north were attacked and plundered, and Solomon up to the end of his
reign failed to suppress the brigands. With the disruption of the
Israelitish monarchy, Edom, as was natural, fell to the lot of Judah,
and for many years was governed by a viceroy. It was not until after the
death of Jehoshaphat that the Edomites succeeded in revolting from their
masters, and in recovering their ancient independence. Three of their
rulers are mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, from which we learn
that there was a city of Edom, as well as a country of that name.

Of the religion of the Edomites we know but little. The supreme Baal was
the Sun-god Hadad; another god worshipped by them was Qaus or Kos. Of
goddesses we hear nothing. The Israelites, however, recognised in the
Edomites brethren of their own, whose religion was not far removed from
that of the descendants of Jacob. An Edomite of the third generation
could enter "into the congregation of the Lord," and we hear of no rival
deity in Edom to Yahveh of Israel. Indeed, in the old poetry of Israel
Yahveh was said to have risen up "from Seir," and the charge brought
against Edom by the prophet Obadiah is not that of idolatry or the
worship of a "strange god," but of standing on the side of the
"foreigners" on the day that Jerusalem was destroyed.

The southern part of Edom was known as Teman; it was to the east of
Teman that the Kadmonites or "children of the East" pitched their tents.
We first hear of them in an Egyptian papyrus of the age of the Twelfth
dynasty (B.C. 2500). Then they received with hospitality a political
fugitive from Egypt; he married one of their princesses and became one
of their chiefs. Their wisdom was celebrated in Palestine like that of
their Edomite neighbours of Teman, and the highest praise that could be
bestowed on Solomon was that his "wisdom excelled all the wisdom of the
children of the East."