Places of the Bible

Edom

Region

Where the name appears

Events told in passages that name Edom, and how many of their verses do. That is not the same as saying they happened here: a place can be named as a landmark, as somewhere being travelled to, or as the subject of a prophecy.

A dot is a moment; a bar is something that lasted, drawn to its length. The fainter the mark, the fewer verses name the place. The numbers are the lines below.

1 Wilderness Wanderings · 1490 BC · 1 verse
2 Deliverance by Barak And Deborah · 1277 BC · 1 verse
3 Deliverance by Jephthah · 1151 BC · 2 verses
4 Reign of Saul · 1094 BC · 1 verse
5 Reign of David · 1054 BC · 2 verses
6 Reign of Solomon · 1014 BC · 4 verses
7 Reign of Jehoshaphat · 913 BC · 1 verse
8 Prophecies of Elisha · 896 BC · 3 verses
9 Reign of Jehoram · 892 BC · 2 verses
10 Reign of Amaziah · 838 BC · 1 verse
11 Prophecies of Joel · 819 BC · 1 verse
12 Prophecies of Amos · 787 BC · 5 verses
13 Prophecies of Isaiah · 758 BC · 2 verses
14 Prophecies of Jeremiah · 627 BC · 8 verses
15 Prophecies of Daniel · 605 BC · 1 verse
16 Prophecies of Ezekiel · 592 BC · 6 verses
17 Prophecies of Obadiah · 584 BC · 2 verses
18 Prophecies of Malachi · 441 BC · 1 verse

Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Idumea (Isa. 34:5, 6; Ezek. 35:15). “The field of Edom” (Gen. 32:3), “the land of Edom” (Gen. 36:16), was mountainous (Obad. 1:8, 9, 19, 21). It was called the land, or “the mountain of Seir,” the rough hills on the east side of the Arabah. It extended from the head of the Gulf of Akabah, the Elanitic gulf, to the foot of the Dead Sea (1 Kings 9:26), and contained, among other cities, the rock-hewn Sela (q.v.), generally known by the Greek name Petra (2 Kings 14:7). It is a wild and rugged region, traversed by fruitful valleys. Its old capital was Bozrah (Isa. 63:1). The early inhabitants of the land were Horites. They were destroyed by the Edomites (Deut. 2:12), between whom and the kings of Israel and Judah there was frequent war (2 Kings 8:20; 2 Chr. 28:17).

At the time of the Exodus they churlishly refused permission to the Israelites to pass through their land (Num. 20:14-21), and ever afterwards maintained an attitude of hostility toward them. They were conquered by David (2 Sam. 8:14; comp. 1 Kings 9:26), and afterwards by Amaziah (2 Chr. 25:11, 12). But they regained again their independence, and in later years, during the decline of the Jewish kingdom (2 Kings 16:6; R.V. marg., “Edomites”), made war against Israel. They took part with the Chaldeans when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, and afterwards they invaded and held possession of the south of Palestine as far as Hebron. At length, however, Edom fell under the growing Chaldean power (Jer. 27:3, 6).

There are many prophecies concerning Edom (Isa. 34:5, 6; Jer. 49:7-18; Ezek. 25:13; 35:1-15; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11; Obad.; Mal. 1:3, 4) which have been remarkably fulfilled. The present desolate condition of that land is a standing testimony to the inspiration of these prophecies. After an existence as a people for above seventeen hundred years, they have utterly disappeared, and their language even is forgotten for ever. In Petra, “where kings kept their court, and where nobles assembled, there no man dwells; it is given by lot to birds, and beasts, and reptiles.”

The Edomites were Semites, closely related in blood and in language to the Israelites. They dispossessed the Horites of Mount Seir; though it is clear, from Gen. 36, that they afterwards intermarried with the conquered population. Edomite tribes settled also in the south of Judah, like the Kenizzites (Gen. 36:11), to whom Caleb and Othniel belonged (Josh. 15:17). The southern part of Edom was known as Teman.

From M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1893), in the public domain.

Named in 79 verses

Genesis: 32:3, 36:16, 36:17, 36:21, 36:31, 36:32, 36:43
Exodus: 15:15
Numbers: 20:14, 20:18, 20:20, 20:21, 20:23, 21:4, 24:18, 33:37, 34:3
Joshua: 15:1, 15:21
Judges: 5:4, 11:17, 11:18
1 Samuel: 14:47
2 Samuel: 8:12, 8:14
1 Kings: 9:26, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 22:47
2 Kings: 3:8, 3:9, 3:12, 3:20, 3:26, 8:20, 8:22, 14:10
1 Chronicles: 1:43, 1:51, 1:54, 18:11, 18:13
2 Chronicles: 8:17, 20:2, 25:20
Psalms: 60:8, 60:9, 83:6, 108:9, 108:10
Isaiah: 11:14, 63:1
Jeremiah: 9:26, 25:21, 27:3, 40:11, 49:7, 49:17, 49:20, 49:22
Lamentations: 4:21, 4:22
Ezekiel: 25:12, 25:13, 25:14, 32:29, 35:15, 36:5
Daniel: 11:41
Joel: 3:19
Amos: 1:6, 1:9, 1:11, 2:1, 9:12
Obadiah: 1:1, 1:8
Malachi: 1:4

The place, its people and its events come from Theographic, a knowledge graph of the Bible by Robert Rouse, used and shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.