The word 'edification' seems to have been introduced into Enj;. direct from the Lat. (pdijicatio, but ' edify ' more probably through the Vr. Miner. They were used early, and probably first of all in a literal sense. Thus Paston, Lett. (1462), ' A plase late be the said Sir John edified at Caster' ; Thomas, Hist. Jtal. (1549), 'About 700 yeres after the edification of Rome." The spiritual sense was due perimps entirely to the influence of the Vulg., which sometimes was the cause of the literal use, as Wyclifs tr. of On S'^^'and the Lord God edified the rib. tha whiche he toke of Adam, into a woman,' after Vulg. ' ajditicavit.' Trench (En(i. Past and Prcs. p. 161) states that the mod. ua« of * edify * arid * edification ' began wiUi the Puritans ; it is more correct to say that by Ihera the words were first used freely and extensively in the spiritual sense, whence Oldham's complaint — 'The graver sort dislike all poetry. Which does not, as they call it, edify.'
J. Hastings.
EDNA (■E5to = .ij-!!; 'delight,' but Fagius nj-iy) was wife of Raguel'of Ecbatana, and mother of Sarah, who became wife of Tobias. She gave a cordial welcome to Tobias and his attendant Raphael in disguise, and questioned them as to their kindred (To 7^), weeping over the recital of Tobit's adversities (7*). She prepared once more i the ill-fated bridal chamber (7"), and led Sarah thither. Her maternal blessing (om. in Vulg.) was given on thedeparture of the bridal pair (10'-); and (B only) she received the blessing of Tobias in return (11'). Vulg. and Itala call her Anna.
J. T. Marshall.
EDOM, EDOMITES (Di?<,'E5ii/t, /rf«7n(Ea).— Edom, the 'Red' Land, so called from the red colour of its sandstone clills, embraced the ranges of Mount Seir on either side of the 'Arabah, or depression which runs southward from the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akabah. The name corresponds with that of Deser or ' Red,' applied by the Egyptians to the desert to the east of their country which was inhabited by the Sliasu or Bedawin, and included Mount Seir. In the time of the Twelfth Dynasty, as we learn from the story of Sinuhit, the country in which Edom was situated went by the name of Tonu (or Tennu), the portion to the north-east of it being called ^adflmil, the ^^edera of the OT, whence the Kadmonites of Gn 15" (see also 1 K 4*"). Sinuhit received in it the district of Aia. In one of the Tel el-Araama tablets (The Tel el-Aniarna Tablet) in the British Museum, No. 64) the city of Udumu or Edom is mentioned as hostile to the Egyptian king, and as being in a foreign land, together with the cities of Aduri (Addar), Magdalim (Migdol), and Khini-s- nabi (En-ha(n)-nabi). Udumu is sometimes called a 'city 'in the later Assyr. inscriptions, though it is also spoken of in them as a 'country.' We may conclude, therefore, that tlie country took its name from its capital. In tlie Leyden Papyrus (L 343, 7) the wife of the Semitic fire-god Reslipu is said to be ' Edom ' [Etum], and at Kamak both Anienophis II. and Thothnies lll. mention the city of Shemesh- Edom {Shems/iu-Edum), which is coupled with Anukhertu, the Analiarath in Issachar of Jos 19"". Retlipana, the EgjT>tian name of the Dead Sea, may be a derivative from Reshpu (cf. Job 5', where ' sparks ' are called ' the sons of Resheph'). The name Obed-edom, 'servant of Edom,' occurs in the OT (2 S e'"). Edom, there- fore, was probably (but not certainly [see Driver, Text of Sam. 205]) the name of a deity ; and since both Udura and Etum correspond to the same Hebrew word, it would seem that the local and divine names were connected with one another.
Tlie original inhabitants of Mount Seir were Horites (which see), who were ' destroyed ' by the cliiklren of Esau (Dt 2*^). The genealogies in Gn 36, however, show that the destruction was not complete, and that the two races intennarried. Esau himself married a descendant of ' Seir the Horite' (36'', where 36"-" show that we must read 'Horite' for 'Hivite'). When the campaign of Chedorlaomer and his Babylonian allies took place
EDOM, EDO.MITES
EDOM, EDOMITES
645
the Horites had not yet been ili»i)i)ssessed (Gn 14'). The Horites were governed by 'ailii/ihim or ' dukes,' and both the olhceand name were handed on to their Edomite successors (Gn 3U-'-'- *"*'). As the ' 'alliipli im of Edoiii ' are ahme referred to in tlie son" of Moses (Ex 15) after the overthrow of the Ejj'yptians, we may perhaps infer that at the time of the Exodus a Icinj' had not been established in Edom ; at any rate tlie reference is an indication of the antiquity of the passable in which it occurs. Before the Israelites had quitted the desert, however, there was a kin;^ in Edom. Moses sent messenj;ers from Kadesliliarnea to the kin;; of Edom asking liini to permit liia ' brother Israel ' to pass through his territories, promising that they would march along the highway and do no injiirj' to the country. But the Eclomites refused permission, and came out with an army, so tliat the Israelites were obliged to ' compass the land of Edom ' (Nu 20"-^' 21^).