different people and nations. "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels." The Edomites were the offspring of Esau, as the Israelites were of Jacob; and who but the author and giver of life could foresee, that two children in the womb would multiply into two nations? Jacob had twelve sons, and their descendants all united and incorporated into one nation; and what an overruling providence then was it, that two nations should arise from the two sons only of Isaac ? But they were not only to grow up into two nations, but into two very different nations, and two manner of people were to be separated from her bowels. And have not the Edomites and Israelites been all along two very different people in their manners and customs and religions, which made them to be perpetually at variance one with another? The children struggled together in the womb, which was an omen and token of their future disagreement: and when they were grown up to manhood, they manifested very different inclinations. Esau was a "cunning hunter," and delighted in the sports of the field: Jacob was more mild and gentle, "dwelling in tents," and minding his sheep and his cattle, (Gen. xxv. 27.) Our English translation, agreeably to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, hath it that Jacob was a plain man; but he appears from his whole conduct and behaviour to have been rather an artful than a plain man. The 3 word in the original signifies perfect, which is a general term; but being put in opposition to the rough and rustic manners of Esau, it must particularly import that Jacob was more humane and gentle, as Philo the Jew understands it, and as Le Clerc translates it. Esau slighted his birthright and those sacred privileges of which Jacob was desirous, and is therefore called, (Heb. xii. 16,) the profane Esau: but Jacob was a man of better faith and religion. The like diversity ran through their posterity. The religion of the Jews is very well known; but whatever the Edomites were at first, in process of time they became idolators. Josephus 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 set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them: which was monstrously absurd, as the prophet remonstrates, (ver. 15,) "Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?" Upon these religious differences and other accounts there was a continual grudge and enmity

between the two nations. The king of Edom would not suffer the Israelites, in their return out of Egypt, so much as to pass through his territories, (Numb. xx. ;) and the history of the Edomites afterwards is little more than the history of their wars with the Jews.

II. The family of the elder should be subject to that of the younger. "And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger," or as the words may be rendered, the greater shall serve the lesser. The family of Esau was the elder, and for some 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 Israel," (Gen. xxxvi. 31.) But David and his captains made an entire conquest of the Edomites, slew several thousands of them, (1 Kings xi. 16, and 1 Chron. xviii. 12,) and compelled the rest to become his tributaries and servants, and planted garrisons among them to secure their obedience. (2 Sam. viii. 14,) "And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David's servants." In this state of servitude they continued about an hundred and fifty years, without a king of their own, being governed by viceroys or deputies appointed by the kings of Judah. In the reign of Jehoshaphat king of Judah it is said, that "there was then no king in Edom; a deputy was king," (1 Kings xxii. 47.) But in the days of Jehoram his son, they revolted, and recovered their liberties, "and made a king over themselves," (2 Kings viii. 20.) But afterwards Amaziah king of Judah "slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel, unto this day," says the sacred 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 cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were broken all in pieces," (2 Chron. xxv. 12.) His son Azariah or Uzziah likewise 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 several 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," (2 Macc. x. 17, 23; 1 Macc. v. 65.) At last his nephew, Hyrcanus the son of Simon, took other of their cities, and reduced them to the necessity of embracing the Jewish world 3115, before Christ 889. See Usher's Annals. 7 Joseph. Antiq. 1. 13, c. 9, § 1.

From about the year of the world 2960, before Christ 1044, to about the year of the

religion, or of leaving their country and seeking new habitations elsewhere, whereupon they submitted to be circumcised, and became proselytes to the Jewish religion, and ever after were incorporated into the Jewish church and nation.

1

III. In situation and other temporal advantages they should be much alike. For it was said 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 same is said to Esau, "Behold thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above." In this manner the latter clause is translated in Jerome's and the old versions; but some modern commentators (Castalio, Le Clerc, &c.) render it otherwise, that his dwelling should be far from the fatness of the earth, and from the dew of heaven: and they say that Idumea, the country of the Edomites, was a dry, barren, and desert country. But it is not probable, that any good author should use the very same words with the very same prepositions in one sense, and within a few lines after in a quite contrary sense. Besides Esau solicited for a blessing; and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews saith, (vi. 20,) that "Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau;" whereas had he consigned Esau to such a barren and wretched country, it would have been a curse rather than a blessing. The spiritual blessing indeed, or the promise of the blessed seed 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 first the possession of the Edomites; they afterwards extended themselves farther into Arabia; as they did afterwards into the southern parts of Judea. But wherever they were situated, we find in fact that the Edomites in temporal advantages were little inferior to the Israelites. Esau had cattle, and beasts, and substance in abundance, and he went to dwell in Seir of his own accord, and he would hardly have removed thither with so many cattle, had it been such a barren and desolate country, as some would represent it, (Gen. xxxiv. 6, 7, 8.) The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. In their return out of Egypt when the Israelites desired leave to pass through the territories of Edom, it appears that the country abounded with fruitful fields and vineyards; "let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not

pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells," (Numb. xx. 17.) 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 Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste, for the dragons of the wilderness:" for this implies that the country was fruitful before, and that its present unfruitfulness was rather an effect of war and devastation, than any natural defect and failure in the soil. If the country is barren and unfruitful now, so neither is Judea what it was formerly. 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 settled government, than when tyranny prevails, and the land is left desolate. It is also frequently seen that God, as the Psalmist saith, (cvii. 34,) "turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein."

IV. The elder branch should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger. "And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother." Esau himself might be said to live much by the sword, for he "was a cunning hunter, a man of the field," (Gen. xxv. 27.) He and his children gat possession of Mount Seir by force and violence, by destroying and expelling from thence the Horites, the former inhabitants. (Deut. ii. 22.) We have no account, and therefore cannot pretend to say, by what means they spread themselves farther among the Arabians; but it appears, that upon a sedition and separation several of the Edomites came, and seized upon the south-west parts of Judea during the Babylonish captivity, and settled there ever afterwards. Both before and after this they were almost continually at war with the Jews; upon every occasion they were ready to join with their enemies; and when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, they encouraged him utterly to destroy the city, saying, "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof," (Psal. cxxxvii. 7.) Even long after they were subdued by the Jews, they still retained the same martial spirit, for Josephus in his time giveth them the character of 'a turbulent and disorderly nation, always erect to commotions and rejoicing in changes, at the least adulation of those who beseech them beginning war, and hastening to battles as it were to a feast.' Agreeably to this character, a little before the last siege

2 Strabo. 1. 16, p. 1103. Prideaux Connect. part 1, b. 1, ann. 740.

3 Ατε θορυβώδες καὶ ἄτακτον ἔθνος, ἀεί τε μετέωρον πρὸς τὰ κινήματα, καὶ μεταβολαῖς χαῖρον, πρὸς ὀλίγην δὴ κολακείαν τῶν δεομένων τὰ ὅπλα κινοῦν, καὶ καθάπερ εἰς ἑορτὴν εἰς τὰς παρατάξεις ἐπειγόμενον. utpote gentem tumul

tuosam et ordinis impatientem, ad motus intentam semper et mutationibus gaudentem, ad modicam vero eorum qui supplicant adulationem arma moventem, et ad prælia quasi ad festum properantem. De Bell. Jud. 1. 4, c. 4, § 1. See too the following chapter.

of Jerusalem, they came at the entreaty of the zealots to assist them against the priests and people, and there together with the zealots committed unheard-of cruelties, and barbarously murdered Ananus the high-priest, from whose death Josephus dateth the destruction of the city.

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V. However there was to be a time when the elder should have dominion, and shake off the yoke of the younger. "And it shall come to pass when thou shalt have dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck." The word which we translate have dominion is capable of various interpretations. Some render it in the sense of laying down or shaking off, as the 'Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin, And it shall come to pass that thou shalt shake off, and shalt loose his yoke from off thy neck. Some again render it in the sense of mourning or repenting, as the Syriac, But if thou shalt repent, his yoke shall pass from off thy neck. But the most common rendering and most approved is, when thou shalt have dominion; and it is not said or meant, that they should have dominion over the seed of Jacob, but simply have dominion, as they had when they appointed a king of their own. The Jerusalem Targum thus paraphraseth the whole, And it shall be when the sons of Jacob attend to the law, and observe the precepts, they shall impose the yoke of servitude upon thy neck; but when they shall turn themselves away from studying the law, and neglect the precepts, behold then thou shalt shake off the yoke of servitude from thy neck.' David imposed the yoke, and at that time the Jewish people observed the law. But the yoke was very galling to the Edomites from the first: and toward the latter end of Solomon's reign, Hadad the Edomite, of the blood royal, who had been carried into Egypt in his childhood, returned into his own country, and raised some disturbances, (1 Kings xi.) but was not able to recover his throne, his subjects being overawed by the garrisons which David had placed among them. But in the reign of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, "the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king." Jehoram made some attempts to subdue them again, but could not prevail. "So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day," saith the author of the books of Chronicles, (2 Chron. xxi. 8, 10:) and hereby this part of the prophecy was fulfilled about nine hundred years after it was delivered.

4 Ἔσατι δὲ ἡνίκα ἐὰν καθέλης καὶ ἐκλύσης τὸν ζυγὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ τραχήλου σου. Sept. "tempusque veniet cum excutias et solvas jugum ejus de cervicibus tuis." Vulg.

"At si pœnitentiam egeris, præteribit jugum ejus a collo tuo." Syr.

Et erit cum operam dabunt filii Jacob

legi, et servabunt mandata, imponent jugum servitutis super collum tuum: quando autem averterint se filii Jacob, ut non studeant legi, nec servaverint mandata, ecce tunc abrumpes jugum servitutis eorum a collo tuo.' Targ. Hieros.

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Joseph. Antiq. 1. 8, c. 7, § 6.