make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered every one with her mate. 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."* "Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him the time that I will visit him. If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself. Behold they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished? Thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. -I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah (the strong or fortified city) shall become a desolation, à 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 shouldst 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."+ "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." "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate." Thus will I make Mount *Isaiah xxxiv. 5 10-17. † Jer. xlix. 7-10, 12-18. Ezek. xxxv. 1, 2, 3, 4. Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out, and him that returneth.* I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return.† When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it; and they shall know that I am the Lord. Edom shall be a desolate wilderness. "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof."|| "Thus saith the Lord concerning Edom, I have made thee small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. Shall I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau? The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions, but there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau. 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."** 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. Idumea was situated to the south of Judea and of Moab; it bordered on the east with Arabia Petræa, under which name it was included in the latter part of its history, and it extended southward to the eastern gulf of the Red Sea. 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 reports 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, upwards 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 * Ezek. xxxv. 7. Amos i. 11. † Ib. 9. » Joel iii. 19. 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, besides 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 (Esion Gaber) 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 * Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 344-6. 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 an ordinary one to India, and yet that it had not been visited by any traveller, are facts all recorded, or proved to a wish, by this able but unconscious commentator. 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.* 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.† 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 Phoenicia 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. Though no excellence whatever be now attached to its name, which exists only in past history, Idumea, including perhaps Judea, was then not without the praise of the first of Roman poets. Primus Idumeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas. And of Lucan (Phars. lib. iii.) Arbustis palmarum dives Idume. * Genesis xxxvi. 31, &c. † Genesis xxvii. 39. Numbers xx. 17. Job xlii. 12. But Idumea, as a kingdom, can lay claim to a higher renown than either the abundance of its flocks or the excellence of its palm-trees. The celebrated city of Petra (so named by the Greeks, and so worthy of the name, on account both of its rocky vicinity and its nu merous dwellings excavated from the rocks) was situated within the patrimonial territory of the Edomites. There is distinct and positive evidence that it was a city of Edom,* and the metropolis of the Nabatheans,† whom Strabo expressly identifies with the Idumeans—possessors of the same country, and subject to the same laws.‡ "Petra," to use the words of Dr. Vincent, by whom the state of its ancient commerce was described before its ruins were discovered, "is the capital of Edom or Seir, the Idumea or Arabia Petræa of the Greeks, the Nabatea, considered both by geographers, historians, and poets as the source of all the precious commodities of the east." "The caravans, in all ages, from Minea in the interior of Arabia, and from Gerrha on the Gulf of Persia, from Hadramaut on the ocean, and some even from Sabea or Yemen, appear to have pointed to Petra as a common centre; and from Petra the trade seems to have again branched out in every direction to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and a variety of subordinate routes that all terminated on the Mediterranean. There is every proof that is requisite to show that the Tyrians and Sidonians were the first merchants who introduced the produce of India to all the nations which encircled the Mediterranean, so is there the strongest evidence to prove that the Tyrians obtained all their commodities from Arabia. But if Arabia was the centre of this commerce, Petra was the point to which all the Arabians tended from the three sides of their vast peninsula."T At a period subsequent to the commencement of the * Petra being afterward more particularly noticed, some quotations from ancient authors respecting it may here be subjoined. Πέτρα πόλις ἐν γῆ Εδώμ της 'Αραβίας.— Eusebii Onomast: Petra, civitas Arabiæ in terra Edom.-Hieron. Vide Relandi Palestina, tom. i. p. 70. † Μητροπολις δε των Ναβαταίων εσιν ἡ Πετρα καλουμενη. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 779 Ed: Paris, 1620. Ναβάταιοι δε εισιν δι Ιδεμαίοι. p. 262: |