Edom, Israel's Brother and Antagonist: The Role of Edom in Biblical Prophecy and Story

The subject of the present book is the theme of Edom in the Old Testament. In the four long oracles against Edom (Isa. 34, Jer. 49.7-22, Ezek. 35, Obadiah), this nation serves as Israel's antagonist and the representative of the enemy nations. Edom also appears in the book of Genesis: Jacob's brother Esau is the patriarch of the Edomites and Esau himself is called Edom as well (Gen. 25-36). Although there is no such negative estimation of Edom as in the prophecies, here too Edom represents ...