Judaea

Inter-Testamental Period

Destruction of Jerusalem

In the 6th century BC the Edomites had made league with the Babylonians and then assisted them in the destruction of Jerusalem. Speaking of this very thing is Psalm 137:7, which exclaims:

“Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.”

Likewise, from the Septuagint, from 1 Esdras 4:45 we read:

“Thou also hast vowed to build up the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judea was made desolate by the Chaldees.”

Vacuum and Edomite Migrations

After the deportations of the last of Judah by the Babylonians, it is evident that those same Edomites moved into the land. A century or so later, Persian inscriptions place much of the province of Idumaea in the land of Israel. Ezekiel chapters 35 and 36 discuss the Edomite takeover of lands formerly belonging to Israel and Judah. The prophet says at 35:7-12:

“7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. 8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. 9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there: 11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. 12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.”

Today most of the world's people perceive the goings-on in Palestine as the struggle of Israel for their ancient land. But the jews are not Israel, they are Edom, who as Malachi says is returning to build the waste places, and Yahweh will not be tricked.

Hasmonean Absorbance of Edomites and Others

Josephus, Antiquities Book 13:

“257 Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would submit to circumcision, and make use of the laws of the Jews; 258 and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the right of circumcision, {a} and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time, therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter considered to be Jews.”

1 Maccabees 2:46 states:

“And what children soever they found within the coast of Israel uncircumcised, those they circumcised valiantly.”

From the first days of the Maccabees, they were circumcising children by Geography, and not by ethnicity, and it can be shown in history and in Scripture that many other peoples lived within the “coasts of Israel”.

Malachi also prophesied of a coming corrupt priesthood.