Esau's descendants, living south of the Dead Sea. The conflict with Israel was a family one, and the modern identity teaching about them is false.
The Edomites were a real nation living south and east of the Dead Sea, in territory now split between Israel and Jordan. Scripture traces them to Esau, Jacob's twin brother.
Which makes the whole Edom story a family conflict rather than a foreign one. Every prophet who writes against Edom writes as though a relative had done it, and several say so outright.
There is also a modern teaching that identifies a present-day group as Edomites, and we are going to deal with that directly, because it is being used to justify hatred.
Esau asks for the red stew and the text says that is why he was called Edom, which means red. The land itself is red sandstone, and the pun holds both ways.
An entire chapter of Edomite genealogy and kings, placed in Israel's own scriptures. Brad Anderson describes Edom as “the sibling who doesn't live up to family expectations”.
Edom refuses Israel passage on the way out of Egypt. Moses appeals to them as brothers and they answer with an army. That refusal is remembered for centuries.
Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. A direct command, in the law, against exactly the attitude the later history produces.
Israel was told in the law not to hate them and reminded that the territory was given to Esau by God, in Deuteronomy 2:5, in the same way Canaan was given to Israel.
The shortest book in the Old Testament is entirely about Edom, and the charge is specific.
“You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune... nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.”
Obadiah 12 and 13Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The accusation is not that Edom invaded but that they stood at the crossroads and profited while it happened.
Remember what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. Tear it down, they cried, tear it down to its foundations. The bitterness in that psalm is fresh.
Anderson notes there is no external evidence for Edomite complicity, and some scholars think Edom became a focus for post-conquest grief. Worth stating rather than hiding.
Obadiah uses it deliberately. The offence is not that an enemy attacked. It is that family watched and helped themselves, which is a different wound.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
There is a teaching circulating which claims that a particular group of people alive today are the real Edomites, the descendants of Esau, and therefore permanently opposed to God's purposes. It shows up in several movements and it is aimed at different targets depending on who is teaching it.
That a modern ethnic or religious group is Edom by descent, and that the prophets' oracles against Edom are therefore instructions about how to regard those people now.
Edom ceased to exist as a distinct people over two thousand years ago. There is no line to trace and no one to trace it to.
Here is the history. After the fall of Jerusalem, Edomites moved into southern Judah, and the region became known as Idumea. In the second century BC the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea and required its population to adopt Jewish practice, after which they were absorbed. Herod the Great, the king in Matthew 2, was of Idumean descent, which is one reason he was never fully accepted. By the second century AD the Edomites are gone from the record as a people.
So the identity claim has no historical foundation at all. But that is not the main reason to reject it. The main reason is that it is built to license contempt for living human beings, and a teaching whose function is to tell you which people you are permitted to hate is not a Bible study. It is racism using scripture as cover, and it should be named as such from the pulpit rather than debated politely.
Scripture itself closes the door. Deuteronomy 23:7 forbids despising an Edomite. Amos 9:12 has God claiming the remnant of Edom as people called by His name, and James quotes that very verse in Acts 15 to argue that Gentiles belong in the church without becoming Jewish first. Of all the texts available to him, James reaches for the one about Edom.
And the arc ends where it always ends. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. If the Edomites were still identifiable, the gospel's answer would be the same answer it gives everybody, which is an invitation rather than a category.
What happened to the Edomites?
Edomites moved into southern Judah, the area became Idumea, John Hyrcanus conquered it in the second century BC, and the population was absorbed. Herod the Great was of Idumean descent. After that the Edomites disappear as a distinct people.
Edom appears in more prophetic books than almost any other nation. The reason is not geography. It is that Edom is the standing example of one particular failure.
Obadiah 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks. Petra's terrain made Edom feel unreachable, and it was not.
The charge is mostly about what Edom did not do. Standing aloof while family was carried off is treated as an act rather than an absence.
Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Hebrew idiom setting one choice against another, about two nations and their histories, not about individual eternal destinies.
Edom becomes a stand-in for hostile power in general. By the later prophets the name is functioning as a symbol as much as a place.
Which is the useful reading for anybody now. Edom is what happens when a relative decides that somebody else's catastrophe is an opportunity, and the prophets treat that as one of the worst things a person can do.
There is one moment where the whole Edom thread resolves, and almost nobody notices it.
Acts 15. The first serious argument in church history, over whether Gentiles had to become Jewish to be included. James settles it by quoting Amos 9, and the line he quotes is about the remnant of Edom being called by God's name.
Think about what that means. The nation that gloated when Jerusalem fell, the brother who would not let Israel pass, the permanent example of family betrayal, is the case James uses to prove that outsiders belong. He does not argue that Edom was misunderstood. He argues that God's stated intention always ran further than the grievance did.
So the Edomites are not a category of person to identify and oppose. They are the proof text for inclusion, used by the brother of Jesus, in the argument that made the church what it is.
For related ground, see Jacob, Jacob wrestling with God, who Baal was, the new covenant, what Zion means, the magi and Herod and Old Testament and New.
The Edomites descended from Esau, were charged by Obadiah with profiting from Jerusalem's fall, became the Idumeans and were absorbed over two thousand years ago, and any teaching identifying a living people as Edomites is false and is being used to license contempt.
Plenty of people have picked up teaching like this without realising where it leads. Send your questions in and somebody at Sound of Heaven will work through it with you.
A nation living south and east of the Dead Sea, in territory now divided between Israel and Jordan, traced in Scripture to Esau, Jacob's twin brother. Genesis 25:30 links the name to the red stew and to the red sandstone of the region. Genesis 36 gives an entire chapter of their genealogy and kings inside Israel's own scriptures.
Numbers 20 has them refuse Israel passage on the way out of Egypt, answering Moses with an army. The main charge comes in Obadiah, which accuses them of gloating over Jerusalem's fall to Babylon in 586 BC and seizing wealth in the day of disaster. Psalm 137:7 remembers the same thing bitterly. Brad Anderson notes there is no external evidence for the complicity.
After Jerusalem fell, Edomites moved into southern Judah and the region became known as Idumea. In the second century BC the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus conquered it and required the population to adopt Jewish practice, after which they were absorbed. Herod the Great was of Idumean descent. By the second century AD the Edomites are gone from the record as a distinct people.
No. They ceased to exist as an identifiable people over two thousand years ago and there is no line to trace. Teachings that identify a modern ethnic or religious group as the Edomites have no historical basis, and their purpose is to license contempt for living people. Deuteronomy 23:7 forbids despising an Edomite in the first place.
Malachi 1:2 and 3 is Hebrew idiom setting one choice against another, and the context is two nations and their histories rather than two individuals and their eternal destinies. The same book that records it also records Amos 9:12, where God claims the remnant of Edom as people called by His name, which James quotes in Acts 15 to argue that Gentiles belong in the church.