Where Is Edom? The Meaning of Edom, Esau and Seir

The text gives two answers, and both are in Genesis. Edom is a man, and then Edom is the land he settles. Read the passage first, then read it again with the meanings put in.

The passage (BBE):

And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau. ... And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom. ... So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir (Esau is Edom). — Genesis 25:25, 25:30, 36:8 (BBE)

The same passage with the meanings put in:

And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Hairy. ... And Hairy said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Red. ... So Hairy made his living-place in the hill-country of Hairy (Hairy is Red).

The meanings used: Edom is "red" (Strong's H123), built from the word for red, H122. Esau is "hairy" (H6215). Seir is "hairy" or "shaggy" (H8165). Jacob is left as written, because this page only follows Edom, Esau and Seir.

Three notes on the meanings. First, the Blue Letter Bible glosses Esau as "hairy", and Strong's gives the root as a word with the original sense of handling. This course uses "hairy" because Genesis 25:25 describes the child that way. Second, the lexicon gives both "hairy" and "shaggy" for Seir. This course uses "hairy", which is the choice that matches Esau's name. Third, the Hebrew word for "red" (H122) appears twice in Genesis 25:30, and the BBE gives it once, as "that red soup".

Where on a map? The text places Edom in the hill-country of Seir (Genesis 36:8) and calls it "the land of Edom" (Genesis 36:31). It gives no map directions. The Blue Letter Bible entry for H123 describes the land as south and south-east of Palestine.

How to read it, step by step:

1. The name. The child is born red and hairy, and is named Hairy. The second name, Red, comes with its reason in the verse itself: he asks for "that red soup" and "for this reason he was named Edom" (Genesis 25:30).
2. The claim. Esau says, "Truly, I am at the point of death: what profit is the birthright to me?" (Genesis 25:32, BBE). He goes away "caring little for his birthright" (Genesis 25:34, BBE). In this course's terms, the claim he offers is one of lack, and the court makes real what is actually offered (Lesson 12).
3. The ground. Hairy settles in the hill-country of Hairy (Genesis 36:8). This is the rule of Lesson 7, after its kind: the ground matches the one standing on it. The ground's name was already there, because chapter 36 speaks of "the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country" (Genesis 36:20, BBE).
4. The move. Esau went "into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob", because "the land was not wide enough for the two of them" (Genesis 36:6-7, BBE). Ask the Lesson 8 question: which state is left, and which is joined? He moves away from his brother and settles on ground that matches his own name.
5. The land takes the name. By the end of the chapter the same ground is "the land of Edom", with its own kings (Genesis 36:31, BBE). Edom began as one man's state and became a place. For the reader, Edom is the state Esau stood in at verse 30: need overruling what was already his.

What changed from Genesis 1

Lesson 5 says every story is the Genesis 1 picture, changed. Genesis 1 gives the food and gives the man rule:

And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food: — Genesis 1:29 (BBE)

Esau's scene keeps the same parts, but they are changed.

The food was already in the scene, and the man was made to rule. What changed is that the man says he is ruled by need. He hands over his birthright, and the court makes real what he offered: he ends on ground named Hairy, in a land named Red.

Hairy, in the open country. In the Genesis 1 picture the land creatures and the man share day six, and the man is given rule over them (Genesis 1:26). The field belongs to day three, the ground they all stand on. Now look at where Esau is placed. He is born "like a robe of hair" (Genesis 25:25, BBE), becomes "a man of the open country" (Genesis 25:27, BBE), and comes in "from the fields" (Genesis 25:29, BBE) asking to be fed. Put the hair, the open ground and the hunger side by side, and ask which part of day six he is standing in: the man's, or the creatures'.

Compare Daniel 4 and Job. The king is sent out "to be with the beasts of the field" and given "grass for your food like the oxen" (Daniel 4:25, BBE). His hair becomes "long as eagles' feathers" (Daniel 4:33, BBE), and he stays there until he "got back my reason" (Daniel 4:34, BBE). The picture is the same: the man placed among the creatures, on the field. Lesson 12 shows the same move in the sea, where Job asks, "Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?" (Job 7:12, BBE).

Two small notes. The BBE says "soup", and only the KJV says lentils (Genesis 25:34). This course also reads the bowman as the one who rules the creatures.

See names as identity codes.

Remember: Edom is a name before it is a place. Red stands on hairy ground, and the story runs after its kind.