34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead.

35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith.

name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.

40 And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke

36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Mas- Jetheth, rekah reigned in his stead.

37 And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.

41 Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon,

42 Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke

38 And Saul died, and Baal-hanan the Mibzar, son of Achbor reigned in his stead.

39 And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's

43 Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.

7 Heb. Edom.

7

Verse 9. "Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir."-The term "Mount Seir," or rather the mountains of Seir, must be understood with considerable latitude. It was applied indefinitely to that range of mountains which, under the modern names of Djebal, Shera, and Hasma, extends from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba. The reader will recollect the Ghor," or valley, extending in the same direction, which we have had frequent occasion to mention, and which is supposed to have formed the continued channel of the Jordan before its waters were lost in the Dead Sea. Now the mountains of Seir rise abruptly from this valley, and form a natural division of the country, which appears to have been well known to the ancients. The plain to the east of the hilly region which these mountains form, is much more elevated than the level of the Ghor, on the west of the same mountains; in consequence of which, the hills appear with diminished importance as viewed from the eastern or upper plain. This plain terminates to the south by a steep rocky descent, at the base of which begins the desert of Nedjed. It is to a part of this upper plain, and to the mountains which constitute its western limit, that, as Burckhardt thinks, the name of Arabia Petræa, or the Stony, was given by the ancients; the denomination being however extended northward, so as to include the eastern plain with the mountains which form the eastern boundary of Palestine so far north as the river Jabbok. Speaking of this region, Burckhardt says, "It might well be called Petræa, not only on account of its rocky mountains, but also of the elevated plain, which is so covered with stones, especially flints, that it may with great propriety be called a stony desert, although susceptible of culture. In many places it is overgrown with herbs; and must once have been thickly inhabited, for the traces of many ruined towns and villages are met with on both sides of the Hadj route between Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the plains of the Haouran; in which direction there are many springs. At present, all this country is desert, and Maan is the only inhabited place in it."-(Travels in Syria;' different parts of which have been analyzed to furnish this geographical statement.) The mountains themselves are described by the same traveller as chiefly calcareous, with an occasional mixture of basalt. The mountainous region which they form, of course differs from the plain which skirts it on the east. The climate is very pleasant. The air is pure; and, although the heat is very great in summer, the refreshing breezes which then prevail prevent the temperature from becoming suffocating. The winter, on the other hand, is very cold; deep snow falls, and the frosts sometimes continue to the end of March. This mountainous country is adequately fertile, producing figs, pomegranates, apples, peaches, olives, apricots and most European fruits. The region has been in all times noted for the salubrity of its air; and Burckhardt observes, there was no part of Syria in which he saw so few invalids.

The mountains of Seir were in the first instance occupied by a people called the Horim, or Horites, who are mentioned in Gen, xiv. among those whose country was ravaged by Chedorlaomer and his allies. These people are supposed to have taken their name from the chief or leader, who, with his tribe or family, first settled there, and whose name (Hor) is preserved in the mountain, in this range, on which Aaron died. The name "Seir" applied to this region is doubtless derived from the chief of that name, who is mentioned in v. 20. as the head of the family. The extent of territory occupied by the Horites cannot be very precisely ascertained; but there is no room to suppose that it reached so far south of the Dead Sea, or spread so far west towards the Mediterranean as the "land of Edom" of after-times certainly did. The "land of Seir," of the patriarchal times, seems to have been immediately to the east and south of the Dead Sea. In this land Esau settled himself permanently after the death of his father, and as his descendants increased, they were enabled to extirpate the original inhabitants, and occupied the land in their stead (Deut. ii. 12, 22). The country then took the name of the "land of Edom,"-a denomination which appears to have extended with the progressive extension of the Edomite power, which in its palmy state extended along the eastern frontier of Palestine, from the parallel of the lake of Tiberias, and reached southward to the shore of the Arabian gulf; while in another direction it comprehended the country to the south of Palestine, from the mountains of Seir to the Mediterranean; and during the Babylonish captivity of the Jews, the Edomites encroached upon the south of Judah so far as Hebron, which became their capital. Thus, in speaking of the land of Edom, we must be careful to distinguish times. In the times of Moses and Joshua, and even under the kings of Judah, it was confined to the region of Mount Seir; but in that direction it had, before the time of Solomon, extended to the Gulf of Akaba. In 1 Kings ix. 26, we read " King Solomon made a navy of ships at Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom;" and if Ezion-geber was both on the shore of the Red Sea and in the land of Edom, the dominions of the Edomites must have extended to the Arabian Gulf. Here we have the true reason why the "Red Sea" came by a name which has occasioned so much discussion. The land of Edom being on its shore, it came to be called "the Sea of Edom." "Edom," as we have already seen, means "red;" and the Greeks, mistaking the proper name for an appellative, rendered it by ipupà dáλacou, or the "Red Sea," by which name it is still commonly distinguished. Pliny, Strabo, and others, take care to inform us that the sea was so called, not on account of any redness in it, but from a king called

Erythrus, who reigned in the adjoining country. Erythrus, like Edom, means "the red;" so that the denomination doubtless points to Esau, whose posterity occupied the country indicated. It is not until a much later period that we find the country to the south of Palestine called the land of Edom, and it therefore appears that the Edomites availed themselves of the depressed state into which the Jews were brought by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, to extend themselves westward from their mountains towards the Mediterranean, and ultimately to encroach upon the southern province of Palestine itself. It is proper in this view to distinguish the whole extent of the land of Edom into two parts. One comprehended the whole range of Seir with the neighbouring plain. Bozra (see note on Deut. iv. 43), in the part east of Palestine, and Petra, more towards the Arabian Gulf, were its chief towns. The latter city is supposed to be the "Selah" and "Joktheel" of the Bible (see note on 2 Kings xiv. 7); and is described in ancient history as the capital of the Nabathæans; for those Edomites who remained in Seir, after a large colony had gone to occupy the south of Judæa, during the captivity of the Jews, joined themselves with the descendants of that Nebajoth, son of Ishmael, whose full sister Esau had married (v. 3), and they were ever after called Nabathæans. After this, the land of Edom, and what was exclusively known as Idumæa to the Greeks and Romans, must be understood of the branch dominion south of Palestine. It will be useful to attend to this distinction between the Edomites south of Judæa, and the Edomites as mixed and identified with the Nabathæans in the region of Seir. As thus distinguished, both people seem to have prospered greatly under the Babylonian kings and the successors of Alexander. It will be observed that the "Edomites, previously to the Jewish captivity, are those who occupy Seir, while the "Edomites" of the after-period are those to the south of Judæa.

We learn from the chapter before us, that the Edomites were at first governed patriarchally by emirs or chiefs, and that afterwards they established a monarchy so early as to have had eight kings before there was any king in Israel (v. 31). The Israelites, in their passing from Egypt to Canaan, were directed to abstain from hostilities with the descendants of Esau, and when the Edomites refused the children of Israel a passage through their territory, Moses was directed to make a large circuit round their dominions, in order to avoid any inimical collision with them. It seems there were no wars between the kindred nations until the time of David, who put garrisons in Edom, "and all they of Edom became David's servants" (2 Sam. viii. 14). Thus was realized the prophecy of Isaac, that the elder brother should serve the younger. The victories of David seem to have been attended with a great havoc of the Edomites (1 Kings xi. 16). There are several indications that the latter submitted to the yoke with great impatience; and they did not omit to avail themselves of the opportunities which the division of the Hebrew nation into two kingdoms, at variance with each other, offered for the recovery of their independence. After that division, the dominion over Edom remained with Judah; but in the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, they revolted, "and made themselves a king" (2 Chron. xxi. 8-10); and although they were then and afterwards defeated in battle by the Jews, they succeeded in maintaining their national independence. Thus, as Isaac had foretold, Esau broke the yoke of the younger brother from off his neck. When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites were present with the Babylonian king, and encouraged him in his undertaking, taking an active part in the final sack of the city, and dealing severely with the citizens (Ps. cxxxvii. 1; Obad. 11-14). This conduct was strongly denounced by the prophets, who foretold the future overthrow of Edom. The Jewish traditions state, that during the desolation of Israel and Judah, the Edomites greatly increased in numbers and power, extending their dominions westward, and sending colonies far abroad. This must no doubt be understood of the collective body; but what follows must be restricted to the people of Idumæa south of Palestine. When the Jews were restored from their captivity, they remained for a long time in too weak a state to engage in any contest with the encroaching Idumæans. But when, at an after-period, the latter invaded Judæa while Judas Maccabæus was engaged in opposing the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, they were defeated with great slaughter by the Jewish general, who retaliated the incursion, and demolished the chief fortresses of Idumæa. Another of the same family, John Hyrcanus, brought the Edomites into still further subjection, compelling them to receive circumcision, and to submit to the other rites and observances of the Hebrew law. Their subsequent history is connected with that of Judæa, and the only circumstance of note is, that Herod the Great, whom the Romans made king of Judæa, was of Idumæan extraction. When Jerusalem was threatened by Vespasian, the Idumæans, whom Josephus describes as "a tumultuous and disorderly nation— delighting in mutation—and hastening to a battle as if it were to a feast”—were invited to Jerusalem by the "Zealots." They proceeded thither with 20,000 men, and being admitted during the night, committed fearful havoc among the people and the party opposed to the Zealots; but they afterwards repented of what they had done and withdrew from the city. After this we hear nothing of the Idumæans. Origen says, that in his time (A.D. 185—253) the Edomites had ceased to be a distinct people; they were numbered with the Arab tribes, and spoke the Syriac language. Perhaps we ought not to conclude this article, without noticing the belief entertained by the Jews and Mohammedans that the original Romans were a colony of Edomites. Their accounts somewhat differ as to times and persons, but they agree in substance; and are all doubtless derived from the same source—the teaching of the Rabbins. Hence the Jews apply to Rome whatever the prophets say of the destruction of Edom in the latter times. The Talmud calls Italy and Rome "the cruel empire of Edom." The Mohammedans consider that both the Greeks and Latins are descended from Roum, the son of Esau; but it does not appear from the chapter before us that Esau had any such son.

24. "This was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.”—The words DDW-NX XYD, matza eth ha-yemim, translated "found the mules," have occasioned much discussion. The common opinion apparently adopted by our translators is that this Anah was the first who coupled the ass and horse to produce the mongrel breed called mules. This opinion has the authority of the Jewish rabbins and of the Arabic version, and is allowed by Dr. Adam Clarke and other commentators of authority. The objections to this are, that the word matza never means to invent, but to find, in the common sense of the term, or to acquire, discover, or encounter; that mules are never elsewhere called yemim, but pheredim; that Anah fed asses only, not horses; and that there is no mention of mules in Palestine till the time of David. Bochart, by whom these objections are strongly urged, is of opinion that the word rendered mules really denotes the Emim, a gigantic people whose territories bordered on that of the Horim, and with whom it is supposed that Anah and his herdsmen had a remarkable encounter as they fed the asses in the wilderness. This opinion has the sanction of the Samaritan text and version, and to the same doctrine leans the Targum of Onkelos, who renders the word by "giants," or strong powerful men; and another rabbi (Abraham Sepharat) says that the yemim were demons or satyrs. The Septuagint preserves the original word as a proper name, in the singular number; while others render it as a proper name in the plural, which it certainly should be, if taken as a proper name at all. The Syriac renders the greatly disputed word as " waters," and is followed by St. Jerome, who translates aquas calidas, "warm springs or waters," and in his note makes a remark on the diversity of opinions which prevail on the subject, and says that the word has, in the Punic language, the signification which he assigns. Gesenius

concurs in this interpretation; and we are certainly disposed to conclude, with Dr. Boothroyd, that waters of some kind or other are intended. The probability is, that Anah, while feeding his father's asses, discovered a copious spring or lake, and this would certainly, in that arid region, be considered an event of sufficient importance to be recorded; and it might be the asses which led him to make the discovery, as those animals, as well as camels, have the reputation of being very sagacious in the discovery of water. Dr. Boothroyd renders thus: "It was this Anah that found the waters in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father." (See the notes of Calmet, Adam Clarke, and Boothroyd, on this place; also the Universal History,' vol. ii. p. 171.)

1 Heb. of his father's sojournings. Or, pieces.

4 Heb. master of dreams. 5 Chap. 42. 22. 8 Psal. 105. 17. Wisd. 10. 13. Acts 7.9.