Peoples & nations
Edomites
Of all Israel’s enemies, Edom is the one Scripture takes most personally. They were not foreigners; they were family. “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother” (Deuteronomy 23:7) — and the whole book of Obadiah exists because Edom stood on the ridge and cheered while Jerusalem burned.
On this page
At a glance
Ancestry and origins
Esau was Isaac’s firstborn, older than Jacob by minutes, “red, all his body like a hairy cloak” (Genesis 25:25). He sold his birthright for a bowl of red stew, “therefore his name was called Edom” — red (25:30) — and lost the blessing to Jacob’s deception. He married Canaanite and Ishmaelite wives, moved to the hill country of Seir, and became a nation there.
Genesis 36 is an entire chapter of Esau’s descendants, ending with a line that matters: “These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites” (36:31). Edom was organized as a monarchy while Jacob’s family was still a clan in Egypt.
Where they lived
Mount Seir — the rugged sandstone highlands running south from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, a country of gorges and cliff fortresses. Its strongholds were nearly unassailable, which is the taunt behind Obadiah 3: “You who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground?” The later Nabatean city of Petra sits in the same rock. The King’s Highway ran through their territory, giving Edom control of caravan traffic and of Israel’s most direct route north from the Gulf.
Timeline with Israel
c. 2006 BC — Two nations in the womb
“The older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).
c. 1966 BC — Birthright and blessing
Esau despises his birthright for stew, then loses the blessing and vows to kill Jacob (Genesis 25:29-34; 27:41).
c. 1906 BC — Reconciliation
Esau runs to meet Jacob, embraces him, and weeps; the brothers part in peace (Genesis 33:1-16).
c. 1407 BC — The refused passage
Israel appeals as kin, “Thus says your brother Israel,” and offers to pay for water; Edom comes out with a large army and refuses. Israel turns aside (Numbers 20:14-21).
c. 1406 BC — Protected by law
Israel is forbidden to take Edomite land or to despise an Edomite; the third generation may enter the assembly (Deuteronomy 2:4-6; 23:7-8).
c. 1020 BC — Doeg the Edomite
Saul’s chief herdsman informs on the priests of Nob and then, when Saul’s own soldiers refuse, kills eighty-five priests and destroys the town (1 Samuel 21:7; 22:9-19).
c. 995 BC — David conquers Edom
Garrisons are placed throughout Seir; Joab spends six months killing every male he can find (2 Samuel 8:13-14; 1 Kings 11:15-16).
c. 970 BC — Hadad the Edomite
A child of the royal house escapes to Egypt and returns to be an adversary against Solomon all his days (1 Kings 11:14-22).
c. 850 BC — Revolt
“In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own” (2 Kings 8:20-22).
c. 795 BC — Amaziah
Judah kills ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and takes Sela — then brings home the gods of Edom and worships them (2 Chronicles 25:11-14).
586 BC — The day of Jerusalem
Edom stands aside, gloats, loots, and hands over survivors. “Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” (Psalm 137:7; Obadiah 10-14).
c. 500 BC — Judged
Edom is dispossessed from Seir, eventually by the Nabateans, exactly as Obadiah, Jeremiah 49, and Ezekiel 35 foretold.
c. 125 BC — Idumea absorbed
John Hyrcanus conquers the Edomites now living in southern Judea and compels them to accept circumcision and the law.
37 BC-AD 4 — Herod the Great
An Idumean rules Judea as king of the Jews, rebuilds the temple, and orders the massacre of the children of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-18).
Working with Israel
Genesis 33 is the high point and it is genuinely moving. Jacob comes home terrified, having sent gift after gift ahead of him; Esau runs to meet him, throws his arms around his neck, and weeps, and refuses the gift — “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have” (33:9). Jacob’s reply — “I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me” — is one of the great lines of forgiveness in Scripture. Later the two brothers stand together to bury Isaac (Genesis 35:29), as Isaac and Ishmael had buried Abraham.
The law kept that brotherhood on the books. Israel could not seize an inch of Edomite land, because “I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession” (Deuteronomy 2:5), and an Edomite’s grandchildren could join the assembly of the LORD — a privilege denied to Moab and Ammon forever.
Standing against Israel
The refusal at Kadesh set the tone: family denied family a drink of water. From there it is four hundred years of raiding, revolt, and vendetta, culminating in 586 BC. Obadiah’s charge is specific and devastating — Edom did not merely fail to help; it “stood aloof,” “rejoiced,” “boasted,” “entered the gate of my people,” “looted his wealth,” and “stood at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives” and hand over survivors (Obadiah 11-14). For that, the shortest book in the Old Testament is written entirely against them.
Malachi frames the whole relationship in God’s own words: “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated” (Malachi 1:2-3) — a statement about two nations’ destinies that Paul later takes up to teach that election rests on God’s mercy, not on human birth order or effort (Romans 9:10-16).
How their story ends
Edom lost Seir to Arab pressure and settled in the Negev, the region the Greeks called Idumea. There they were conquered by the Hasmoneans and forcibly made Jews — which is how an Idumean family came to rule Judea. Herod the Great, an Edomite by descent, sat on the throne of Jacob and tried to kill the promised son of Jacob at Bethlehem. His dynasty ran through Herod Antipas, who mocked Jesus, and Herod Agrippa I, who killed James. After the Jewish revolt of AD 66-70 the Idumeans vanish from history altogether — Obadiah’s “there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau” (verse 18).
Christ connection
The struggle that began in Rebekah’s womb ends at Bethlehem and Golgotha. Edom is the Bible’s long case study in what a birthright is worth: Esau traded his for a single meal, “for a single meal sold his birthright... and afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected” (Hebrews 12:16-17). His descendants inherited the grudge, and the last of them tried to murder the child in whom the blessing finally came. Yet the door was never nailed shut — Edomites could enter the assembly, and Amos foresaw a restored house of David possessing “the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name” (Amos 9:11-12), the very verse James quoted at the Jerusalem council to prove that the Gentiles belong (Acts 15:16-17).
Key passages
- Genesis 25:19-34 — The twins, the birthright, and the red stew.
- Genesis 33:1-16 — Esau’s embrace and forgiveness.
- Numbers 20:14-21 — Edom refuses passage to “your brother Israel.”
- Deuteronomy 2:4-6; 23:7-8 — Edom’s land protected; an Edomite is not to be abhorred.
- 1 Samuel 22:9-19 — Doeg the Edomite slaughters the priests of Nob.
- Obadiah 10-14 — The indictment for the day of Jerusalem.
- Malachi 1:2-4; Romans 9:10-16 — “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
- Amos 9:11-12; Acts 15:16-17 — The remnant of Edom among the nations called by God’s name.