ARTICLES THE LAND OF SEIR AND THE BROTHERHOOD
OF EDOM Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021
HROUGHOUT the Old Testament we find the land of Edom closely connected with Seir, or mount Seir, and many scholars1 Thave assumed that Edom and Seir are the same land, sometimes claiming that the two names describe different aspects of the land, Seir referring to the wooded nature of parts of the eastern slopes of the toddi el 'araba, and Edom to its red sandstone cliffs.2 It is the purpose of this essay to question the common identification of Seir with Edom, to explore the relationship of Seir, Edom, and Esau to one another, and to suggest that Edom came to be regarded as 'brother* to Israel and to Judah by separate processes and for different reasons.
I Our earliest references to Seir come from Egypt. In a letter found at el-Amarna, king Abdi-hiba of Jerusalem says, 'The land of the king is lost; in its entirety it is taken from me; there is war against me, as far as the lands of Seir (and) as far as Gath-carmell All the governors are at peace, but there is war against me.'3 Another reference to Seir comes from Tanis (biblical Zoan), probably from the early years of Rameses II: 'Fierce raging lion, who has laid waste the land of the Asiatic nomads, who has plundered Mount Seir with his valiant arm.'4 A further reference to Seir appears in the Papyrus Harris, which dates
1 e.g., G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (Fontana Library ed., 1966), pp. 356 ff.; W. F. Albright, review of F. M. Abel, Giographie de la Palestine, vol. i (1933), in JJP.O.S. xv (1935), pp. 187 f.; N. Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (1940), pp. 134, 149; J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the Old Testament (1939), sections 68, 435; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1966), p. 37. 2 e.g., W. F. Albright, loc tit., and in 'The Oracles of Balaam', J.BX. btiii (1944), pp. 207 ff., p. 229 n. 128; Y. Aharoni, loc. tit. J The translation is Albright's from J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament (2nd ed., 1955), p. 488. J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln (1907-15), vol. i, p. 871, and vol. ii, p. 1340, and S. A. B. Mercer, The Tell el-Amarna Tablets (1939), vol. ii, p. 715, punctuate with a stop after the first 'war against me', and remove the stop after Gath-carmel. See also E. Dhorme, RJ3. N.S. v (1908), pp. 500 ff., 'Les pays bibliques au temps d'el Amarna', p. 518. 4 Albright, J.BX. btiii (1944), p. 228; see P. Montet, Les Nouvelles Fouilles de Tanis, 1929-1932 (1933), pp. 70 ff. [Journal of Theological Studies, N.S^ VoL XX, Pt. 1. April 1969] 021.1 B a J. R.BARTLETT from the end of the reign of Rameses III:1 'I brought about the de- struction of Seir (det. 'foreign people') among the tribes of the Asiatic nomads. I laid waste their tents, with their people, their belongings, and likewise their cattle without listing (i.e., without number). They were bound and brought as spoil, as tribute of Egypt. I gave them to 2 the divine Ennead as slaves of their temples.' Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 From the period c. 1375-1150 B.C., then, we have reference to 'the lands of Seir', 'Mount Seir', and the foreign people Seir 'among the tribes of the Asiatic nomads'. We have also the well-known message of an Egyptian frontier official, informing his superior that 'We have finished letting the Shfisu tribes of Edom pass the fortress of Meneptah- hotphimaVe' (1. p.h.), which is
II According to the Old Testament, mount Seir was the home of the families of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36: 20, 30; Deut. 2: 12, 22) and of Esau (Gen. 36: 8 f., Deut. 2: 4 f., Josh. 24: 2 ff.5). These Horite and Esau tribes of Seir, as Eduard Meyer showed, had clan connections 1 Rameses Ill's reign is dated by A. Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs (1961), p. 446, as 1183-1151 B.C., and by J. Bright, A History of Israel (i960), p. 466, as c. 1175-1144 B.C. For the date of the Papyrus Harris, see A. R. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (1906), vol. iv, pp. 87 ff. For the dating of the campaign against Seir to the latter part of Rameses' reign, see Albright, JJBJ^. lxiii (194+), P- 229- 1 For the translation see Albright, art. cit., p. 329, and for similar translations see A. R. Breasted, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 201; J. A. Wilson in J. B. Pritchard, op. cit., p. 262; see also A. Gardiner, op. cit., p. 288. J The translation is from R. A. Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (1954). p. 293: cf. A. R. Breasted, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 272 f.; J. B. Pritchard, op. cit., p. 259; A Gardiner, op. cit., p. 274, * Albright, art, cit., p. 229. • For Josh. 24: 2 ff. as an ancient Israelite cultic confession, see G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology (F.ngiiaVi ed., 1962), vol. i, pp. 121 ff., and The Problem of the Hexateuch and other essays (English ed., 1966), pp. 6, 81. For recent criticism of von Rad's view, see R. E. Clements, God's Choten People (1968), pp. 55 f- THE LAND OF SEIR 3 with southern Judah.1 Not only were some of Esau's sons born to him in the land of Canaan before he moved to Seir (Gen. 36: 1-7), but also several of the names of the Horite and Esau clans of Seir reappear among the Calebite, Jerahmeelite, and other Judahite families listed in 1 Chronicles 2 and 4.* Thus among the Horite clans Meyer linked, for
example, Hori (Gen. 36: 22) with Calebite Hur (1 Chron. 2: 19, 50, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 4: 1; Exod. 31: 2: cf. Num. 13: 5, where Hori appears as a Simeonite), and Shobal (Gen. 36: 20, 23) with the Calebite Shobal (1 Chron. 2: 50, 52), and Ithran (Gen. 36: 26) with Jether (1 Chron. 2: 32), the Ithrites (1 Chron. 2: 53), and with Khirbet 'Attir (biblical Jattir). Shobal'8 child Manahath (Gen. 36: 23) seems to be related to the Menuhoth (1 Chron. 2: 52), and Aharoni connects this name with a town Manahath south-west of Jerusalem; the sons of Jerahmeel Onam and Oren (1 Chron. 2: 25 ff.) are perhaps the Horite Onam and Aran (Gen. 36: 23, 28: cf. Onan of Judah, Gen. 38: 4ff.).3 Man (Gen. 36: 27: Jaakan in 1 Chron. 1: 42) is reminiscent of the Bene-jaakan of Num. 33: 31 and Deut. 10: 6, who were to be found on the route from the wilderness of Sinai (or from Kadesh-bamea and mount Hor)4 to Ezion- geber, and thus probably belong to the Negeb west of the Arabah. The genealogies of the Esau clans also show connections with Judah. Among the sons 'born in the land of Canaan' of Esau's Horite wife Oholibamah was Korah (Gen. 36: 5: cf. Korah the son of Hebron of Calebite stock, 1 Chron. 2: 43). Esau's Hittite wife Adah bore him Eliphaz on Canaanite soil, and among the sons of Eliphaz was Kenaz (Gen. 36: 11) who was presumably born in mount Seir (Gen. 36: 8 f.) and is found in 1 Chron. 4: 13 among the sons of Judah. The first son of Kenaz, Othniel, settled in Debir (Jud. 1: 13, 3: 9), and the second son, Seruiah, was the father of Joab 'the father of the valley of craftsmen, for they were craftsmen' (1 Chron. 4: 14, RVm). Nelson Glueck makes
1 For full details see E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstdmme (1906), pp. 328-54: cf. J. Wellhausen, De Gentibus et Familiis Judaeis (1870), pp. 38 ff. 1 On these chapters, see J. Wellhausen, op. cit.: according to J. Bright, A History of Israel (English ed., 1960), p. 123 n. 62, 'The lists of 1 Chron., chs. 2 and 4, reflect conditions under the monarchy.' For further discussion, see J. M. Myers, 1 Chronicles (The Anchor Bible, 1965), pp. 12-16, 27-31, and the literature there cited. J The Land of the Bible (1966), pp. 224 f. • See J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the Old Testa- mtnt (1959), sections 434-8. Kadesh-bamea is generally held to be modern 'Ain el- Qudeir&t (cf. most recently Aharoni, op. cit., p. 380), while mount Hor h"" been identified with various places in the Negeb—e.g., Jebel el-Medhra (see G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1966), p. 368; D. F. Buhl, Geschichte der Edomter (1893), p. 23; N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (1959), p. 206), or with Jebel el-Hamrah slightly west of Jebel cl-Medhra (J. Simons, op. cit., section 436), or with 'Imdret el-Kkureisheh ( ?) (Aharoni, op. cit., p. 378). See also F. M. Abel, Giographie de la Palestine, voL i (1933), pp. 386 f. 4 J. R. BARTLETT the Kenizzites with the Kenites the coppersmiths of the Arabah, though both clans seem to have been known further west than this.1 Amalek, who also dwelt near the Kenites on the southern borders of Judah,2 is reckoned in Gen. 36: 12 to the Esau complex as a son of a concubine of Esau's Canaan-born son Eliphaz.
For the original location of the Esau and Horite clans east of the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 Arabah, however, there is little evidence in Gen. 36. Only one name from the clan-lists, and four from the list of 'dukes' in Gen. 36: 40 ff. (which appears to be a list made up from Edomite place-names and clan- names already met with in the chapter), can be linked with the land east of the Arabah. These five names (Teman, Gen. 36: 11; Elah (= ? Elath), Pinon (= Punon), Mibzar, and Magdiel, Gen. 36: 41 f.) appear to be place-names,3 not clan-names, and are not evidence for the presence of Esau and Horite clans east of the Arabah.4 Thus while not every identification of an Esau or Horite clan with a Judahite clan may seem convincing, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the Esau and Horite clans had dose links with clans inhabiting southern Judah and her borders. The Calebites are known to have settled in the Hebron area; recently Aharoni has argued that Tell Arad was the centre of the Kenites, Tell el-Milh belonged to the Jerahmeelites, and Hormah (Tell el-Meshash) was in the territory of 1 N. Glueck, PJZ.Q. (1940), pp. 22 ff., 'Kenites and Kenizzites'. See Jud. 1: 13> 1f>, 3:9:1 Sam. 15: 6, 27: io, 30: 29, and Y. Aharoni's chapter 'The Negeb' in Archaeology and Old Testament Study (1967), ed. D. Winton Thomas, pp. 384-401. * Num. 24: 20 f.; Jud. 1. 16; 1 Sam. 30: 1. 3 For Teman, see J. R. Bartlett, "The Edomite King-list of Genesis xxxvi. 31-39 and 1 Chron. i. 43-50' {J.T.S., N.S. xvi (1965), pp. 301 ff., esp. p. 307). Elah may be Elath (cf. Deut. 2: 8; 1 Kings 9: 26; 2 Kings 14: 22) whose con- nection with Ezion-geber presents several problems; cf. E. Sellin, 'Zur Lage von Ezion-geber' (ZMJ'.V. lix (1936), pp. 123 ff.), and N. Glueck, "The topography and history of Ezion-geber and Elath' (B.A.S.O.R. bcxii (1938), pp. 2 ff.). Pinon (Punon, Num. 33: 42) has been identified with Feindn in the mountains of Edom east of the Arabah (cf. Aharoni, op tit., p. 382). Mibzar Simons thinks of as 'fortified city' and tentatively identifies with Bozrah (op. tit., section 393: cf. W. R. Smith, 'Animal worship and animal tribes among the Arabs and in the Old Testament" (Journal of Philology, a. (1890), pp. 75 ff., 90): cf. the ")^7? "l'V of P8. 108: 10. Eusebius identifies Mibzar with a large village Mabsara of his own day in Gebalene (E. Klostermann, Etuebiui: Dai Onomastikon aer bibHschen Ortmamen. G.C.S. xi (1904), p. 124, 1. 20). Magdiel is completely unknown; Eusebius (ibid., 1. 22) sets it vaguely in Gebalene. 4 B. Moritz, 'Edomitische Genealogien' (Z.A.T.W. xliv (1926), pp. 81 ff.), has suggested (pp. 90 f.) that Alvan (Gen. 36: 23) is modern 'Elj&n in northern Edom, Ezer (Gen. 36: 21) the Asarfln mentioned in an Assyrian campaign in Transjordan, and Shobal (Gen. 36: 20) modern S6bala in northern Edom; but these identifications are hazardous. For Horite clans see H. L. Ginsberg and B. Maisler (JJ'.O.S. xiv (1934), pp. 243 ff.), 'Semitized Hurrians in Pale- stine and Syria'. THE LAND OF SEIR 5 Simeon,1 these places lying south of Hebron, between Beersheba and the southern end of the Dead Sea. It may be, then, that we should look for Seir in the Negeb to the south of Beersheba.
Ill
This possibility has a fair measure of support from other Old Testa- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 ment references to Seir. Thus according to Deut. i: 2 it is eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea2 by the way of mount Seir—a route described in Deut. i: 19 as 'all that great and terrible wilderness'. Similarly, on the journey from Kadesh 'into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea' (Deut. 1: 40),3 the Amorites, whom the parallel story of Num. 14: 45 designates as 'the Amalekites and the Canaanitea', thereby probably setting them in the Negeb, beat the Israelites down 'in Seir,4 even unto Hormah' (Tell el-Meshash, near Beersheba),5 and the Israelites returned to Kadesh (Deut. 1: 44 ff.). From Kadesh (Deut. 1: 46, 2: 1) 'we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea .. . and we compassed mount Seir many days. And the LORD spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir.... So we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion-geber' (Deut. 2: 1-8). The references to Seir in Deut. 1 certainly suggest that Seir lay west of the Arabah, and Deut. 2: 1-8 does not compel us to take a different view.6 According to Joshua 15: 2 ff.7 (cf. Num. 34: 3 ff.; Ezek. 47: 19), 1 Archaeology and Old Testament Study, ed. D. Winton Thomas (1967), pp. 400 f. 1 For Horeb, usually identified with Sinai, and its location, see, e.g., J. Simons, op. cit., section 429; Aharoni, op. cit., p. 182 and n. 22, and references there given. For Kadesh-bamea see above, p. 3 n. 4. J For the tradition of the journey from Kadesh, see M. Newman, The People of the Covenant (English ed. 1965), pp. 101 ff. 4 The Septuagint gives 'from Seir': cf. D. F. Buhl, Geschichte der Edomiter (1893), p. 25 n. 1, and J. Simons, op cit., section 434, 1 Cf. Simons, ibid., sections 317, 434; Y. Aharoni, op. cit., p. 378. 6 See G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1966 edition), p. 360; J. Gray, Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967), p. 121. 7 "The boundary points (verses 1-12). . . are based on a tradition from the pre-monarchic period, as their partial recognition in Solomon's fiscal divisions (1 Kg. 4. 7-19) indicates, but in the case of Judah, those reflect later conditions in the time of Josiah, when the Philistine plain was incorporated' (J. Gray, op. cit., pp. 139 f.). The work of A. Alt and M. Noth on the boundary lists is well known: for references to it and for further examination of the lists, see J. Gray, ibid., pp. 23 ff., 139 ff., and Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1966), pp. 63 ff., 78 f., 228 ff., 297 ff. 6 J. R. BARTLETT the ancient border of southern Judah ran from the southern end of the Dead Sea to a point south of the ascent of Akrabbim1 through Zin and 'up by the south of Kadesh-barnea'. The course of the boundary west of the ascent of Akrabbim is perhaps further elucidated by Joshua 11: 17 and 12: 7, where mount Halak2 'that goeth up to Seir' is quoted as
the southernmost limit of the conquests of Joshua and the Israelites. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 This possibly suggests that Seir is the mountainous region between Kadesh and the Arabah. Some such position would also be consistent with the tradition of 1 Chron. 4: 42 f., according to which five hundred Simeonites3 'went to mount Seir,... and they smote the remnant of the Amalekite8 that escaped, and dwelt there unto this day'. We have already noticed Amalek's connection with the Esau clans of Seir. In 2 Chron. 20: 1 ff. we read of a campaign in southern Judah4 in which some part seems to have been taken by the Meunim, whose home may also have been west of the Arabah ;5 after verse 1, however, the Meunim disappear, and their place is taken by 'the children of mount Seir' or 'the inhabitants of mount Seir' (verses 10, 23). The historical kernel of this story is not altogether clear, but behind the Chronicler's under- standing of the children of Seir as Edomites (cf. 2 Chron. 20: 2, where 1 See J. Gray, op. cit., p. 140, and references there given for the usual identifi- cation of the pass with Naqb Sefei. Aharoni, however, says that there is no evidence for this identification (op. cit., p. 63). 1 See J. Gray, op. cit., p. 121; Aharoni, op. cit., Map 4, p. 64; N. Glueck, 'The boundaries of Edom' (H.U.C~A. xi (1938), pp. 141 ff., and p. 154); G. A. Smith, op. cit, p. 360 n. 2. 1 For the Simeonites and their original home see M. Noth, The History of Israel (and English ed., i960), pp. 70 f. 4 See M. Noth, 'Eine Palistinische Lokaliiberlieferung im II Chr. 30' (Z.DJ>.V. lxvii (1945). PP- 45 ff-)- 5 'The only text in the OT, in which the mention of a tribe or people 'Meu- nites' is critically unimpeachable, is 2 Ch. xxvi. 7, where the name (Hebr.: D'J13??p) occurs side by side with that of the Philistines and a division of the Arabs. LXX here renders the Hebrew name by Mwaloi. This wan ants the belief that the same people are meant in 2 Ch. xxvi. 8 (I'M: "amm6nim', LXX: MivaUu) and in 1 Ch. iv. 41 (TM: 'me'Inlm', LXX: Mivaioi), as well as in a Ch. xx. 1, where not only LXX reads Aftvo/w but "ammSnim' of TM cannot be retained because of the immediately preceding ben£ 'ammon and should be emended to 'me'unlm" (J. Simons, op. cit., section 164). (Ezra 2: 50 = Neh. 7: 52 also refers to 'the children of Meunim' among the temple slaves, the Nethinim.) Simons identifies the Meunim with the inhabitants of Ma'fin, a modern town east of the mountains of ancient Edom. But the peoples mentioned in 1 Chron. 4: 41 and 2 Chron. 36: 7 f. are clearly connected with the Negeb (for the emendation of Gur-baal, 2 Chron. 26: 7, to 'in Gerar" or 'in the Negeb', see D. F. Buhl, GaMchte der Edoimter (1893), p. 41, and J. Simons, op. cat., section 1000). Perhaps we should compare the Meunim with the Calebite clan Maon (1 Chron. 2: 45: cf. Jud. 10: 12) and the town Maon (Josh. 15: 55), the wilderness of Maon (1 Sam. 23: 34) 'in the Arabah on the south of the desert', and Na,bal of Maon (1 Sam. 25: 2 ff.). THE LAND OF SEIR 7 Syria is probably a mistake for Edom,1 and 2 Chron. 25: 11, 14) may lie the tradition of a campaign against the children of Seir of the Negeb who were attacking land immediately north of their own. Seir appears again in'the oracle of Dumah' (Isa. 21:11): 'Onecalleth unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night?' Jerome, com- menting on this passage, says, 'Est autem Duma non tota Idumaea Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 provincia, sed quaedam eius regio, quae ad Austrum vergit et ab urbe Palaestinae, quae hodie dicitur Eleutheropolis, viginti distat millibus, iuxta quam sunt montes Seir.'2 This agrees well with Josh. 15: 52, where Dumah appears in the Hebron region, 'the capital of the district which was especially associated with the Kenizzites'.' The reference of Isaiah4 and Jerome to Seir may thus also be evidence for the location of Seir in the Negeb. This location of Seir is perhaps also supported by the early references to Seir in the letter from el-Amarna and in Egyptian records. Thus Abdi-biba's use of Seir as a boundary point at the opposite end of the country to Gath-carmel is perhaps more natural if it refers to the last tract of land before the geographical boundary of the rift valley than it would be if Seir were the land beyond it. The Egyptian references to Seir perhaps suggest that Seir was nearer than Edom to Egypt; the Egyptians attacked Seir, to judge from what we have of their records, at least twice, but we do not hear of similar attacks on Edom at this early date. The most we can really claim, however, is that these early references to Seir are not inconsistent with the case we have made from the biblical evidence. rv The biblical evidence, however, does not give us a simple picture, for clearly Seir and Edom were not always distinguished in the minds of the Old Testament writers. In Gen. 14: 6 we cannot be sure whether 'the Horites in their mount Seir' are thought of as west or east of the Arabah.5 In Ezek. 25: 8 Seir appears in close connection with Moab, 1 Noth, art. cit. {Z.DJ'.V. lxvii (1945), p. 49). 1 P.L. xxiv. 316. J J. Gray, op. cit., p. 148. 4 The Septuagint rendering of Isaiah's Dumah as Idumaea is 'possibly an interpretation rather than a variant' (G. B. Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book 0} Isaiah (I.C.C., 1912), p. 359). * G. von Rad, Genesis (English ed., 1961), p. 174, describes Gen. 14 as 'a rather late literary product', speaking of its 'many traces of artificially archaising erudition' and of 'the great antiquity of isolated traditional elements'. Thus if the compiler, as is possible, made no clear distinction in his mind between Edom and Seir, the material he used may not have had Edom in mind at all; Edom is not mentioned, and 'the Horites in their mount Seir' are mentioned with El- paran, Kadesh, and Hazazon-tamar (= Engedi, 2 Chron. 30: a), all west of the 8 J. R. BARTLETT and this suggests that the writer is thinking of Edom.1 In Ezek. 35: 15, in an oracle otherwise devoted entirely to mount Seir, appear the words 'and all Edom', which suggest that for their author Seir and Edom were closely connected if not actually identical. Obadiah treats Edom at length without mentioning Seir, though he mentions 'the mount of
Esau' (verses 8, 9, 19, 21), and Esau as Jacob's brother, referring to Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 Edom and Judah; the oracle against Edom in Jer. 49: 7 ff. likewise makes no mention of Seir, but refers to Esau (verses 8, 10). But the prophetic material has for the most part forgotten Seir, which is not mentioned in the other prophetic passages referring to Edom,2 and which appears elsewhere in the prophets only in Isa. 21: 11.3 In Ecclus. 50:26 (RVm), however, 'Seir' is one of three detested nations, the other two being the Philistines and the Samaritans, and presumably Edom or Idumaea is in mind. The Chronicler mentions the children of Seir in two passages only, probably identifying them with the Edomites (2 Chron. 20: 10 ff., 25: n f.). Earlier material shows the close connection of Seir and Edom by naming them side by side in poetic parallelism. Thus in Num. 24: 18 Balaam says: And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession. . ., and in the Song of Deborah (Jud. 5: 4) we read: Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom . . ., with which we may compare Deut. 33: 2: Yahweh came from Sinai, And beamed forth unto them from Se'ir; He shone forth from mount Paran, And came from rMeribath-Kadesh1.4 A similar theophany is found in Hab. 3:3: God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran. Arabah or the Dead Sea. But the exact relationship of Seir to these other places (Gen. 14: 6f.) is here impossible to determine. For a recent study of Gen. 14 see Biblical Motifs: Origins and Transformations, ed. A. Altmann (1966), in which M. C. Astour in his essay 'Political and Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis 14 and in its Babylonian sources', pp. 65 ff., suggests a Deuteronomic author. 1 This is not certain, however; J. Simons, op. cit., section 68, thinks that the reference to Seir is a gloss. 1 i.e., Jer. 9: 26, 25: 21, 40: 11; Lam. 4: 21; Amos 1: 6, 9, 11, 9: 12; Joel 3: 19; Mai. 1: 2 ff.; Isa. 11: 14, 34: 6; Dan. n: 41: cf. Pss. 60, heading and verses 8 f., 83: 6, 108: 9 f., 137: 7. 3 See above, p. 7. 4 For this translation and the restoration 'Meribath-I£adesh' see C. F. Burney, The Book of Judges (1918), pp. 109 f. THE LAND OF SEIR 9 It is clear that the parallelismus membrorum of these verses does not mean that Seir is to be identified with Edom, any more than it means that Teman is to be identified with mount Paran;1 we have only to consider such parallel lines as Tell it not in Gath,
Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon (2 Sam. 1: 20) Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 to see that places named in parallel are not necessarily identical, however close their natural connection with one another. It is, however, inter- esting to note that Deut. 33: 2 groups Seir with two places (or three, if we accept Burney's emendation) most probably located west of the Arabah.2 It may be that this early setting in parallel of Seir and Edom contributed to the later confusion of the two places; the parallelism was perhaps misunderstood, for example, by the man who added 'the field of Edom' to the reference to Seir in Gen. 32: 3.'
V In Genesis, chapters 25-33 an(^ 3^» Edom and Seir are brought into close connection through the figure of Esau. But an examination of this material suggests that, though Israelite tradition came to look upon Esau as 'the father of Edom', earlier tradition linked Esau only with Seir. Genesis 36 may be summarized under the following heads: (a) w. 1-8 Esau's wives and sons born in Canaan, and their emigration to mount Seir; (b) w. 9-14 Esau's descendants in mount Seir; (c) w. 15-19 'dukes' of the sons of Esau 'in the land of Edom'; (d) vv. 20-30 sons of Seir the Horite, and Horite 'dukes'; (e) w. 31-9 kings that reigned in Edom; (/) w. 40-3 'dukes' that came of Esau. Of these sections, (e) has no reference either to Seir or to Esau, but only to Edom, and such geographical evidence as the list affords makes it clear that the list refers only to places situated east of the to&di el-'araba and the Dead Sea.4 Section (J) mentions Esau but not Seir; this section, 1 For Teman, see above, p. 4 n. 3. For mount Paran, sec Aharoni, op. cit., pp. 181 ff.; L. H. Grollenberg, Atlas of the Bible (1956), p. 44; J. Simons, op. cit., section 432. * See above, p. 5 n. 2; p. 9 n. 1; p. 3 n. 4. J Cf. H. Gunkel, Genesis (4th ed., 1917), p. 357; J. Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis (I.C.C., and ed., 1930), p. 405. The phrase 'the field of Edom' occurs elsewhere only in Jud. 5: 4, in the Song of Deborah, where it is paralleled by 'Seir', and it may well therefore have been introduced into the present passage under the influence of this parallelism. 4 See J. R. Bartlett, 'The Edomite King-list of Genesis zxxvi. 31—39 and I Chron. i. 43-50' (Jf.T.S. N.S. xvi (1965), pp. 301 ff.). 10 J. R.BARTLETT however, seems to be a compilation of place-names (Elath( ?), Pinon, Teman, Mibzar, and Magdiel)1 and six clan-names which have already appeared in the chapter, making a third list of the dukes of Edom 'after their places, by their names' (©. 40), and perhaps does not contain any reliable material.2 The 'dukes' of section (c) merely repeat the list of
sons of Eliphaz, Reuel, and Oholibamah from section (b). Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 This leaves us with three sections, (a), (b), (d), which appear to deal primarily with Esau and Seir, and which have their only reference to Edom in the loosely attached explanatory phrases 'the same is Edom', 'Esau is Edom', 'the father of Edom', and 'in the land of Edom' (vv. 1, 8, 9, 21; cf. in section (c) w. 17, 19, and in (J) v. 43). Kittel marks the occurrence of these phrases in w. 19, 43 as suspected additions to the text,3 and in view of the evidence for the distinction between Edom and Seir, the close connection of Esau with Seir rather than Edom elsewhere (cf. Deut. 2: 4, 8; Josh. 24: 4), and the relationship of the Esau and Horite clans with those of southern Judah, we may suggest that the primary tradition of Gen. 36 connects Esau and the Horites with Seir (vv. 8, 9, 20, 21, 30), and that the explanatory phrases, whether we treat them as of secondary value or as integral to the text, betray the overlaying of one tradition by another. Gen. 36 then tells us that Esau grew up and married in Canaan and then moved away from his brother Jacob to mount Seir, which became the home of the Esau clans, and that Esau became at some stage identified with Edom as its legendary ancestor. The primary connection of Esau with Seir and the location of Seir west of the Arabah are perhaps also supported by the evidence of the Jacob-Esau saga in Gen. 25-33. 1° &e course of the narrative, Esau's home is mentioned quite naturally in Gen. 33: 14, 16 as Seir, and this supports the conclusion of Gunkel and Skinner that in Gen. 32: 3, where Jacob sends messengers to Esau 'unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom', the second phrase is a gloss.4 We may note that the whole Jacob-Esau saga (apart from the scenes in Mesopotamia or on the banks of the Jabbok) takes place in the Negeb, and at no point directly connects Esau with the land of Edom. Jacob and Esau belong with their father Isaac to the south Judaean wilderness—Isaac dwelt by the wells at Lahai Roi, Gerar, Sitnah, and Rehoboth*—and the centre of 1 See above, p. 4 n. 3. 1 For Timna, cf. c. 12; Alvah, cf. Alvan, v. 23; Jetheth, cf. Ithran, v. 26; Oholibamah, cf. vv. 2 ff.; Iram (LXX, Za^aufi). cf. Iru, 1 Chron. 4: 15 (which also mentions Elah and Kenaz), and Zepho, v. 11. For these details, see E. Meyer, Die Israeliten tmd ihre NachbarsUimme (1906), p. 353 n. 1. 1 R. Kittel, Biblia Hebrcdca (7th ed., 1957), ad loc 4 See above, p. 911.3. • G«n. 25: 11, a6: 6, 21 f. THE LAND OF SEIR II the story is set at Beersheba, where, apparently, Isaac blesses his sons, and whence Jacob goes to Haran, and Esau to Ishmael and eventually to Seir.1 Thus where Esau's home is mentioned in the saga, it is in southern Judah, or among the Ishmaelites, or in Seir.3 There is, however, one passage (Gen. 25: 25-30) which appears to
connect Esau with Edom (though it is not said that Esau's home was Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 in Edom). Thus in Gen. 25: 25 we read of Esau's birth that 'the first came forth red ('jiOlS), all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau'. Gunkel suggested that the narrative was not primarily concerned with the homes of Jacob and Esau at all, but rather with the distinction between the settled man (cf. v. 27), Jacob, the smooth man (Gen. 27: 11), and the nomadic hunter, Esau, the shaggy man, and that the descriptions 'red' and 'shaggy' are applied to Esau because they are appropriate to the nomads of the wilderness.3 But whether the primary reference of 'red' in Gen. 25: 25 is to the nomadic complexion or to the land of Edom, the word comes awkwardly into the verse, for redness is not the usual characteristic of a hairy garment, which is here apparently used to illustrate the colour ;4 the description of Esau, however, as 'like an hairy (lyi?) garment' agrees with the tradition we find elsewhere (cf. Gen. 27: 11) and puns on Seir (T'Vf?) and perhaps even on the not too dissimilar Esau (Ifp?). It seems that this verse witnesses to Esau's connection with both Seir and Edom, but that the earlier tradition was probably that which here connected him with Seir.5 In Gen. 25: 30 we have another explanation of Esau's connection with Edom: 'Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage (njij D'T^H D*T^!1"|ip); for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.' Gunkel has explained this as another joke at the hunter's expense—Esau called it 'the red stuff because he did not know what else to call it6—and held that the words 'therefore was his name called
1 Gen. 26: 32 f., 28: 9 f., 33: 14 ff.,36 : 8f. * So too in Jubilees 38:9 Esau is said to be buried at Adoraim, 5 miles south- west of Hebron. But as Jubilees dates probably from the second century B.C., this tradition may be evidence for the later Edomite occupation of southern Judah (Esau by the second century having long been identified with Edom) rather than for the original home of Esau. 1 Mace. 5: 65 finds children of Esau in the Hebron district, which Judas devastates, and Josephus mentions Adoreon and Marisa, west of Hebron, as Edomite towns captured by Hyrcanus (Ant. XIII. ix. 1; xni. iv. 4; Bell. Iud, 1. ii. 6). 1 Gunkel, Genesis (4th ed., 1917), pp. 296, 316. 4 See S. Blank, 'Studies in post-exilic universalism' (H.U.C.A. xi (1938), pp. 159 ff.,177) . 5 Blank, ibid., denying that Esau was originally connected with either Edom or Seir, says that the 'supposed allusion' to Seir here is accidental, Esau's hairiness being an integral part of the story. But it is difficult not to believe that the word-play was intentional. ' Gunkel, op. cit., p. 297. 12 J. R. BARTLETT Edom' were a gloss; but even if we accept this, it seems hard to deny the punning reference to Edom in the mention of 'the red stuff'. There is no doubt that the tradition in Genesis as we have it connects Esau with Edom; but in view of the evidence already considered, this tradi- tion may not be the earlier one.1
Sheldon Blank has worked out a thesis that in this Jacob-Esau saga Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 there are two main strata, first, the saga in which Jacob and Esau are merely persons, and second, the 'nationalising additions' which make them symbols of Judah and Edom (Gen. 15: 23, 27: 29a, 37a, 40b).2 Blank attempts to show these verses as secondary additions and to fit these 'nationalising' additions into a particular reconstruction of the history of the relations between Judah and Edom. That the saga was eventually considered as prophetically concerned with the enmity of Judah and Edom is clear: Obadiah sets 'the house of Jacob' and 'the house of Esau' with clear reference to Judah and Edom against each other (cf. Jer. 49: 10; Mai. 1: 2ff.). But the 'nationalising additions', if additions they are, do not name any nations; they rather describe in fairly general terms the eternal conflict between the farmers of the cultivable land and the nomads of the desert3—that is, Jacob and Esau and their descendants. The Jacob—Esau saga tells the story of the struggle on the borders of the wilderness and the cultivable land in the Beersheba area of two groups represented by Jacob and Esau, the plain man dwelling in tents and the cunning hunter, the man of the field, respectively. As a result of the struggle, Esau made his home in Seir, which appears to be the less cultivable land south of Beersheba.
VI If, then, Seir originally lay west of the Arabah, south of Beersheba, and if Esau originally belonged to the land and people of Seir, who had close connections with the peoples of the southern borders of Judah, we have to ask how it was that Esau came to be identified as 'the father of Edom' (Gen. 36: 9, RVm) and the Edomite as the Israelite's brother (Deut. 23: 7). The Old Testament references to Edom's brotherhood are few but interesting. Deut. 23: 7 lays down that 'Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother.' Amos 1: 11 threatens Edom 'because he did pursue his brother with the sword'; this is preceded
1 Cf. M. Noth, tiberlieferungsgescMchte des Pentateucht (1948), p. 104:'Da»3 die Gleichung Esau = Edom (Gen. xxv. 30, J) ein spates Produkt einer secun- d&ren Korabination ist. . . diirfte angesichta anderer ahnlicher Ffllle nicht ernstlich zu bezweifeln sein.' See also ibid., p. 210. • Art. cit. (H.XJ.CJi.. xi (1938), pp. 159 ff). J See, for example, N. Glueck, The Otfier Side of the Jordan (1940), p. 6, THE BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM 13 by a threat to Tyre 'because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant' (Amos 1: 9: cf. 1: 6). Num. 20: 14 begins the message from Moses to the king of Edom with 'Thus says thy brother Israel'1. The central law-code of Deutero- nomy is thought to have its roots in the north rather than in the Jeru-
salem cultus; Amos is held to have exercised his whole ministry in Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 the north;2 and Num. 20: 14 ff. is thought to belong basically to the pentateuchal source 'E',3 which is also held to be northern in origin. It seems that by the eighth century B.C. the northern kingdom could think of Edom as a brother; and though Edom had been guilty on occasion of unbrotherly behaviour, Edom was not to be abhorred— indeed the children of the third generation could enter into the assembly of the Lord. It ia interesting that these northern references to Edom as brother do not mention Esau or Seir, and in this they contrast with the references to Edom's brotherhood in Obad. 10, 12, Mai. 1: 2 ff., Gen. 25: 25 ff., and Gen. 36 (cf. also Jer. 49: 10), which all come from southern tradition. Perhaps the southern tradition is also reflected in the refer- ence of Deut. 2: 4, 8 to 'your brethren the sons of Esau who live in Seir', for Deut. 1: 1-4: 43 is generally agreed to be distinct in origin from the main Deuteronomic legal corpus to which Deut. 23: 7 belongs, and must be assigned, according to von Rad, 'probably to the so- called Deuteronomic historical work'.4 It is not unlikely that Israel and Judah had different attitudes towards Edom, and it may also be that they had different reasons for thinking of Edom as a brother nation. What did it mean in the northern kingdom to refer to Edom, a country far away the other side of Judah and Moab, as a brother ? Amos refers to the brotherly failings of Tyre and Edom side by side, and in the case of Tyre the reference seems to be to a covenant between Tyre and Israel. Thus Solomon and Hiram had 'made a league together'
1 It has been suggested by L. Waterman ('The authentication of conjectural glosses', JJil,. lvi (1937), pp. 253 ff., p. 259) that Hosea 12: 2 f. conceals a reference to Edom as the brother of Jacob, but this is unlikely: Hosea is con- cerned here with the dealings of Judah and Israel with Yahweh, and is illustrat- ing them with examples of Jacob's lack of scruple in getting his own way. The sense is complete without any reference to Edom here. * See, e.g., J. Bright, article 'Amos', Dictionary of the Bible (Hastings, revised ed. by F. C. Grant and H. H. Rowley, 1963), pp. 27 f. 3 Cf. L. E. Binns, The Book of Numbers (1927), pp. xxxiii, 133 ff.; G. B. Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (I.C.C., 1912), pp. 264 f. According to G. von Rad {Deuteronomy (English ed., 1966), p. 41) Num. 20: 14-21 'is hardly derived from early days, since it lacks all the peculiarities of an early local tradition'. 4 G. von Rad, ibid., p. 12. H J. R- BARTLETT (i Kings 5: 12) and Hiram called Solomon'my brother'(1 Kings 9:13), and the links between Tyre and Israel had been forged by the house of Omri.1 We may ask, then, whether Edom's brotherhood with Israel may not have implied something similar. After the division of the Solomonic kingdom, clearly Israel and
Edom had much in common as enemies of Judah. Even under Solomon, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 we find both a prince of Edom and a future king of Israel in exile in Egypt (1 Kings 11: 14 ff., 40). During the divided monarchy, good diplomatic relations between Israel and Edom would have been of value to both. For the first fifty years of the division, Judah and Israel were at war (cf. 1 Kings 14: 30, 15: 7, 16 f.) and though Jehoshaphat later made peace with Israel (1 Kings 22: 44), he appears at first to have been a vassal of the king of Israel (cf. 1 Kings 22: 4). Thus when Jehoshaphat tried to re-establish trade through Ezion-geber south of Edom, it is not surprising that Ahab's son Ahaziah should immediately ask for a share in the venture (1 Kings 22: 49). According to the Chronicler (2 Chron. 20: 35 ff.) the venture failed precisely because Jehoshaphat undertook it in co-operation with the king of Israel, who may indeed have had reason to be pleased with the result. Israel's interest in Edom at this time is further demonstrated by the part Edom played in the attack on Moab (2 Kings 3), in which both Judah and Edom appear to be acting under the command of the king of Israel. Edom was a natural ally of Israel against a strong Moab. It may not be entirely coincidental that a few years later, in the reign of Jehoshaphat's successor Jehoram (849-842 B.C.), Edom had shaken off Judah's rule (2 Kings 8: 22). Half a century later Amaziah of Judah attacked Edom (2 Kings 14: 7); the Chronicler (2 Chron. 25: 6 ff.) gives ua an interest- ing account of how Amaziah recruited 100,000 Israelite mercenaries and then on the advice of a man of God sent them home again. Possibly the Israelite soldiers were not thought to be reliable against the Edomites. Perhaps, too, Amaziah's challenge to Jehoash of Israel and Jehoash's response (2 Kings 14: 8 ff.) are to be seen in the light of an Israelite- Edomite agreement. And lastly, 2 Kings 16: 6 expressly Unks the Edo- mite recapture of Elath with the time of the Syro-Ephraimite war against Judah, and the Chronicler refers to an Edomite raid at this time against Judah (2 Chron. 28: 16 f.). The common interests and perhaps the concerted action of Israel and Edom in the face of Judah are thus clear, and though we have no explicit statement of an alliance, a 'brotherly covenant' between the two is far from unlikely. Thus Edom would be known as 'brother' 1 See I Kings 16: 31; Jezebel'8 father was, in fact, king of Tyre. See J. Gray, I & II Kings (1964), p. 333. THE BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM 15 in Israel for historical and political reasons, and perhaps quite in- dependently of any connection between Esau and Seir and Edom. In Judah, to whom Edom was primarily an enemy, a quite different set of historical events seem to have connected Edom to Judah in brotherly status. The references to Edom's brotherhood from Judahite tradition all refer to Esau or Seir. The Hnfc is clear in the present text Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 of Gen. 25: 25 ff. and 36, which we have already considered; in Obadiah w. io, 12 we read, 'For the violence done to thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee ... look not thou on the day of thy brother in the day of his disaster, and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.' Jerusalem and Judah are 'thy brother Jacob', and Edom is 'the mount of Esau' (w. 8, 9, 19, 21; cf. v. 6, and v. 18, 'the house of Esau', contrasted with the houses of Joseph and Jacob). Jer. 49: 10 (cf. 49: 7) speaks of Esau with reference to Edom. In Mai. 1: 2 ff. the contrast of Esau and Jacob, Edom and Israel is clearly stated (though 'Israel' for Malachi here presumably means the post-exilic community centred on Jerusalem). In these references we have the clear attachment of Edom to the Esau-mount Seir tradition, and Edom, by virtue of the identification with Esau, has become brother to Jacob and so to Judah and Jerusalem, which presumably after 721 B.C. had taken upon themselves the mantle of Israel.1 This brotherly status of Edom seems to have been well established in the south by the time of Obadiah. How did this happen ? The history of Edom shows a steady tendency for Edom to infiltrate into the land west of the Arabah. When Edom revolted from Judah in Jehoram's reign, Jehoram fought the Edomites at Zair (2 Kings 8: 21), a place otherwise unknown but identified variously by critics at Zoar (Gen. 13: 10, at the southern end of the Dead Sea), Zior (Josh. 15: 54, near Hebron) or as Seir.J The battle may have taken place west of the Arabah. Num. 20: 16 seems to know of Edom as extending west of the Arabah, for Kadesh is 'a city in the uttermost of thy border'. 2 Chron. 28: 16 f. says that Ahaz of Judah appealed to Assyria for help, 'for again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives', perhaps from south-east Judah, for the Philistines were meanwhile attacking 'the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with the towns thereof, and Timna
1 On the usage of 'Israel' with reference to Judah, see G. A. Danell, Studies in the name Israel in the Old Testament (1946), pp. 46 f., 287 f. 1 See B. Stade, 'Konig Joram von Juda und der Text von a K6n. 8, 31-04' (Zjl.T.W. xxi (1901), pp. 337 ft); J. Simons, op. cit., section 914; J. Gray, I & II Kings (.1964), pp. 481 f. 16 J. R.BARTLETT with the towns thereof, Gimzo also and the towns therof (2 Chron. 28: 18). But a doubt remains in this case, for 2 Kings 16: 6 refers only to the capture of Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba. H. L. Ginsberg suggested that in 701 B.C. Hezekiah's rebellion caused Sennacherib to partition southern Judah among the Philistines and Edomites:
It i» not likely that the Philistines either would or could control the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 southeast corner of Judah, and the latter will have fallen into the hands of the Edomites, if it had not already done so in 734. Now the famous stamped jar handles show that Judah regained Hebron and Ziph not later than the reign of Manasseh, but—whatever the purpose of the stamps may have been—it is cause for reflection that no name of a more southern locality figures among them. It would seem that Manasseh was less suc- cessful in recovering Edomite held land than in regaining Philistine held districts.1 The boundary description of Joshua 15: 1 ff., since the work of Alt taken as reflecting the situation in Josiah's time, suggests that Judah's southern boundary from the southern end of the Dead Sea by the ascent of Akrabbim, Zin, and Kadesh-barnea was contiguous with the border of Edom (cf. also Num. 21: 4 (E), 33: 37 (P), 34: 3 (P)).2 In 600 B.C. Jehoiakim of Judah rebelled from Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24: 1), and the first siege and deportation from Jerusalem followed two years later (2 Kings 24: 10 ff.). For the Edomites 'who had long since encroached on the southern borders of the land west of Jordan from their original home, having come westwards across the wadi el-araba, and were advancing in a northerly direction towards the mountains west of the Jordan, the defeat of the kingdom of Judah in 598 B.C. brought a substantial gain in this direction'.3 Alt has sug- gested that Jer. 13: 19—'The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive'—refers to the events of 598 B.C., and in view of the fact that the Negeb was not part of the Persian province of Judah, and that the lists of returned exiles do not include people of Negebite origin (Ezra 2; Neh. 7: 6 ff.), Alt infers that the Judah of 587 B.C., from which the Babylonians made a second deportation, had not included the Negeb, which had therefore been detached from it, most probably in 598 B.C.4 Ginsberg follows Alt here, and suggests that the beneficiaries were the Edomites,5
1 H. L. Ginsberg, 'Judah and the Transjordan States, 734-582 B.C.', in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (,I95°)> ed. S. Lieberman, p. 353. 1 See above p. 5 n. 7, p. 6. J M. Noth, The History of Israel (and English ed., i960), pp. 283 f. 4 'Judas Gaue unter Josia', Paldstinajakrbuch, xxi (1925), pp. 100 ff.: cf. H. L. Ginsberg, art. cit., Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, p. 363 n. 47. 1 Ibid., p. 364. THE BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM 17 which seems not unlikely. Rudolph thinks that Lam. 1 presupposes only the catastrophe of 598 B.C., not that of 587 B.C., and that Lam. 1: 10 is a clear allusion to the marauding neighbours of 2 Kings 24: 2.1 If we were to read 'Edomites' here for 'Syrians' with some scholars,2 we should have further evidence of Edomite willingness to take advantage of Judah's misfortunes at this time, but the change is not certain, 'Syrians' being supported by Jer. 35: 11. Other evidence of Edom's Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 settlement in southern Judah in this period is discussed by Albright: 1 Esdras iv. 50, which has been shown pretty convincingly by Torrey to belong to the original of the Chronicler's work, states that the Edomites had occupied Jewish villages before the outset of the reign of Darius. Now later data make it certain that the Edomites occupied the hill country round Adorea, Marisa and Hebron, i.e., the southern hill country of Judah, not the Negeb of Simeon, which seems to have been detached from the Jewish state in 598 B.C.1 ... we must carefully distinguish be- tween the 'Negeb of Simeon' [the southeastern part of Judah's hill country] which was not Edomite, and the hill country of Judah, south of Beth- zur, which became Edomite in the sixth century.4 It seems clear, then, that the Edomites over several centuries had been establishing themselves west of the Arabah and Dead Sea, and in so doing had also extended themselves across the territory which belonged traditionally to Esau and bis descendants—the land of Seir. Thus in the southern tradition Seir, always close to Edom, became part of Edom, and Esau the ancestor of the children of Seir became the father of Edom, and in view of Judah's long-standing enmity with Edom, Esau was an appropriate figure. The southern view of Edom lacks that emphasis on the brotherly rights of Edom which we found in the northern tradition, and this is entirely consistent with the dif- ferent ways in which north and south came to think of Edom as a brother. If the south came to identify Seir and Edom, and Esau as the father of Edom, because the Edomites gradually took over the land which had once belonged to the Esau clans, then it is not surprising
1 M. Haller and K. Galling, Die funf Megilloth (1940), p. 94. 1 See D. F. Buhl, Gackichte der Edoimter (1893), p. 70; H. L. Ginsberg, art. cit., Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, p. 356; J. Gray, I & II Kings (1964), p. 689, prefers to retain 'Aramaeans'. 3 Albright finds reference in Neh. 11: 25-8 to a group of towns in the Simeonite Negeb which escaped destruction in 598-586 B.C., and continued to be inhabited by Jews throughout the exilic period. 4 From a private letter of W. F. Albright to H. L. Ginsberg, quoted by Ginsberg, art cit., Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, p. 364 n. 47a. Albright gives no reference, but presumably refers to C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies (1910), p. 27. See also C. C. Torrey, 'Edomites in southern Judaea' {JJB1,. xvii (1898), pp. 16 f.).
621.1 C 18 J. R. BARTLETT that the identifications are not made until the later editing of the Pentateuch and the writings of Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Malachi. The possibility of an agreement between Israel and Edom explains the other- wise surprising fact that it is the northern tradition which first calls Edom 'brother', for the north could know nothing of the relationship
between Edom and Esau, which only came into being in the south Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 during the later centuries of the pre-exilic period.
VII We have suggested that mount Seir lay west of the Arabah in the high land south of Beersheba. A case for this position was first put by Abel,1 and his case was described by Albright as 'the least satisfactory part of the author's topography'.2 Albright criticized this view, first, on archaeological grounds formerly adduced by Nelson Glueck, and secondly, because Seir, Albright claimed, means 'wooded', and it was only Edom east of the Arabah that was wooded in historical times.3 However, Albright connects the word Seir with cognate Egyptian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Canaanite words meaning 'hair', 'thicket',4 and the Koehler-Baumgartner Lexicon gives for the root ISfo 'be hairy'.5 The word perhaps suggests, not that Seir was a country well covered with trees like the cedars and poplars which are in fact found in Edom, but rather that Seir was a land whose main growth was scrub or bush. Thus when Elijah went one day's journey into the wilderness from Beersheba (i Kings 19: 3 ff.), he 'came and sat down under a juniper tree', which is probably the broom (genista raetam),6 a small, scrubby plant standing about two or three feet high. We may compare the
1 Giographiede la Palestine, voL i (1933), pp. 181-5, 389-91. See also Diction- ruare de la Bible, Supplement IV, ed. A. Robert, under 'Idumee'. 2 Review of Abel's Giographie de la Palestine, vol. i, in J.P.O.S. xv (1935), pp. 187 f. 3 Ibid. 4 See W. F. Albright, The Vocalisation of Egyptian Syllabic Orthography (i934), p. 38. * L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti JJbros (1958), p. 927: cf. F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), pp. 972 f. See also G. A. Cooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Ezekul (I.C.C., 1936), p. 382—'Se'ir Git- hairy i.e. covered with brushwood)'; cf. G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1966), p. 358. For another suggestion, linking 'unto Seirah' of Jud. 3: 26 with the DTyfp, the goat-demons of the wilderness, see E. Taubler, Biblische Studien: die Epoche der Richter (1958), pp. 22 ff. * J. A. Montgomery and H. S. Gehman, A Critical and Exegetical Com- mentary on the Boohs of Kings (I.C.C., 1951), p. 312: cf. J. Gray, I & II Kings (1964), p. 363: 'rStem is broom, with a delicate white flower with maroon centre, commonly found among the beds of wadis.' THE BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM 19 findings of a modern survey of the area: 'The flora has much in common with that of Sinai, of which it is really a part; it is essentially tropical, though containing some Mediterranean and steppe infiltrations to- wards its northern limits. Many of the species found in the Dead Sea area and the Araba occur here. In places, grey halophytic bushes are a conspicuous feature of the landscape. The majority of the plants are xerophytic herbs and shrubs.'1 The name Seir, in fact, fits this area Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 very well. It used to be thought that the Negeb was too barren for human occupation, and the existence of any settled occupation there in the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Ages was denied by Glueck on the grounds that he found there no Early Iron or Bronze Age settlements, no water, no grazing areas, and no cultivable land.2 Critics pointed out that Glueck's surface discoveries hardly disproved occupation by nomadic people, who would leave behind them no permanent traces of their existence.3 Since 1936 Glueck has modified his former views about the Negeb's barrenness: The archaeological exploration of the Negeb has shown that it was never an uninhabited desert in historical times, that the climate has not changed in the past ten thousand years or so,4 and that parts of this southern half of the modern state of Israel were occupied intermittently by advanced agricultural civilisations from the fourth millennium B.C. Wherever we turned in the Negeb, but particularly in the north and central parts, we found evidence of the extensiveness of military and agricultural occupation during the period of the Judaean kingdom. The Negeb in the Iron II period was strongly fortified, extensively farmed, and also frequented by caravans. ... In the Iron II period the Negeb was militarily, economically, and agriculturally closely related to the rest of the kingdom of Judah.5 It was not until the period of the great Israelite expansion under Solomon and his successors when it became 1 Palestine and Jordan (Geographical Handbook Series, B.R. 514, The Board of Admiralty, 1943), p. 78. 1 N. Glueck, 'Explorations in East Palestine and the Negeb' (B.A.S.OJL lv (1934), pp. 9 ff., 18 f.); Explorations in Eastern Palestine, vol. II (A.A.S.OJi. *v (1934), p. 112); 'The Theophany of the God of Sinai' (J.A.O.S. lvi (1936), pp. 462 ff.); 'The boundaries of Edom' (H.U.CJl. xi (1938), pp. 141 ff., 152 f.). J L. Waterman, 'The authentication of conjectural glosses' (J.BX.. lvi (1937), pp. 253 ff.); H. L. Ginsberg, in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (1950), p. 347 n. 1; J. Simons, op. cit., section 68 n. 9. 4 For the question of climatic changes and their influence on the history of Palestine, see E. Huntington, Palestine and its transformation (1911), pp. 249 ff.; W. F. Albright, "The Jordan Valley in the Bronze Age' (AJl.S.OJL vi (1926), pp. 13 ff.); N. Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (1940), p. 26; A. D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible (1957), pp. 70 ff.; W. B. Fisher, The Middle East (4th ed., 1961), pp. 60 ff. • Glueck, "The seventh season of exploration in the Negeb' (B.A.S.OJt. clii (1958), pp. 18 ff., 36). 2O J. R. BARTLETT F>ossible to exploit such natural resources as the copper mines of the Wadi el-'Arabah, and to expand trade with Egypt and Arabia, aided by an increasing use of water-tight cisterns, that the Negeb south of Beer- sheba came into its own economically.1 Thus Glueck finds that until c. iooo B.C. the Negeb was occupied 2
only by bedouin. This agrees well with the Egyptian references from Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jts/article/XX/1/1/1681574 by guest on 24 September 2021 the time of Rameses III to 'the destruction of Seir (det. "foreign people") among the tribes of the Asiatic nomads',3 and also with the traditional picture of Esau the nomad, the 'cunning hunter, a man of the field' (Gen. 25: 27) who lived in this area. Neither the Esau clans nor their Horite predecessors are said to have had cities, as had the kings of Edom east of the Arabah (Gen. 36: 31 ff.).4 Glueck has shown that while in Edom there was settled occupation from the thirteenth century B.C.,5 west of the Arabah there was no such settled occupa- tion until the tenth century, and that this settlement was 'militarily, economically, and agriculturally closely related to the rest of the king- dom of Judah' rather than to Edom the other side of the Arabah. This, in view of the kinship noted above of the Esau and Horite clans with the clans and peoples of southern Judah and the Negeb, is what we should expect. J. R. BARTLETT
1 Glueck, 'An aerial reconnaissance of the Negeb' (B.A.S.OJl. civ (1959), pp. 2 ff., 12). 1 Glueck, 'The third season of exploration in the Negeb' (B.A.S.O.R. exxxviii (^S). PP- 7 ff., 29) and 'The seventh season of exploration in the Negeb' (B^A.S.O.R. clii (1958), pp. 18 ff.). 3 See above pp. 1 f. 4 See J. R. Bartlett, art. cit. (J.T.S., N.S. xvi (1965), pp. 301 ff). ' e.g., The Other Side of the Jordan (1940), pp. 145 f.