Doeg the Edomite

“ Build the walls of Jerusalem. 051:019 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar. 052:001 <Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, "David has come to Abimelech's house.">> Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God's loving kindness endures continually. 052:002 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 052:003 You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. ”

“ Ahinoam. All Gibeah!
A Woman. My little ones! No, no!
(She rushes frantically out.)
Samuel. Then, Saul of Gibeah, one thing and one
Alone is to be done. A champion,
To break this beetling giant down to death!
Saul. There is none.
Samuel. Is none! Call! I order it.
Saul. Then who will dare against him!
(A silence.) See you now.
Samuel. You, Abner, will not?
Abner. It were death and vain.
Samuel. Doeg, chief servant of the king?
Doeg. Why me?
Had I a mother out of Israel?
I am an alien, an Edomite.
David. My lord, this is no more endurable! ”

“ And we have a curious indication in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, that the same distinction prevailed between the language of the Canaanites and that of the Edomites, who, as we learn from the Old Testament, were so closely related to the Israelites. In the letter to the Pharaoh, in which mention is made of the hostilities carried on by Edom against the Egyptian territory, one of the Edomite towns referred to is called Khinianabi. ”

“ The Edomites triumphed when they saw the judgments of God fall upon the Jews. This the Lord severely reprehends in [15] . If a man have acted cruelly towards us, and God punish him for this cruelty, and we rejoice in it, we make his crime our own; and then, as we have done, so shall it be done unto us; see [16] . All these verses point out the part the Edomites took against the Jews when the Chaldeans besieged and took Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and divided the spoils. ”

“ III. The Edomites and Egyptians had not so deep a mark of displeasure put upon them as the Moabites and Ammonites had. If an Edomite or Egyptian turned proselyte, his grand-children should be looked upon as members of the congregation of the Lord to all intents and purposes, v. 7, 8. We should think that the Edomites had been more injurious to the Israelites than the Ammonites, and deserved as little favour from them (Num. xx. 20) , and yet " Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, as thou must an Ammonite, for he is thy brother." ”

“ The passage affords a tremendous lesson to ungodly sinners, and especially to those who, having descended from pious parents, and possessed religious advantages, are, notwithstanding, distinguished by their enmity to true religion. The situation of the Edomites rendered it impossible for them to be so ignorant as other heathen nations of the God of Israel; and their hatred appears to have been proportioned to their knowledge. Such is the character of great numbers in the religious world. They have both seen and hated the truth. ”

“ Thy husband king—so ’twas reported there.
JOCASTA.
What! is not aged Polybus still king?
MESSENGER.
No, verily; he’s dead and in his grave.
JOCASTA.
What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
MESSENGER.
If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
JOCASTA.
Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
In dread to prove his murderer; and now
He dies in nature’s course, not by his hand.
[Enter OEDIPUS.]
OEDIPUS.
My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou
Summoned me from my palace? ”

“ When the sad shepherd spoke this name his listeners drew back from him as if it were a defilement to hear it. They spat upon the ground and cursed the Idumean who called himself their king.
"A slave!" Jotham cried, "a bloody tyrant and a slave from Edom! A fox, a vile beast who devours his own children! God burn him in Gehenna."
The old Zadok picked up a stone and threw it into the darkness, saying slowly, "I cast this stone on the grave of the Idumean, the blasphemer, the defiler of the Temple! God send us soon the Deliverer, the Promised One, the true King of Israel!" ”

“ When Jacob’s posterity were few in number, and bondmen in the land of Egypt, and when the Israelites were carried captive into Babylon, the Edomites are represented by the prophet, as looking on, and rejoicing in their destruction, as being, at that time, in all appearance, secure, and enjoying their former liberty. ”

“ The Edomites, descendants of Esau, represent a class who sell their birthright to sonship of God for a mess of pottage, worldly advantage (25:12-14) ; and the Philistines, a people who migrated from Egypt, and aggressively preyed upon the Jews, type of a class of aggressive, middle-course, professing Christians who prey upon true Christians. ”

“ Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he hath taken concerning Edom: and his thoughts which he hath thought concerning the inhabitants of Theman: surely the little ones of the flock shall cast them down, of a truth they shall destroy them with their habitation.
49:21. The earth is moved at the noise of their fall: the cry of their voice is heard in the Red Sea.
49:22. Behold he shall come up as an eagle, and fly: and he shall spread his wings over Bosra: and in that day the heart of the valiant ones of Edom shall be as the heart of a woman in labour. ”

“ According to a sublime conception, we see before us the physical Oedipus in the lowest state of destitution and misery—in rags, blindness, beggary, utter and abject impotence. But in the moral, Oedipus is all the majesty of a power still royal. The oracle has invested one, so fallen and so wretched in himself, with the power of a god—the power to confer victory on the cause he adopts, prosperity on the land that becomes his tomb. With all the revenge of age, all the grand malignity of hatred, he clings to this shadow and relic of a sceptre. ”

“ Thus the prophet is moved of God to list the continued transgressions of Edom, and the consequent and subsequent judgment.
So literally were these words of the prophets fulfilled that Edom was not only overthrown and its people vanquished, but for a great deal more than a thousand years the very name of their city and people dropped out of the memory of men. Here is one 234 more case where a great people catastrophically disappeared from the stage of history, leaving no secular record of the part that they had played in the drama of human life. ”

“ Leader. I tremble too, O King; but till thou hear From him who saw, oh, let hope conquer fear. Oedipus. One shred of hope I still have, and therefore Will wait the herdsman's coming. 'Tis no more. Jocasta. He shall come. But what further dost thou seek? Oedipus. This. If we mark him close and find him speak As thou hast, then I am lifted from my dread. Jocasta. What mean'st thou? Was there something that I said...? Oedipus. Thou said'st he spoke of robbers, a great band, That slaughtered Laïus' men. If still he stand To the same tale, the guilt comes not my way. One cannot be a band. ”

“ Are we not man and wife? Have we not ever been faithful to each other?”
“But this dreadful Church, my Edwy, which crushes men’s affections and rules their intellects with a giant’s strength more fearful than the fabled hammer of Thor. It crushed the sweet mythology of old, with all that ministered to love, and substituted the shaveling, the nun, the monk; it has no sympathy with poor hearts like ours; it is remorseless, as though it never knew pity or fear. You must yield, my Edwy! we must yield!”
“I cannot,” he said; “we will fly the throne together.” ”

“ The short prophecy of Abdias deals almost exclusively with the fate of Edom as is stated in its opening words. God has summoned the nations against her. She trusts in her rocky fastnesses, but in vain. She would be utterly destroyed, not simply spoiled as by thieves (1–6) . Her former friends and allies have turned against her (7) , and her wisdom shall fail her in this extremity (8, 9) . She is justly punished for her unbrotherly conduct towards Juda when foreigners sacked Jerusalem and cast lots over it (10, 11) . She is bidden to desist from her unworthy conduct (12–14) . ”

“ But even his faults are mellowed by years and contemplation; his very anger shows some gleam of a profounder patience. Throughout, the temper of Œdipus is like that of the heavens above him—gloom cleft by flashes of insight, indignation, and love. Unlike other aged sufferers, he does not dwell in the past; unlike the saint and martyr whom a Christian dramatist might have portrayed, he does not lean upon a future of glory or happiness. Nor again has he sunk into a senile acquiescence in the present; he is far from being absorbed by the loving tendance of his daughters. ”

“ The descendants of Jacob were peculiarly favored by God. 2. They generally had the dominion, and were ever reputed superior in every respect to the Edomites. 3. The Edomites were generally tributary to the Israelites. 4. They often revolted, and sometimes succeeded so far in their revolts as to become an independent people. 5. The Jews were never subjected to the Edomites. 6. As in the case between Esau and Jacob, who after long enmity were reconciled, so were the Edomites and the Jews, and at length they became one people. 7. The Edomites, as a nation, are now totally extinct ”

“ When Oedipus, king of Thebes, was ware that he had fulfilled the oracle uttered ere he was born, in that he had slain his father, king Laius, and wedded his mother Jocasta, he plucked out his own eyes in his shame and misery. So he ceased to be king; but, inasmuch as his two sons rendered to him neither love nor worship, he cursed them with this curse, "that they should divide their inheritance with the sword." But they essayed to escape this doom by covenanting to rule in turn, year by year. ”

“ In the salt valley, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, Joab and Abishai defeated the Edomites; 12,000 out of 18,000 are said to have fallen on this day. [293] In spite of this severe defeat the Edomites made a stubborn resistance. Joab, in continuous struggles which went on for six months, destroyed a great part of the male population (the son of the king of Edom was carried by the servants of his father to Egypt) , and subjugated the rest of the inhabitants to the dominion of David. ”

“ Jocasta. 'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd? Oedipus. I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word Too much; whereof this man must tell me true. Jocasta. The man shall come.—My lord, methinks I too Should know what fear doth work thee this despite. Oedipus. Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind Faceth such straits as these, where should I find A mightier love than thine? My father—thus I tell thee the whole tale—was Polybus, In Corinth King ”

“ IDUMAEA (Ἰδουμαῖα) , the Greek equivalent of Edom (אֱדֹם‎) , a territory which, in the works of the Biblical writers, is considered to lie S.E. of the Dead Sea, between the land of Moab and the Gulf of Akaba. Its name, which is connected with the root meaning “red,” is probably applied in reference to the red sandstone ranges of the mountains of Petra. [1] This etymology, however, is not certain. The apparently theophorous name Obed-Edom (2 Sam. vi. 10) shows that Edom is the name of a divinity. ”

“ Edom had been famous for great statesmen, men of learning and experience, that sat at the help of government, and were masters of all the arts of management, that in all treaties used to outwit their neighbours; but now the counsellors have become fools, and the wise God makes them so: Shall I not in that day destroy the wise men out of Edom? As men they shall fall by the sword in common with others (Ps. xlix. 10) , and their wisdom shall not secure them; as wise men they shall be infatuated in all their counsels ”

“ The word “Edom,” together with its various derivates such as “Edomite,” occurs more than fourscore times in the text of the Old Testament. As the history of this region and its various inhabitants unfolds in the Old Testament story, there is a complete, remarkable and stirring record of this land and its people that covers many centuries of time. The word Edom first occurs in the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis, thirtieth verse:
“And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage ”

“ For the call came, now loud, now low, and oft.
"Oedipus, Oedipus, why tarry we?
Too long, too long thy passing is delayed."
But when he heard the summons of the god,
He prayed that Theseus might be brought, and when
The Prince came nearer: "O my friend," he cried,
"Pledge ye my daughters, giving thy right hand—
And, daughters, give him yours—and promise me
Thou never wilt forsake them, but do all
That time and friendship prompt in their behoof." ”

“ Verse 11
For three transgressions of Edom - That the Edomites (notwithstanding what Calmet observes above of the brotherly covenant) were always implacable enemies of the Jews, is well known; but most probably that which the prophet has in view was the part they took in distressing the Jews when Jerusalem was besieged, and finally taken, by the Chaldeans. See [33] ; [34] ; [35] ”

“ If God lay under us the arms of his power and love, these will be firm and easy under us; the God of our covenant will never deceive us. But if we trust to the men of our confederacy, and what they will lay under us, it may prove to us a wound and dishonour. And observe the just censure here passed upon Edom for trusting to those who thus played tricks with him: " There is no understanding in him, or else he would never have put it into their power to betray him by putting such a confidence in them." ”