Idumæans

IDUMÆANS, or Edomites, People descended from Edom or Esau, the son of Isaac, and Jacob’s eldest brother. The Idumæans had Kings long before the Jews had any. Gen. xxxv. 31.They were first governed by Dukes or Princes, and afterwards by Kings. They continued independent till the time of David, who subdued them, and shewed the perfect completion of Isaac’s prophecy, who had said, that Jacob should rule Esau. The Gen. xxvii. 29. 30.Idumæans bore with great impatience this subjection to the Kings of Judah; and at the end of Solomon’s reign, Hadad the Edomite, who had been carried into Egypt in his childhood, returned into his own country, and there procured himself to 1 Kings xi. 22.be acknowledged King. But it is very probable, that he reigned only in East Edom; for the other Edomites, who lay more to the south of Judæa, continued in their obedience to the Kings of Judah till the reign of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat2 Chron. xxi., against whom they rebelled. Jehoram made war upon them, but was not able to subdue them. Amaziah the son of Joash King of Judah, obtained likewise some advantages over them. He made himself master of Petra, killed ten thousand of them, and compell’d ten thousand more to leap from the rock, on which the City of 2 Chron. xxv.Petra was situated. But these conquests were not attended with any considerable consequences.

Uzziah King of Judah took from them 2 Kings xiv.the City of Elath on the Red Sea. But Rezin King of Syria, retook it from Uzziah, and drove the Jews out of it. Some think, that Esar-haddon King of Syria ravaged Isai. xxi. 11, 12, 13 and xxxiv. 1. Judith iii. 14.their country. Holofernes subdued them, as well as the other people, who dwelt round about Judæa¹. When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, the Idumæans joined him, and encouraged him utterly to destroy this City, and root up the very foundations of ita. This cruelty did not long continue unpunished. Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the taking of Jerusalem, humbled all the States which bordered upon Judæa, and in particular the Idumæansb. Judas Maccabæus attacked and defeated them in several rencounters²: but John Hircanus intirely conquered them, obliged them to receive Circumcision, and submit to other observances of the Jewish Law³. They continued subject to the later Kings of Judæa till the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. They even came to the assistance of this City, when it was besieged⁴, and entred into it in order to defend it: they did not however continue there till it was taken, but left it, and returned into Idumæa loaded with a great booty.

What the ancient Religion of the Idumæans was, we cannot tell. It is credible, that in the beginning they adored the true God, the worship of whom Esau learned in his father Isaac’s house. Job, whom we believe to have been an Idumæan, or Edomite, as well as some of his friends, whose sentiments we meet with in his book, was also an adorer of the true God, whose worship he preserved in all its purity. They had rejected circumcision, when John Hircanus conquered them, and obliged them to submit to it, and practise the Religion of the Jews⁵. Josephus speaks of an Idumæan Deity called Kose⁶. Costobarus, who was born of one of the most ancient and illustrious Families of Idumæa, was descended from the old Priests of the God Kose. St. Epiphanius says⁷, that the Arabians of Arabia Petræa and Idumæa worshipped Moses,out of regard to the Prodigies which God wrought by his means. Chose in Hebrew signifies a Seer or Prophet; a quality which agrees perfectly with Moses. The Scripture does not reproach the Idumæans with Idolatry, nor does it any where mention their Idols. The prophane Writers who have said any thing concerning the Religion of the Arabians, have, without doubt, confounded the Idumæans with the Arabians, in the midst of whom they dwelt.

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