EDOM and the EDOMITES André Lemaire École Pratique Des Hautes

EDOM AND THE EDOMITES

André Lemaire École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris

Edom is known as a southern neighbor of Judah during the first millennium BCE. However, many points of its geography and history are still debated1 since its study encounters many difficulties:

1. No original historiographic Edomite tradition is known so far. 2. Edomite epigraphy is still very limited.2 3. The few archaeological excavations and surveys of Edom present numerous problems of interpretation, especially in dating. 4. The Biblical traditions about Edom are very difficult to interpret because there is very often confusion between “Edom” and “Aram” in the textual tradition: the first and third letters of these two coun- try names are the same and the middle letters, dalet and resh, are very easily confused in Palaeo-Hebrew and square Hebrew scripts. Actually dalet and resh were identical in the Aramaic writing of the 5th–3rd c. BCE. Because of this textual confusion,3 the distinction between Edom and Aram is often only possible from the context.

1 Cf., for example, J. R. Bartlett, Edom and the Edomites (JSOTSup, 77; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989); D. V. Edelman, “Edom: A Historical Geography,” in D. V. Edelman (ed.), You Shall not Abhor an Edomite for He is Your Brother. Edom and Seir in History and tradition (ABS 3; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995) 1–11; J. R. Bartlett, “Edom and the Idumaeans,” PEQ 131 (1999) 102–114, esp. 102–106; E. Lipiński, On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Ages (OLA 153; Leuven/Paris: Peeters, 2006) 360–421. 2 Cf. Barlett, Edom and the Edomites, 209–228; cf. also F. Israel, “Miscellanea idumea,” RivB 27 (1979) 171–203; F. Israel, “Supplementum idumeum,” RivB 35 (1987) 337–356; S. Ahituv, HaKetav VeHaMiktav: Handbook of Ancient Inscriptions from the Land of Israel and the Kingdoms beyond the Jordan from the Period of the First Commonwealth (The Biblical Encyclopaedia Library, 21; Jerusalem: The Bailik Institute, 2005) 323–327 (Hebrew). 3 Cf. already F. Delitzsch, Die Lese- und Schreibfehler im Alten Testament (Berlin- Leipzig: Vereinigung Wissenschaftlicher, 1920) 105–106; R. Gordis, “Edom, Israel and Amos – An Unrecognized Source for Edomite History,” in A. I. Katsh and L. Nemoy (eds.), Essays on the Occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Dropsie University (1909– 1979) (Philadelphia: Dropsie University, 1979) 109–132, esp. 112–113; S. Ahituv, Echoes from the Past. Hebrew and Cognate inscriptions from the Biblical Period (Jeru- salem: Carta, 2008) 351–356. Cf. also n. 18, below. 226 andré lemaire

Another difficulty in studying the Edomites arises from the fact that the Edomite people seem to have moved or extended westwards during the first millennium BCE:4 from the mountains east of the Arabah to southern Palestine around Lachish and Hebron. Although there was apparently a continuity in the culture of the Edomites, especially in their religion centered on their national God, Qôs, it is necessary to distinguish different phases in their history.5

1. Edom appears for the first time in papyrus Anastasi VI, 54–56, a model letter dated in the 8th year of pharaoh Merneptah (ca. 1205): “(We) have finished letting the Bedouin (Shasu) tribes of Edom pass the Fortress (of) Merneptah-Hotep-hir-Maat – life, prosperity, health! – which is (in) Tjeku,6 to the pools of Per-Atum (of ) Mer(ne) Ptah-Hotep-hir-Maat, which are (in) Tjeku, to keep them alive and to keep their cattle alive . . .”.7 This mention of the “tribes of theShasu of Edom” seems to imply that Edom is situated east of the Egyptian delta. Actually, the mention of Edom is in some way parallel to the mention of Seir in other Egyptian texts. With J. R. Bartlett,8 it is apparently closer to Egypt and probably located in the mountains of the Negev while Edom would be in the mountains east of the ‘Arabah. People living there were apparently mainly shepherds organized in tribes and able to move a long way to find pasture for their sheep.

2. Biblical traditions concerning the exodus mention Edom and a king of Edom in Num 20:14–20 (cf. Judg 11:16–17) but the tradition of Deut 2:4–8, which seems more primitive,9 does not mention any Edom

4 Cf. J. Lindsay, “Edomite Westward Expansion. The Biblical Evidence,”Ancient Near Eastern Studies 36 (1999) 48–89. 5 A. Lemaire, “D’Édom à l’Idumée et à Rome,” in A. Sérandour (ed.), Des Sumériens aux Romains d’Orient. La perception géographique du monde. Espaces et territoires au Proche-Orient ancien (Antiquités sémitiques, 2; Paris: Jean Maisonneuve, 1997) 83–109. 6 Perhaps to be identified with Tell el-Maskhuta, at the eastern end of Wadi Tumi- lat, cf. R. Giveon, Les bédouins Shosou des documents égyptiens (DMOA, 22; Leiden: Brill, 1971) 133. 7 ANET, 259. 8 Bartlett, Edom and the Edomites, 42. 9 Cf. W. A. Sumner, “Israel’s Encounters with Edom, Moab, Ammon, Sihon and Og according to the Deuteronomist,” VT 18 (1968) 216–228, esp. 216.