1

but Jacob was a man of better faith and religion. The like diverfity ran through their pofterity. The religion of the Jews is very well known; but whatever the Edomites were at firft, in procefs of time they became idolaters. Jofephus (5) mentions an Idumean deity named Kozé: and Amaziah king of Judah, after he had overthrown the Edomites, (2 Chron. XXIV. 14.) brought their gods, and fet them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incenfe unto them; which was monftrously abfurd, as the prophet remonftrates, (ver. 15.) Why haft thou fought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? Upon thefe religious differences and other accounts there was a continual grudge and enmity between the two nations. The king of Edom would not fuffer the Ifraelites in their return out of Egypt, fo much as to pass thro' his territories: (Numb. XX.) and the hiftory of the Edomites afterwards is little more than the history of their wars with the Jews.

II. The family of the elder fhould be fubject to that of the younger. And the one people shall be ftronger than the other people, and the elder jhall ferve the younger, or as the words may be rendered, the greater Jhall ferce the leffer. The family of Efau was the elder, and for fome time the greater and more powerful of the two, there having been dukes and kings in Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Ifrael. (Gen. XXXVI. 31.) But David and his captains made an entire conqueft of the Edomites, flew feveral thousands of them, (1 Kings XI. 16. and 1 Chron. XVIII. 12.) and compelled the reft to become his tributaries and fervants, and planted garrifons among them to fecure their obedience. (2 Sam. VIII. 14.). And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrifons, and all they of Edom became David's fervants. In this ftate of fervitude they continued about (6) an hundred and fifty years, without a king of their own, being governed by viceroys or de

(5) - Κοζε θεον δε τελον Ιδεμαίοι vous. Coze; quem Deum exiftimant Idumæi. Antiq. Lib. 15. Cap. 7. Seft. 9. p. 686. Edit. Hudfon, 310

(6) From about the year of the world 2960 before Chrift 1044 to about the year of the world 3115 before Chrift 899. See Ufher's Annals.

puties

puties appointed by the kings of Judah. In the reign. of Jehoshaphat king of Judah it is faid, that there was then no king in Edom; a deputy was king. (1 Kings XXII. 47.) But in the days of Jehoram his fon, they revolted, and recovered their liberties, and made a king over themfelves. (2 King's VIII. 20.) But afterwards Amaziah king of Judah lew of Edom in the valley of falt ten thoufand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it. Joktheel unto this day, fays the facred historian. (2 Kings XIV. 7.) And other ten thousand left alive, did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, whereon Selah was built, and caft them down from the top of the rock, that they were broken all in pieces. (2 Chron. XXV. 12.) His fon Azariah or Uzziah likewife took from them Elah, that commodious haven on the Red Sea, and fortified it anew, and restored it to Judah. (2 Kings XIV. 22. 2 Chron. XXVI. 2.) Judas Maccabæus attacked and defeated them feveral times, killed no fewer than twenty thousand at one time, and more than twenty thousand at another, and took their chief city Hebron, and the towns thereof, and pulled down the fortress of it, and burnt the towers thereof round about. (1 Macc. V. 2 Macc. X.) At laft his nephew, (7) Hyrcanus the fon of Simon, took others of their cities, and reduced them to the neceffity of embracing the Jewish religion, or of leaving their country and feeking new habitations elsewhere, whereupon they fubmitted to be circumcifed, and became profelytes to the Jewish religion, and ever after were incorporated into the Jewish church and nation.

III. In fituation and other temporal advantages they fhould be much alike. For it was faid to Jacob, God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: and much the fame is faid to Efau, Behold thy dwelling fhall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. this manner the latter claufe is tranflated in (8) Jerome's and the old verfions; but fome modern commentators,

(7) Jofeph. Antiq. Lib. 13. Cap. 9. Sect. 1. p. 584. Edit. Hudfon.

In

(8) In pinguedine terræ, et in rore cœli defuper. (9) Çaftalio

((9) Caftalio, le Clerc, &c.) render it otherwife, that his dwelling thould be far from the fatness of the earth, and from the dew of heaven: and they fay that Idumea,↑ the country of the Edomites, was a dry, barren, and defert country. But it is not probable, that any good author thould use the (1) very fame words with the very fame præpofitions in one fenfe, and within a few lines after in a quite contrary fenfe. Befides Efau folicited.. for a bleffing; and the author of the epiftle to the Hebrews faith (XI. 20.) that Ifaac bleffed Jacob and Ejau; whereas had he configned Efau to fuch a barren and wretched country, it would have been a curfe rather than a bleffing. The fpiritual bleffing indeed, or the promife of the bleffed feed could be given only to one; but temporal good things might be communicated and Imparted to both. Mount Seir and the adjacent country was at firft the poffeffion of the Edomites; they afterwards extended themfelves farther into Arabia; as they. did afterwards into the fouthern parts of Judea. But wherever they were fituated, we find in fact that the Edomites in temporal advantages were little inferior to the Ifraelites. Efau had cattle, and beafts, and fubftance in abundance, and he went to dwell in Seir of his own accord, and he would hardly have removed thither with fo many cattle, had it been fuch a barren and defolate country, as fome would reprefent it. (Gen. XXXIV. 6, 7, 8.) The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, while the Ifraelites were flaves in Egypt. In their return out of Egypt when the Ifraelites defired leave to pass thro' the territories of Edom, it appears that the country abounded with fruitful fields and vineyards; Let us pafs, I pray thee, thro' thy country; we will not pass thro' the fields, or thro' the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells. (Ňumb. XX. 17.)

Ver. 39. ÿ defuper

coeli

משמני

rore de et, terræ pinguedinibus de.

CH

And the prophecy of Malachi, (I. 2.) which is commonly alleged as a proof of the barrenness of the country, is rather an argument to the contrary: And I hated Efau, and laid his mountains and his heritage wafte, for the dra gons of the wilderness for this implies that the country was fruitful before, and that its prefent unfruitfulness was rather an effect of war and devaftation, than any natural defect and failure in the foil. If the country is barren 'and unfruitful now, fo neither is Judea what it was for merly. The face of any country is much changed in a long course of years; and it is totally a different thing, when a country is regularly cultivated by inhabitants living under a fettled government, than when tyranny prevails, and the land is left defolate. It is alfo frequently feen that God, as the Pfalmist faith, (CVII. 34.) turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein,

IV. The elder branch fhould delight more in war -and violence, but yet fhould be fubdued by the younger, And by thy fword shalt thou live, and fhalt serve thy brother, Efau himself might be faid to live much by the fword, for he was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. (Gen. XXV. 27.) He and his children gat poffeffion of mount Seir by force and violence, by deftroying and expelling from thence the Horites, the former inhabitants. (Deut, II. 22.) We have no account, and therefore cannot pretend to fay, by what means they fpread themfelves farther among the Arabians; but it (2) appears, that upon a fedition and feparation feveral of the Edomites came, and feifed upon the fouth-weft parts of Judea during the Babylonish captivity, and fettled there ever afterwards, Both before and after this they were almoft continually at war with the Jews; upon every occafion they were ready to join with their enemies; and when Nebuchad nezzar besieged Jerufalem, they encouraged him utterly to destroy the city, faying Rafe it, rufe it, even to the foundation thereof. (Pfal. CXXXVII. 7.) Even long after they were fubdued by the Jews, they still retained

(2) Strabo, Lib. 16, p. 1103, Edit, Amftel. 1707. Prideaux Connect, Part 1. Book 1. Ann, 740,

the

the fame martial fpirit, for (3) Jofephus in his time giveth them the character of a turbulent and diforderly nation, always erect to commotions and rejoicing in changes, at the leaft adulation of those who befeech them beginning war, and haftening to battles as it were to a feaft. Agreeably to this character, a little before the last fiege of Jerufalem, they came at the entreaty of the zelots to affift them against the priests and people, and there together with the zelots committed unheard-of cruelties, and barbarously murdered Ananus the high-priest, from whofe death Jofephus dateth the deftruction of the city.

V. However there was to be a time when the elder fhould have dominion, and shake off the yoke of the younger. And it fhall come to pass when thou shalt have dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. The word which we tranflate have dominion is capable of various interpretations. Some render it in the fenfe of laying down or fhaking off, as the (4) Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin, And it Jhall come to pass that thou shalt Shake off, and fhalt loofe his yoke from off thy neck. Some again render it in the fenfe of mourning or repenting, as the (5) Syriac, But if thou shalt repent, his yoke fhall pass from off thy neck. But the moft common rendering and moft approved is, when thou shalt have dominion; and it is not faid or meant, that they fhould have dominion over the feed of Jacob, but fimply have dominion, as they had when they appointed a king of their own. The (6) Jerufalem Targum thus paraphraseth the whole,

(4) εται δε ηρικα εαν καθέλης και εκλυσης τον ζυίον αυτε απο το τρα χαλάσε Sept. tempufque veniet cum excutias et folyas jugum ejus de cervicibus tuis. Vulg.

(5) At fi pœnitentiam egeris, præteribit jugum ejus a collo tuo. Syr.

(6) Et erit cum operam dabunt filii Jacob legi, et fervabunt mandata, imponent jugum fervitutis fuper collum tuum: quando autem averterint fe filii Jacob, ut non ftudeant legi, nec fervaverint mandata, ecce tunc abrumpes jugum fervitutis eorum a collo tuo. Targ. Hieros.

· And