); all three are red-haired (Adom - אדום = "red"). And of course Adam himself was the eponymous ancestor of the Edomites, though the Beney Yisra-El took over his legends.
The land of Edom covered the desert region from the southern shores of the Dead Sea as far as the Red Sea, though at some points in its history - notably at the time of Yehoshu'a and under the Romans - it extended northwards through Yehudah as far as Chevron. Legends identifying Adam with Chevron (e.g. that Adam buried Chavah in the cave of Machpelah) are from the later period. King Herod was an Idumaean - the Roman name for Edom.
The rivalry between Yisra-El and Edom seems to have continued throughout their histories, and is reflected in some measure at least in the patriarchal stories. Kayin (Cain), Yishma-El and Esav - the three disinherited elder sons of the patriarchs - are all identified with Se'ir, the capital of Edom. Se'ir (שער) means "hairy", which is how Esav is described (Genesis 25:25, see the note above); all three are red-haired (Adom - אדום = "red"). And of course Adam himself was the eponymous ancestor of the Edomites, though the Beney Yisra-El took over his legends.
Isaiah 63:1 includes the messianic prophecy which suggests that he will be "a man of Edom, wearing clothes of Batsrah scarlet". Batsrah, pronounced as Bazrah or Bozrah in English, was in Edom (and is not the same as Basra in Iraq, which was only founded in the 6th century CE).
Numbers 24:18 and 2 Chronicles 25:11 make Esav, Se'ir and Edom interchangeable, but Genesis 36:20 identifies Se'ir with the Chorim, as does Genesis 5:30. Deuteronomy 2:12 resolves this by saying that Chorim once lived in Se'ir, until the Beney Esav drove them out. The Chorim were the indigenous Beney Kena'an (Canaanites).
Numbers 20:14 ff has Edom confronting, and then subdued by Yisra-El.
2 Samuel 8:14 and 1 Kings 11:15 have David garrisoning Edom.
Under Yehoram around 850 BCE they revolted successfully (2 Kings 8:20 and 2 Chronicles 21:8). Amats-Yah (sometimes rendered as Amats-Yahu) briefly reconquered them (2 Kings 14:7).
The list of Edomite tribes is given in Genesis 36:14. NB both this and the Beney Yisra-El are listed matrilineally not patrilineally.
Edomite tribes
Adah
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Basmat
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Timna
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Aholi-Bamah
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(Eli-Phaz)
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(Re’u-El)
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(Eli-Phaz)
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Ye’ush
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Teman
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Nachat
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Amalek
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Yalam
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Omar
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Zerach
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Korach
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Tsepho
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Shamah
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Gatam
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Mizah
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Kenaz
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Israelite tribes
Le'ah
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Rachel
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Bilhah
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Zilpah
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Re'u-Ven
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(Yoseph)
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Dan
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Gad
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Shim'on
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Ben-Oni (Bin-Yamin)
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Naphtali
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Asher
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Levi
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Menasheh
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Yehudah
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Ephrayim
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Yisaschar
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Zevulun
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NB Bilhah and Zilpah are geographically peripheral. Re'u-Ven, Shim'on and Yehudah are in the south. The Rachel tribes are both central. Yisaschar and Zevulun are in the north.
Timna was the sister of Lot. Kenaz, Nachat, Zerach, Shamah and Ye'ush also appear in the Beney Yisra-El tribal list of Yehudah Ben Oni and Levi. Aholi-Bamah links to Aholibah, Ezekiel’s name for Yehudah (Ezekiel 23 and therefore a not insignificant reference for our purposes). Numbers 32:12 and Judges 1:13 add Kenizites to Yehudah. Judges 1:16 adds Kenites including Calebites who lived in Amalek's territory (1 Samuel 15:6).
Grandsons become sons. Ephrayim-Menasheh is paralleled in the sons of Eli-Phaz (G/P 204).
Ma'aleh Akravim, south-west of the Dead Sea marked the boundary between Yehudah and Edom (Numbers 34:4, Joshua 15:3, Judges 1:36) and was where Yehudah ha-Maccabee defeated the Edomites (1 Maccabees 5:3).
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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