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EdomAid to Bible Understanding
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make mention of them. An Egyptian papyrus thought to be of the second millennium B.C.E. refers to Bedouin tribes from Edom entering the Delta region in search of pasturage for their cattle. Pharaohs Merneptah and Ramses III claimed dominion over Edom, as did the Assyrian monarch Adad-nirari III. Some decades after this latter king, Tiglath-pileser III (a contemporary of Ahaz) boasts of receiving tribute from “Kaushmalaku of Edom,” while Esar-haddon, Sennacherib’s successor, lists “Qaushgabri” as an Edomite vassal king.
EDOM IN PROPHECY
As early as King Uzziah’s rule, the prophets Joel and Amos pronounced Jehovah’s positive condemnation of Edom for its unrelenting fury expressed against Israel by the unmerciful use of the sword. (Amos 1:6, 11, 12) Edom, by its vicious opposition to Jehovah’s covenant people, had forfeited its title to the land it had held by divine warrant. (Joel 3:19; Amos 9:11, 12) The Edomites sealed their doom when the Babylonians conquered Judah and Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. Edomite hatred was clearly revealed as they rejoiced at Judah’s tragedy, urged on her devastators (Ps. 137:7), and, in their enmity and desire for revenge, even turned over Judean escapees for slaughter by the Babylonians. They joined other neighboring peoples in plundering the land, and planned to take over the abandoned country of Judah and of Israel, speaking boastfully against Jehovah. For this, Jehovah directed his prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Obadiah to assure Edom that its rejoicing would be short-lived and the treatment meted out to Judah would also become Edom’s portion. (Lam. 4:21, 22; Ezek. 25:12-14; 35:1-15; 36:3-5; Obad. 1-16) As the prophet Isaiah had earlier foretold, the sword-wielding Edomites would come under Jehovah’s own sword of justice and judgment, all classes, great and small, becoming like sacrificial animals devoted to destruction.—Isa. 34:5-8.
Edom was to become like Sodom and Gomorrah, uninhabited for all time. (Jer. 49:7-22; compare Isaiah 34:9-15.) Meriting Jehovah’s hatred, Edom would be called “the territory of wickedness” and “the people whom Jehovah has denounced to time indefinite.” (Mal. 1:1-5) Edom thus evidently stands as symbolic of the hard-set enemies of God’s covenant people at Isaiah 63:1-6, where the divine Warrior with bloodstained garments who has trod the winepress of God’s vengeance appropriately is described as coming from Edom (meaning “red”) and from Edom’s most prominent city Bozrah (meaning “fortified place,” though possibly used here as a play on the Hebrew word ba·tsir’, meaning “vintage”).—Compare Revelation 14:14-20; 19:11-16.
LATER HISTORY AND DISAPPEARANCE
Some Judean exiles did find temporary refuge in Edom, returning to their land after the departure of the Babylonian armies, but then fleeing down to Egypt. (Jer. 40:11, 12) Soon the time for Edom to begin drinking the cup of Jehovah’s wrath arrived as Babylon’s forces returned to the Palestinian area for a further campaign, and the foretold yoke of Babylon descended on Edom’s neck. (Jer. 25:15-17, 21; 27:2-7) Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, chap. IX, par. 7) says that Nebuchadnezzar carried out another campaign against Syria-Palestine in his twenty-third year, attacking Ammon and Moab. (Compare Jeremiah 52:30.) Likely Edom also came in for attention then (602/601 B.C.E.), but the Babylonian subjugation did not bring complete ruin to the land. However, a wave of nomads from Arabia began exercising pressure on the Edomites from about the fifth century B.C.E. onward. By the third century the Nabataean tribe had pushed the Edomites out of their heartland and the major site of Petra and into the Negeb to the S of Judah. Eventually the Edomites moved farther N, reaching up to Hebron, and the southern part of Judah now became known as Idumea. According to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, chap. IX, par. l; Book XV, chap. VII, par. 9), John Hyrcanus subjugated them sometime between 130 and 120 B.C.E. and compelled them to accept Judaism. Thereafter they were gradually absorbed by the Jews and, following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., they ceased to exist as a people. (Compare Isaiah 11:13, 14; Obadiah 10, 17-21.) The Herods were basically of Edomitic descent.—See IDUMEA.
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EdreiAid to Bible Understanding
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EDREI
(Edʹre·i).
1. One of the cities of residence of Og, king of Bashan. (Josh. 12:4; 13:12) After defeating Sihon the Amorite, the Israelite forces under Moses’ direction “went up,” that is, went northward, until they encountered Og’s military force in “the battle of Edrei,” at what was apparently Bashan’s southern frontier. Though Og was the last of the giantlike Rephaim and may have presented a formidable army, the Israelites, advised by Jehovah to be fearless, wiped out Og, his sons and people, taking possession of his territory. (Num. 21:33-35; Deut. 3:1-10) The city was later granted to Manasseh as part of its inheritance. (Josh. 13:31) Edrei is generally identified with the modern city of Derʽa about thirty-two miles (51.5 kilometers) E of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, near the Yarmuk River. Ruins there include a partially excavated subterranean city, cut in the rock beneath the ground-level city.
2. A fortified city of Naphtali. (Josh. 19:32, 35, 37) It is often associated with modern Tell Khureibeh, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) W of the Huleh Basin. This Edrei is possibly the same as the city named ʼtra in a list of Pharaoh Thutmose III.
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EducationAid to Bible Understanding
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EDUCATION
The imparting or acquisition of knowledge and skill. Education is accomplished through (1) explanation and repetition; (2) discipline, training administered in love (Prov. 1:7; Heb. 12:5, 6); (3) personal observation (Ps. 19:1-3; Eccl. 1:12-14); (4) reproof and rebuke.—Ps. 141:5; Prov. 9:8; 17:10.
Jehovah God is the great Educator and Instructor, of whom there is no equal. (Job 36:22; Ps. 71:17; Isa. 30:20) God’s earthly son Adam was created with the ability to speak a language; Adam must have been able also to write his language. (Gen. 2:19, 20, 23) He received instruction about creation (Gen. chaps. 1, 2) and God’s requirements for him.—Gen. 1:28-30; 2:15-17.
EDUCATION IN PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY
Throughout the entire Bible the family is the basic unit for imparting education. In earliest society the father was the head of the family and of the household, which might even be a large community, such as that of Abraham. The family head was responsible for the education of his household. (Gen. 18:19) The good training manifested by Joseph indicates that Isaac and Jacob followed their father Abraham in teaching their children. (Gen. 39:4, 6, 22; 41:40, 41) Job of the land of Uz, a distant relative of Abraham, displayed acquaintance with the scientific understanding and industrial developments of his day, and he was given a lesson in natural history by Jehovah.—Job 9:1, 9; chaps. 28, 38-41.
At the same time we find that there was considerable knowledge in Egypt of astronomy, mathematics, geometry, architecture, construction and other arts and sciences. Moses, besides getting an education in the worship of Jehovah from his mother (Ex. 2:7-10), was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. In fact, he was mighty in his words and deeds.” (Acts 7:22) Even the Israelites, though
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