depleted male population was unable to lift off the Israelite yoke, though an escapee of royal blood, Hadad, did lead a resistance movement of some sort.​—1Ki 11:14-22.

Whether this situation prevailed continuously for a full century after David’s initial conquest cannot be said. The attack by “the sons of Ammon, and Moab and the mountainous region of Seir [Edom]” (2Ch 20:1, 2, 10, 22) may have taken place before the combined assault by Judean, Israelite, and Edomite forces against Moab. (2Ki 3:5-9; see MOAB, MOABITES.) Edom apparently formed part of each triple alliance, fighting first on one side and then on the other. It is also stated that at some point in Jehoshaphat’s reign Edom had no king; the land was ruled by a deputy, who evidently was answerable to the Judean throne, so Judah’s access to the Gulf of ʽAqaba and its port or ports was unobstructed. (1Ki 22:47, 48) With regard to the campaign against Moab, the predicted flooding of the previously dry torrent valley where the allied armies camped may have resulted from a desert thunderstorm on the higher plateau. Such storms in modern times can send torrents of water rushing down the wadis toward the Arabah. Or the water may have appeared by purely miraculous means.​—2Ki 3:16-23.

Edom revolted and threw off the Judean yoke in the reign of Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram and reestablished its independent monarchy. Although Jehoram won a military victory in an encounter with them, the Edomites remained in revolt. (2Ki 8:20-22; 2Ch 21:8-10) In the first half of Amaziah’s reign (858-830 B.C.E.), the Valley of Salt was again the scene of military disaster for Edom, and Amaziah seized the major Edomite city of Sela, being ensnared, however, by worship of Edom’s impotent false gods. (2Ki 14:7; 2Ch 25:11-20) His son, Uzziah (Azariah), restored Elath to Judean control.​—2Ki 14:21, 22.

Syria, in an offensive action against Judah during Ahaz’ reign (761-746 B.C.E.), put the Red Sea port of Elath back into Edom’s hands. (2Ki 16:5, 6) The Edomites, evidently free from Judah’s dominion, joined other nations, including Assyria, in raids against Judah.​—2Ch 28:16-20; compare Ps 83:4-8.

No written records have been found from Edomite sources. Secular records of other nations, however, make mention of them. An Egyptian papyrus thought to be of the second millennium B.C.E. refers to Bedouin tribes from Edom entering the Delta region in search of pasturage for their cattle. Pharaohs Merneptah and Ramses III claimed dominion over Edom, as did the Assyrian monarch Adad-nirari III. Sometime after this latter king, Tiglath-pileser III (a contemporary of Ahaz) boasts of receiving tribute from “Kaushmalaku of Edom,” while Esar-haddon, Sennacherib’s successor, lists “Qaushgabri” as an Edomite vassal king.​—Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, pp. 282, 291.

Edom in Prophecy. As early as King Uzziah’s rule, the prophets Joel and Amos pronounced Jehovah’s positive condemnation of Edom for its unrelenting fury expressed against Israel by the unmerciful use of the sword. (Am 1:6, 11, 12) Edom, by its vicious opposition to Jehovah’s covenant people, had forfeited its title to the land it had held by divine warrant. (Joe 3:19; Am 9:11, 12) The Edomites sealed their doom when the Babylonians conquered Judah and Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. Edomite hatred was clearly revealed as they urged on the devastators of Jerusalem (Ps 137:7), rejoiced at Judah’s tragedy, and in their enmity and desire for revenge even turned over Judean escapees for slaughter by the Babylonians. They joined other neighboring peoples in plundering the land, and they planned to take over the abandoned country of Judah and of Israel, speaking boastfully against Jehovah. For this, Jehovah directed his prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah to assure Edom that its rejoicing would be short-lived and the treatment meted out to Judah would also become Edom’s portion. (La 4:21, 22; Eze 25:12-14; 35:1-15; 36:3-5; Ob 1-16) As the prophet Isaiah had earlier foretold, the sword-wielding Edomites would come under Jehovah’s own sword of justice and judgment, all classes, great and small, becoming like sacrificial animals devoted to destruction.​—Isa 34:5-8.

Edom was to become like Sodom and Gomorrah, uninhabited for all time. (Jer 49:7-22; compare Isa 34:9-15.) Meriting Jehovah’s hatred, Edom would be called “the territory of wickedness” and “the people whom Jehovah has denounced to time indefinite.” (Mal 1:1-5) Edom thus evidently stands as symbolic of the hard-set enemies of God’s covenant people at Isaiah 63:1-6, where the divine Warrior with bloodstained garments who has trod the winepress of God’s vengeance appropriately is described as coming from Edom (meaning “Red”) and from Edom’s most prominent city Bozrah (possibly used here as a play on the Hebrew word ba·tsirʹ, meaning “grape gathering”).​—Compare Re 14:14-20; 19:11-16.

Later History and Disappearance. The king of Edom was warned by means of Jehovah’s prophet Jeremiah to bring his neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. (Jer 27:1-7) What the Edomites actually did in this regard is not recorded. However, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., some Judean exiles found temporary refuge in Edom. Then, after the departure of the Babylonian armies, these refugees returned to their land and finally fled down to Egypt. (Jer 40:11, 12; 43:5-7) Soon the time for Edom to drink deeply from the cup of Jehovah’s wrath arrived. (Jer 25:15-17, 21) This occurred about the middle of the sixth century B.C.E., under the Babylonian king Nabonidus. According to C. J. Gadd, a scholar of Babylonian history and literature, the troops of Nabonidus that conquered Edom and Tema included Jewish soldiers. Commenting on this, John Lindsay wrote: “Thus, in part at least, the words of the prophet found a fulfilment when he wrote of Yahweh saying ‘I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel’ (Ezek. 25.14). We have also a partial fulfilment of the words of Obadiah who said that Edom’s ‘allies’, ‘confederates’, ‘trusted friends’ would ‘deceive’, ‘prevail against’ and ‘set a trap under’ them. Here we may see a reference to the Babylonians who, although in the days of Nebuchadrezzar were willing to allow them a share in Judah’s loss, under Nabonidus curbed once and for all the commercial and mercantile ambitions of Edom (cf. Obad. 1 and 7).”​—Palestine Exploration Quarterly, London, 1976, p. 39.

The book of Malachi, written some 100 years after the campaign into Edom by Nabonidus, relates that God had already made Edom’s “mountains a desolated waste and his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” (Mal 1:3) The Edomites were hoping to return and rebuild their devastated places, but they would not be successful.​—Mal 1:4.

By the fourth century B.C.E. the Nabataeans were inhabiting the Edomite territory, and the Edomites were never able to return. Instead, they found themselves in the Negeb to the S of Judah. The Edomites moved as far N as Hebron, and eventually the southern part of Judah became known as Idumea. According to Josephus, John Hyrcanus I subjugated them sometime between 130 and 120 B.C.E. and compelled them to accept Judaism. (Jewish Antiquities, XIII, 257, 258 [ix, 1]; XV, 253, 254 [vii, 9]) Thereafter they were gradually absorbed by the Jews, and following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., they ceased to exist as a people.​—Ob 10, 18; see IDUMEA.

(Edʹre·i).

1. A royal city of Og, king of Bashan. (Jos 12:4; 13:12) After defeating Sihon the Amorite, the Israelite forces under Moses’ direction “went up,” that is, went northward, until they encountered Og’s military force in “the battle of Edrei,” at what was apparently Bashan’s southern frontier. Though Og was one of the last of the giantlike Rephaim and may have presented a formidable army, the Israelites, advised by Jehovah to be fearless, wiped out Og, his sons, and people, taking possession of his territory. (Nu 21:33-35; De 3:1-10) The city was later granted to Manasseh as part of its inheritance. (Jos 13:31) Edrei is generally identified with the present-day city of Derʽa about 50 km (31 mi) ESE of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, near the Yarmuk. Ruins there include a partially excavated subterranean city, cut in the rock beneath the ground-level city.

2. A fortified city of Naphtali. (Jos 19:32, 35, 37) It has been associated with modern Tell Khureibeh, about 7 km (4 mi) NNW of Hazor.

The imparting or acquisition of knowledge and skill. Education is accomplished through (1) explanation and repetition; (2) discipline, training administered in love (Pr 1:7; Heb 12:5, 6); (3) personal observation (Ps 19:1-3; Ec 1:12-14); (4) reproof and rebuke (Ps 141:5; Pr 9:8; 17:10).

Jehovah God is the great Educator and Instructor, of whom there is no equal. (Job 36:22; Ps 71:17; Isa 30:20) God’s earthly son Adam was created with the ability to speak a language. (Ge 2:19, 20, 23) He received instruction about creation (Ge chaps 1, 2) and God’s requirements for him.​—Ge 1:28-30; 2:15-17.

In Patriarchal Society. Throughout the entire Bible the family is the basic unit for imparting education. In earliest society the father was the head of the family and of the household, which might even be a large community, such as that of Abraham. The family head was responsible for the education of his household. (Ge 18:19) The good training manifested by Joseph indicates that Isaac and Jacob followed their father Abraham in teaching their children. (Ge 39:4, 6, 22; 41:40, 41) Job of the land of Uz, a distant relative of Abraham, displayed acquaintance with the scientific understanding and industrial developments of his day, and he was given a lesson in