Idumea

Absorbance into Judaea

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.

Hasmonean Conquests

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.”