Saul fought against them in the days of his might, and records with delight his various successes against them.
When David occupied the throne warfare was renewed. So great a nuisance did the Edomites prove to the people of Israel in David’s day, that this great warrior king finally directed a complete campaign against them. In the notable battle that was fought in the salt valley, he slew eighteen thousand of the Edomite army and pressed on to capture their cities. In their conquered strongholds, he placed capable garrisons. Under Joab these garrisons patrolled the land for more than six months. At this time Benhadad, to whom we shall again refer, escaped to Egypt to become a later source of distress to Israel.
In all of their history, the Edomites were consistently allied against Israel. They never missed a chance to vex their kinsmen. No matter who the enemy of Israel might be, the Edomites hastened to form an alliance with that foe and gladly accepted the occasion to battle against Israel. This bad blood that existed between these races, who should have been allied by the ties of consanguinity, resulted in the prophecies that foretold the final overthrow of Edom and the destruction of the people. Such a prophecy is written in Jeremiah 49, verses seventeen and twenty:
“Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.”
“Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.”
When Nebuchadnezzar finally took the people of Israel away into their great captivity, the Edomites rejoiced without restraint. Their happiness was utterly unbounded and they celebrated with every means at their disposal. They overran the southern regions of Judah and took much of that land for themselves during the days of the captivity.
Jeremiah, in the Book of Lamentations, reproves their unnatural jubilation and warns Edom that the same fate that overtook Israel will come upon them.
So also the prophet Ezekiel speaks from his refuge and warns Edom. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Ezekiel, we read in verses twelve to fourteen, this following warning:
“Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
“And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.”
Joel adds his voice in a characteristic reference such as we find in the third chapter and nineteenth verse of his prophecy:
“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.”