a province of Arabia, which derives its name from Edom, or Esau,
who there settled in the mountains of Seir, in the land of the Horites,
south-east of the Dead Sea. His descendants afterward extended
themselves throughout Arabia Petrea, and south of Palestine, between the
Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. During the Babylonish captivity, and
when Judea was almost deserted, they seized the south of Judah, and
advanced to Hebron. Hence that tract of Judea, which they inhabited,
retained the name of Idumea in the time of our Saviour, Mark iii, 8.
Under Moses and Joshua, and even under the kings of Judah, the Idumeans
were confined to the east and south of the Dead Sea, in the land of
Seir; but afterward they extended their territories more to the south of
Judah. The capital of east Edom was Bozrah; and that of south Edom,
Petra, or Jectael. The Edomites, or Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, had
kings long before the Jews. They were first governed by dukes or
princes, and afterward by kings, Gen. xxxvi, 31. They continued
independent till the time of David, who subdued them, in completion of
Isaac’s prophecy, that Jacob should rule Esau, Gen. xxvii, 29, 30. The
Idumeans bore this subjection with great impatience; and at the end of
Solomon’s reign, Hadad, the Edomite, who had been carried into Egypt
during his childhood, returned into his own country, where he procured
himself to be acknowledged king, 1 Kings xi, 22. It is probable,
however, that he reigned only in east Edom; for Edom south of Judea
continued subject to the kings of Judah, till the reign of Jehoram, son
of Jehoshaphat, against whom it rebelled, 2 Chron. xxi, 8. Jehoram
attacked Edom, but did not subdue it. Amaziah king of Judah, took Petra,
killed a thousand men, and compelled ten thousand more to leap from the
rock, upon which stood the city of Petra, 2 Chron. xxv, 11, 12. But
these conquests were not permanent. Uzziah took Elath on the Red Sea, 2
Kings xiv, 22; but Rezin, king of Syria, retook it. Some think that
Esarhaddon, king of Syria, ravaged this country, Isaiah xxi, 11–17;
xxxiv, 6. Holofernes subdued it, as well as other nations around Judea,
Judith iii, 14. When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, the Idumeans
joined him, and encouraged him to rase the very foundations of that
city. This cruelty did not long continue unpunished. Five years after
the taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar humbled all the states around
Judea, and in particular Idumea. John Hyrcanus entirely conquered the
Idumeans, whom he obliged to receive circumcision and the law. They
continued subject to the later kings of Judea till the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans. They even came to assist that city when
besieged, and entered it in order to defend it. However, they did not
continue there till it was taken, but returned into Idumea loaded with
booty. The prophecies respecting Edom are numerous and striking; and the
present state of the country as described by modern travellers has given
so remarkable an attestation to the accuracy of their fulfilment, that a
few extracts from Mr. Keith’s work, in which this is pointed out, may be
fitly introduced:--
2. There are numerous prophecies respecting Idumea, that bear a literal
interpretation, however hyperbolical they may appear. “My sword shall
come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass
through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall
possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall
stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom; but none shall be
there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in
her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it
shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. Seek ye out of
the book of the Lord and read; no one of these shall fail, none shall
want her mate; for my mouth it hath commanded, and his Spirit it hath
gathered them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath
divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever, from
generation to generation shall they dwell therein,” Isa. xxxiv, 5,
10–17. “I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah” (the strong
or fortified city) “shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and
a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. Lo, I
will make thee small among the Heathen, and despised among men. Thy
terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou
that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the
hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will
bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. Also Edom shall be a
desolation; every one that goeth by shall be astonished, and shall hiss
at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide
there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it,” Jer. xlix, 13–18. “Thus
saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut
off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman.” “I
laid the mountains of Esau and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return
and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall
build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of
wickedness,” Malachi i, 3, 4.
Is there any country once inhabited and opulent, so utterly desolate?
There is, and that land is Idumea. The territory of the descendants of
Esau affords as miraculous a demonstration of the inspiration of the
Scriptures as the fate of the children of Israel. A single extract from
the Travels of Volney will be found to be equally illustrative of the
prophecy and of the fact: “This country has not been visited by any
traveller, but it well merits such an attention; for, from the report of
the Arabs of Bakir, and the inhabitants of Gaza, who frequently go to
Maan and Karak, on the road of the pilgrims, there are, to the
south-east of the lake Asphaltites, (Dead Sea,) within three days’
journey, upward of thirty ruined towns absolutely deserted. Several of
them have large edifices, with columns that may have belonged to the
ancient temples, or at least to Greek churches. The Arabs sometimes make
use of them to fold their cattle in; but in general avoid them on
account of the enormous scorpions with which they swarm. We cannot be
surprised at these traces of ancient population, when we recollect that
this was the country of the Nabatheans, the most powerful of the Arabs,
and of the Idumeans, who, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem,
were almost as numerous as the Jews, as appears from Josephus, who
informs us, that on the first rumour of the march of Titus against
Jerusalem, thirty thousand Idumeans instantly assembled, and threw
themselves into that city for its defence. It appears that, beside the
advantages of being under a tolerably good government, these districts
enjoyed a considerable share of the commerce of Arabia and India, which
increased their industry and population. We know that as far back as the
time of Solomon, the cities of Astioum Gaber (Ezion Geber) and Ailah
(Eloth) were highly frequented marts. These towns were situated on the
adjacent gulf of the Red Sea, where we still find the latter yet
retaining its name, and perhaps the former in that of El Akaba, or ‘the
end of the sea.’ These two places are in the hands of the Bedouins, who,
being destitute of a navy and commerce, do not inhabit them. But the
pilgrims report that there is at El Akaba a wretched fort. The Idumeans,
from whom the Jews only took their ports at intervals, must have found
in them a great source of wealth and population. It even appears that
the Idumeans rivalled the Tyrians, who also possessed a town, the name
of which is unknown, on the coast of Hedjaz, in the desert of Tih, and
the city of Faran, and, without doubt, El-Tor, which served it by way of
port. From this place the caravans might reach Palestine and Judea,
(through Idumea,) in eight or ten days. This route, which is longer than
that from Suez to Cairo, is infinitely shorter than that from Aleppo to
Bassorah.” Evidence, which must have been undesigned, which cannot be
suspected of partiality, and which no illustration can strengthen, and
no ingenuity pervert, is thus borne to the truth of the most wonderful
prophecies. That the Idumeans were a populous and powerful nation long
posterior to the delivery of the prophecies; that they possessed a
tolerably good government, even in the estimation of Volney; that Idumea
contained many cities; that these cities are now absolutely deserted;
and that their ruins swarm with enormous scorpions; that it was a
commercial nation, and possessed highly frequented marts; that it forms
a shorter route than the ordinary one to India; and yet that it had not
been visited by any traveller; are facts all recorded, and proved by
this able but unconscious commentator.
3. A greater contrast cannot be imagined than the ancient and present
state of Idumea. It was a kingdom previous to Israel, having been
governed first by dukes or princes, afterward by eight successive kings,
and again by dukes, before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel, Gen. xxxvi, 31, &c. Its fertility and early cultivation are
implied not only in the blessings of Esau, whose dwelling was to be the
fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; but also in
the condition proposed by Moses to the Edomites, when he solicited a
passage for the Israelites through their borders, that “they would not
pass through the fields nor through the vineyards;” and also in the
great wealth, especially in the multitudes of flocks and herds, recorded
as possessed by an individual inhabitant of that country, at a period,
in all probability even more remote, Gen. xxvii, 39; Num. xx, 17; Job
xlii, 12. The Idumeans were, without doubt, both an opulent and a
powerful people. They often contended with the Israelites, and entered
into a league with their other enemies against them. In the reign of
David they were indeed subdued and greatly oppressed, and many of them
even dispersed throughout the neighbouring countries, particularly
Phenicia and Egypt. But during the decline of the kingdom of Judah, and
for many years previous to its extinction, they encroached upon the
territories of the Jews, and extended their dominion over the
south-western part of Judea.
4. There is a prediction which, being peculiarly remarkable as
applicable to Idumea, and bearing reference to a circumstance
explanatory of the difficulty of access to any knowledge respecting it,
is entitled, in the first instance, to notice: “None shall pass through
it for ever and ever. I will cut off from Mount Seir him that passeth
out, and him that returneth,” Isa. xxxiv, 10; Ezek. xxxv, 7. The ancient
greatness of Idumea must, in no small degree, have resulted from its
commerce. Bordering with Arabia on the east, and Egypt on the southwest,
and forming from north to south the most direct and most commodious
channel of communication between Jerusalem and her dependencies on the
Red Sea, as well as between Syria and India, through the continuous
valleys of El Ghor, and El Araba, which terminated on the one extremity
at the borders of Judea, and on the other at Elath and Ezion Geber on
the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea, Idumea may be said to have formed the
emporium of the commerce of the east. A Roman road passed directly
through Idumea, from Jerusalem to Akaba, and another from Akaba to Moab;
and when these roads were made, at a time long posterior to the date of
the predictions, the conception could not have been formed, or held
credible by man, that the period would ever arrive when none would pass
through it. Above seven hundred years after the date of the prophecy,
Strabo relates that many Romans and other foreigners were found at Petra
by his friend Athenodorus, the philosopher, who visited it. The
prediction is yet more surprising when viewed in conjunction with
another, which implies that travellers would “pass by” Idumea: “Every
one that goeth by shall be astonished.” And the Hadj routes (routes of
the pilgrims) from Damascus and from Cairo to Mecca, the one on the east
and the other toward the south of Idumea, along the whole of its extent,
go by it, or touch partially on its borders, without passing through it.
The truth of the prophecy, though hemmed in thus by apparent
impossibilities and contradictions, and with extreme probability of its
fallacy in every view that could have been visible to man, may yet be
tried.
5. “Edom shall be a desolation. From generation to generation it shall
lie waste,” &c. Judea, Ammon, and Moab, exhibit so abundantly the
remains and the means of an exuberant fertility, that the wonder arises
in the reflecting mind, how the barbarity of man could have so
effectually counteracted for so many generations the prodigality of
nature. But such is Edom’s desolation, that the first sentiment of
astonishment on the contemplation of it is, how a wide extended region,
now diversified by the strongest features of desert wildness, could ever
have been adorned with cities, or tenanted for ages by a powerful and
opulent people. Its present aspect would belie its ancient history, were
not that history corroborated by “the many vestiges of former
cultivation,” by the remains of walls and paved roads, and by the ruins
of cities still existing in this ruined country. The total cessation of
its commerce; the artificial irrigation of its valleys wholly neglected;
the destruction of all the cities, and the continued spoliation of the
country by the Arabs, while aught remained that they could destroy; the
permanent exposure, for ages, of the soil unsheltered by its ancient
groves, and unprotected by any covering from the scorching rays of the
sun; the unobstructed encroachments of the desert, and of the drifted
sands from the borders of the Red Sea; the consequent absorption of the
water of the springs and streamlets during summer,--are causes which
have all combined their baneful operation in rendering Edom “most
desolate, the desolation of desolations.” Volney’s account is
sufficiently descriptive of the desolation which now reigns over Idumea;
and the information which Seetzen derived at Jerusalem respecting it is
of similar import. He was told, that at the distance of two days’
journey and a half from Hebron, he would find considerable ruins of the
ancient city of Abde, and that for all the rest of the journey he would
see no place of habitation; he would meet only with a few tribes of
wandering Arabs. From the borders of Edom, Captains Irby and Mangles
beheld a boundless extent of desert view, which they had hardly ever
seen equalled for singularity and grandeur. And the following extract,
descriptive of what Burckhardt actually witnessed in the different parts
of Edom, cannot be more graphically abbreviated than in the words of the
prophet. Of its eastern boundary, and of the adjoining part of Arabia
Petrea, strictly so called, Burckhardt writes: “It might, with truth, be
called Petrea, not only on account of its rocky mountains, but also of
the elevated plain already described, which is so much 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 wild herbs, and must once have been thickly inhabited;
for the traces of many towns and villages are met with on both sides of
the Hadj road between Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the
plains of the Hauran, in which direction are also many springs. At
present all this country is a desert, and Maan (Teman) is the only
inhabited place in it: ‘I will stretch out my hand against thee, O Mount
Seir, and will make thee most desolate. I will stretch out my hand upon
Edom, and will make it desolate from Teman.’” In the interior of Idumea,
where the ruins of some of its ancient cities are still visible, and in
the extensive valley which reaches from the Red to the Dead Sea, the
appearance of which must now be totally and sadly changed from what it
was, “the whole plain presented to the view an expanse of shifting
sands, whose surface was broken by innumerable undulations and low
hills. The sand appears to have been brought from the shores of the Red
Sea, by the southern winds; and the Arabs told me that the valleys
continue to present the same appearance beyond the latitude of Wady
Mousa. In some parts of the valley the sand is very deep, and there is
not the slightest appearance of a road, or of any work of human art. A
few trees grow among the sand hills, but the depth of sand precludes all
vegetation of herbage.” “If grape gatherers come to thee, would not they
leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they will destroy till
they have enough; but I have made Esau bare. Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness.” “On ascending the western plain,” continues Mr. Burckhardt,
“on a higher level than that of Arabia, we had before us an immense
expanse of dreary country, entirely covered with black flints, with here
and there some hilly chain rising from the plain.” “I will stretch out
upon Idumea the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” Such is
the present desolate aspect of one of the most fertile countries of
ancient times! So visibly even now does the withering curse of an
offended God rest upon it!
who there settled in the mountains of Seir, in the land of the Horites,
south-east of the Dead Sea. His descendants afterward extended
themselves throughout Arabia Petrea, and south of Palestine, between the
Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. During the Babylonish captivity, and
when Judea was almost deserted, they seized the south of Judah, and
advanced to Hebron. Hence that tract of Judea, which they inhabited,
retained the name of Idumea in the time of our Saviour, Mark iii, 8.
Under Moses and Joshua, and even under the kings of Judah, the Idumeans
were confined to the east and south of the Dead Sea, in the land of
Seir; but afterward they extended their territories more to the south of
Judah. The capital of east Edom was Bozrah; and that of south Edom,
Petra, or Jectael. The Edomites, or Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, had
kings long before the Jews. They were first governed by dukes or
princes, and afterward by kings, Gen. xxxvi, 31. They continued
independent till the time of David, who subdued them, in completion of
Isaac’s prophecy, that Jacob should rule Esau, Gen. xxvii, 29, 30. The
Idumeans bore this subjection with great impatience; and at the end of
Solomon’s reign, Hadad, the Edomite, who had been carried into Egypt
during his childhood, returned into his own country, where he procured
himself to be acknowledged king, 1 Kings xi, 22. It is probable,
however, that he reigned only in east Edom; for Edom south of Judea
continued subject to the kings of Judah, till the reign of Jehoram, son
of Jehoshaphat, against whom it rebelled, 2 Chron. xxi, 8. Jehoram
attacked Edom, but did not subdue it. Amaziah king of Judah, took Petra,
killed a thousand men, and compelled ten thousand more to leap from the
rock, upon which stood the city of Petra, 2 Chron. xxv, 11, 12. But
these conquests were not permanent. Uzziah took Elath on the Red Sea, 2
Kings xiv, 22; but Rezin, king of Syria, retook it. Some think that
Esarhaddon, king of Syria, ravaged this country, Isaiah xxi, 11–17;
xxxiv, 6. Holofernes subdued it, as well as other nations around Judea,
Judith iii, 14. When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, the Idumeans
joined him, and encouraged him to rase the very foundations of that
city. This cruelty did not long continue unpunished. Five years after
the taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar humbled all the states around
Judea, and in particular Idumea. John Hyrcanus entirely conquered the
Idumeans, whom he obliged to receive circumcision and the law. They
continued subject to the later kings of Judea till the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans. They even came to assist that city when
besieged, and entered it in order to defend it. However, they did not
continue there till it was taken, but returned into Idumea loaded with
booty. The prophecies respecting Edom are numerous and striking; and the
present state of the country as described by modern travellers has given
so remarkable an attestation to the accuracy of their fulfilment, that a
few extracts from Mr. Keith’s work, in which this is pointed out, may be
fitly introduced:--
2. There are numerous prophecies respecting Idumea, that bear a literal
interpretation, however hyperbolical they may appear. “My sword shall
come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass
through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall
possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall
stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom; but none shall be
there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in
her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it
shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. Seek ye out of
the book of the Lord and read; no one of these shall fail, none shall
want her mate; for my mouth it hath commanded, and his Spirit it hath
gathered them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath
divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever, from
generation to generation shall they dwell therein,” Isa. xxxiv, 5,
10–17. “I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah” (the strong
or fortified city) “shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and
a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. Lo, I
will make thee small among the Heathen, and despised among men. Thy
terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou
that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the
hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will
bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. Also Edom shall be a
desolation; every one that goeth by shall be astonished, and shall hiss
at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide
there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it,” Jer. xlix, 13–18. “Thus
saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut
off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman.” “I
laid the mountains of Esau and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return
and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall
build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of
wickedness,” Malachi i, 3, 4.
Is there any country once inhabited and opulent, so utterly desolate?
There is, and that land is Idumea. The territory of the descendants of
Esau affords as miraculous a demonstration of the inspiration of the
Scriptures as the fate of the children of Israel. A single extract from
the Travels of Volney will be found to be equally illustrative of the
prophecy and of the fact: “This country has not been visited by any
traveller, but it well merits such an attention; for, from the report of
the Arabs of Bakir, and the inhabitants of Gaza, who frequently go to
Maan and Karak, on the road of the pilgrims, there are, to the
south-east of the lake Asphaltites, (Dead Sea,) within three days’
journey, upward of thirty ruined towns absolutely deserted. Several of
them have large edifices, with columns that may have belonged to the
ancient temples, or at least to Greek churches. The Arabs sometimes make
use of them to fold their cattle in; but in general avoid them on
account of the enormous scorpions with which they swarm. We cannot be
surprised at these traces of ancient population, when we recollect that
this was the country of the Nabatheans, the most powerful of the Arabs,
and of the Idumeans, who, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem,
were almost as numerous as the Jews, as appears from Josephus, who
informs us, that on the first rumour of the march of Titus against
Jerusalem, thirty thousand Idumeans instantly assembled, and threw
themselves into that city for its defence. It appears that, beside the
advantages of being under a tolerably good government, these districts
enjoyed a considerable share of the commerce of Arabia and India, which
increased their industry and population. We know that as far back as the
time of Solomon, the cities of Astioum Gaber (Ezion Geber) and Ailah
(Eloth) were highly frequented marts. These towns were situated on the
adjacent gulf of the Red Sea, where we still find the latter yet
retaining its name, and perhaps the former in that of El Akaba, or ‘the
end of the sea.’ These two places are in the hands of the Bedouins, who,
being destitute of a navy and commerce, do not inhabit them. But the
pilgrims report that there is at El Akaba a wretched fort. The Idumeans,
from whom the Jews only took their ports at intervals, must have found
in them a great source of wealth and population. It even appears that
the Idumeans rivalled the Tyrians, who also possessed a town, the name
of which is unknown, on the coast of Hedjaz, in the desert of Tih, and
the city of Faran, and, without doubt, El-Tor, which served it by way of
port. From this place the caravans might reach Palestine and Judea,
(through Idumea,) in eight or ten days. This route, which is longer than
that from Suez to Cairo, is infinitely shorter than that from Aleppo to
Bassorah.” Evidence, which must have been undesigned, which cannot be
suspected of partiality, and which no illustration can strengthen, and
no ingenuity pervert, is thus borne to the truth of the most wonderful
prophecies. That the Idumeans were a populous and powerful nation long
posterior to the delivery of the prophecies; that they possessed a
tolerably good government, even in the estimation of Volney; that Idumea
contained many cities; that these cities are now absolutely deserted;
and that their ruins swarm with enormous scorpions; that it was a
commercial nation, and possessed highly frequented marts; that it forms
a shorter route than the ordinary one to India; and yet that it had not
been visited by any traveller; are facts all recorded, and proved by
this able but unconscious commentator.
3. A greater contrast cannot be imagined than the ancient and present
state of Idumea. It was a kingdom previous to Israel, having been
governed first by dukes or princes, afterward by eight successive kings,
and again by dukes, before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel, Gen. xxxvi, 31, &c. Its fertility and early cultivation are
implied not only in the blessings of Esau, whose dwelling was to be the
fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; but also in
the condition proposed by Moses to the Edomites, when he solicited a
passage for the Israelites through their borders, that “they would not
pass through the fields nor through the vineyards;” and also in the
great wealth, especially in the multitudes of flocks and herds, recorded
as possessed by an individual inhabitant of that country, at a period,
in all probability even more remote, Gen. xxvii, 39; Num. xx, 17; Job
xlii, 12. The Idumeans were, without doubt, both an opulent and a
powerful people. They often contended with the Israelites, and entered
into a league with their other enemies against them. In the reign of
David they were indeed subdued and greatly oppressed, and many of them
even dispersed throughout the neighbouring countries, particularly
Phenicia and Egypt. But during the decline of the kingdom of Judah, and
for many years previous to its extinction, they encroached upon the
territories of the Jews, and extended their dominion over the
south-western part of Judea.
4. There is a prediction which, being peculiarly remarkable as
applicable to Idumea, and bearing reference to a circumstance
explanatory of the difficulty of access to any knowledge respecting it,
is entitled, in the first instance, to notice: “None shall pass through
it for ever and ever. I will cut off from Mount Seir him that passeth
out, and him that returneth,” Isa. xxxiv, 10; Ezek. xxxv, 7. The ancient
greatness of Idumea must, in no small degree, have resulted from its
commerce. Bordering with Arabia on the east, and Egypt on the southwest,
and forming from north to south the most direct and most commodious
channel of communication between Jerusalem and her dependencies on the
Red Sea, as well as between Syria and India, through the continuous
valleys of El Ghor, and El Araba, which terminated on the one extremity
at the borders of Judea, and on the other at Elath and Ezion Geber on
the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea, Idumea may be said to have formed the
emporium of the commerce of the east. A Roman road passed directly
through Idumea, from Jerusalem to Akaba, and another from Akaba to Moab;
and when these roads were made, at a time long posterior to the date of
the predictions, the conception could not have been formed, or held
credible by man, that the period would ever arrive when none would pass
through it. Above seven hundred years after the date of the prophecy,
Strabo relates that many Romans and other foreigners were found at Petra
by his friend Athenodorus, the philosopher, who visited it. The
prediction is yet more surprising when viewed in conjunction with
another, which implies that travellers would “pass by” Idumea: “Every
one that goeth by shall be astonished.” And the Hadj routes (routes of
the pilgrims) from Damascus and from Cairo to Mecca, the one on the east
and the other toward the south of Idumea, along the whole of its extent,
go by it, or touch partially on its borders, without passing through it.
The truth of the prophecy, though hemmed in thus by apparent
impossibilities and contradictions, and with extreme probability of its
fallacy in every view that could have been visible to man, may yet be
tried.
5. “Edom shall be a desolation. From generation to generation it shall
lie waste,” &c. Judea, Ammon, and Moab, exhibit so abundantly the
remains and the means of an exuberant fertility, that the wonder arises
in the reflecting mind, how the barbarity of man could have so
effectually counteracted for so many generations the prodigality of
nature. But such is Edom’s desolation, that the first sentiment of
astonishment on the contemplation of it is, how a wide extended region,
now diversified by the strongest features of desert wildness, could ever
have been adorned with cities, or tenanted for ages by a powerful and
opulent people. Its present aspect would belie its ancient history, were
not that history corroborated by “the many vestiges of former
cultivation,” by the remains of walls and paved roads, and by the ruins
of cities still existing in this ruined country. The total cessation of
its commerce; the artificial irrigation of its valleys wholly neglected;
the destruction of all the cities, and the continued spoliation of the
country by the Arabs, while aught remained that they could destroy; the
permanent exposure, for ages, of the soil unsheltered by its ancient
groves, and unprotected by any covering from the scorching rays of the
sun; the unobstructed encroachments of the desert, and of the drifted
sands from the borders of the Red Sea; the consequent absorption of the
water of the springs and streamlets during summer,--are causes which
have all combined their baneful operation in rendering Edom “most
desolate, the desolation of desolations.” Volney’s account is
sufficiently descriptive of the desolation which now reigns over Idumea;
and the information which Seetzen derived at Jerusalem respecting it is
of similar import. He was told, that at the distance of two days’
journey and a half from Hebron, he would find considerable ruins of the
ancient city of Abde, and that for all the rest of the journey he would
see no place of habitation; he would meet only with a few tribes of
wandering Arabs. From the borders of Edom, Captains Irby and Mangles
beheld a boundless extent of desert view, which they had hardly ever
seen equalled for singularity and grandeur. And the following extract,
descriptive of what Burckhardt actually witnessed in the different parts
of Edom, cannot be more graphically abbreviated than in the words of the
prophet. Of its eastern boundary, and of the adjoining part of Arabia
Petrea, strictly so called, Burckhardt writes: “It might, with truth, be
called Petrea, not only on account of its rocky mountains, but also of
the elevated plain already described, which is so much 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 wild herbs, and must once have been thickly inhabited;
for the traces of many towns and villages are met with on both sides of
the Hadj road between Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the
plains of the Hauran, in which direction are also many springs. At
present all this country is a desert, and Maan (Teman) is the only
inhabited place in it: ‘I will stretch out my hand against thee, O Mount
Seir, and will make thee most desolate. I will stretch out my hand upon
Edom, and will make it desolate from Teman.’” In the interior of Idumea,
where the ruins of some of its ancient cities are still visible, and in
the extensive valley which reaches from the Red to the Dead Sea, the
appearance of which must now be totally and sadly changed from what it
was, “the whole plain presented to the view an expanse of shifting
sands, whose surface was broken by innumerable undulations and low
hills. The sand appears to have been brought from the shores of the Red
Sea, by the southern winds; and the Arabs told me that the valleys
continue to present the same appearance beyond the latitude of Wady
Mousa. In some parts of the valley the sand is very deep, and there is
not the slightest appearance of a road, or of any work of human art. A
few trees grow among the sand hills, but the depth of sand precludes all
vegetation of herbage.” “If grape gatherers come to thee, would not they
leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they will destroy till
they have enough; but I have made Esau bare. Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness.” “On ascending the western plain,” continues Mr. Burckhardt,
“on a higher level than that of Arabia, we had before us an immense
expanse of dreary country, entirely covered with black flints, with here
and there some hilly chain rising from the plain.” “I will stretch out
upon Idumea the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” Such is
the present desolate aspect of one of the most fertile countries of
ancient times! So visibly even now does the withering curse of an
offended God rest upon it!