But Eliphaz returned: "I have nothing to do with him, the son should
not bear the iniquity of the father. Esau will be destroyed, because he
executed no good deeds, and likewise his dukes will perish. But as for
me, I am a prophet, and my message is not unto Esau, but unto thee, to
make thee render account of thyself." But God rebuked Eliphaz, and
said: "Thou didst speak harsh words unto My servant Job. Therefore
shall Obadiah, one of thy descendants, utter a prophecy of denunciation
against thy father's house, the Edomites."[319]
The concubine of Eliphaz was Timna, a princess of royal blood, who had
asked to be received into the faith of Abraham and his family, but they
all, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had rejected her, and she said, "Rather
will I be a maid servant unto the dregs of this nation, than mistress
of another nation," and so she was willing to be concubine to Eliphaz.
To punish the Patriarchs for the affront they had offered her, she was
made the mother of Amalek, who inflicted great injury upon Israel.[320]
Another one of Esau's descendants, Anah, had a most unusual experience.
Once when he was pasturing his father's asses in the wilderness, he led
them to one of the deserts on the shores of the Red Sea, opposite the
wilderness of the nations, and while he was feeding the beasts, a very
heavy storm came from the other side of the sea, and the asses could
not move. Then about one hundred and twenty great and terrible animals
came out from the wilderness at the other side of the sea, and they all
came to the place where the asses were, and they placed themselves
there. From the middle down, these animals were in the shape of a man,
and from the middle up some had the likeness of bears, some of apes,
and they all had tails behind them like the tail of the dukipat, from
between their shoulders reaching down to the earth. The animals mounted
the asses, and they rode away with them, and unto this day no eye hath
seen them. One of them approached Anah, and smote him with its tail,
and then ran off.
When Anah saw all this, he was exceedingly afraid on account of his
life, and he fled to the city, where he related all that had happened
to him. Many sallied forth to seek the asses, but none could find them.
Anah and his brothers went no more to the same place from that day
forth, for they were greatly afraid on account of their lives.[321]
This Anah was the offspring of an incestuous marriage; his mother was
at the same time the mother of his father Zibeon. And as he was born of
an unnatural union, so he tried to bring about unnatural unions among
animals. He was the first to mix the breed of the horse and the ass and
produce the mule. As a punishment, God crossed the snake and the
lizard, and they brought forth the habarbar, whose bite is certain
death, like the bite of the white she-mule.[322]
The descendants of Esau had eight kings before there reigned any king
over the descendants of Jacob. But a time came when the Jews had eight
kings during whose reign the Edomites had none and were subject to the
Jewish kings. This was the time that intervened between Saul, the first
Israelitish king, who ruled over Edom, and Jehoshaphat, for Edom did
not make itself independent of Jewish rule until the time of Joram, the
son of Jehoshaphat. There was a difference between the kings of Esau's
seed and the kings of Jacob's seed. The Jewish people always produced
their kings from their own midst, while the Edomites had to go to alien
peoples to secure theirs.[323] The first Edomite king was the Aramean
Balaam,[324] called Bela in his capacity as ruler of Edom. His
successor Job, called Jobab also, came from Bozrah, and for furnishing
Edom with a king this city will be chastised in time to come. When God
sits in judgment on Edom, Bozrah will be the first to suffer
punishment.[325]
The rule of Edom was of short duration, while the rule of Israel will
be unto all times, for the standard of the Messiah shall wave forever
and ever.[326]