IDUMEA. 
the rocks, whose habitation is high. Shall I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, 
and understanding out of the Mount of Esau? The house of Jacob shall possess 
their possessions, but there shall not he any remaining of the house of Esau.” 1 
Malachi, in closing the prophetic volume, fixes a remarkable and final interdict 
on the recovery of the nation: “ I laid the mountain of Esau and his heritage waste 
for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished; but 
we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of Hosts, They 
shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness.” 2 
This weight of Divine wrath seems to have been especially heaped on Idumea 
(Edom) in consequence of its peculiar hostility to the chosen people. The territory 
had been in the possession of Esau, and his immediate descendants, who had driven 
out the Horites. 3 In the march of the people under Moses, when they demanded 
leave to pass along the chief road of the country, leading directly to Palestine, the 
Edomites fiercely refused, and the Israelites, who then were not commissioned to make 
war upon this prejudiced and inhospitable race, turned aside, and retracing their steps, 
were forced to make the circuit of the frontier. 
The growing kingdom of Saul avenged those injuries, and probably many others 
by a war; and the more vigorous administration of David conquered the whole country. 
But in the troubled times which followed, the Edomites, enriched by commerce, and 
probably stimulated by the feebleness of the Jews, threw off the yoke, and fought 
them with varying fortune. At length the Syrian invasions of Israel prompted them 
to make more direct attacks, in which they carried off plunder and captives; until 
the hour of Jewish overthrow was ripe, and Edom was found joining the troops of 
Babylon. 4 In the Captivity, they even made an effort to master Palestine, and took 
possession of the country- as far as Hebron; but were subsequently driven out by 
the valour of the Maccabees. The tide of conquest now recoiled, and Idumea itself 
was long governed by Jewish authorities. 
The history of heathenism is the history of perpetual war. A new enemy from 
the Desert, the Nabathaei, or sons of Nebaioth, the son of Ishmael, suddenly invaded 
the southern border; and, changing their wandering habits for traffic and industry, 
became powerful. Within little more than a century (about 150 years before our era) 
they were in possession of the chief part of Edom. The capital had formerly been 
Bozrah; but Sela (a rock, petra) now became its principal city, and probably from 
the city was given the name of the region, Petrsea. 
The Idumeans were heard of once more in the siege of Jerusalem, when, entering 
the City in large bodies, they joined the factions, and added their violences to the 
sins and sufferings of the falling nation. The nominal independence of the kingdom 
continued for about thirty years after the fall of Jerusalem. In the reign of Trajan 
(a.d. 105) it was conquered and annexed to the Empire. 
The position of Petra between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean poured into 
it the commerce which has always constituted national opulence; it became a great 
1 Obadiah. 2 Malachi, i. 3, 4. 
3 Genesis, xxxvi. 6. 4 Ezekiel, xxv. 12. Obadiah. 
