Numbers 20:14-21

Edom was next on God's list. Edom lay to the south east of the southern tip of the Dead Sea, and it was one of the three trans-Jordan kingdoms, that included Moab and Ammon. Edom's crime was that he pursued his brother, and his anger never diminished, but raged continually. God hates this. Edom or Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, thus Edom and Israel had close ethnic ties. And yet when Israel wished to pass on their way to the Promised land through Edom, in Numbers 20:14-21, paying them for whatever, Edom refused them, and came out against them with a great army. Their greatest act of hate and hostility against Israel is seen in 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the Edomites gloated over the destruction of their enemies and hindered the escape of those fleeing, and delivered them over into the captive's hands. You can read about this in Obadiah 10-14, it is a very sad and touching story. Teman and Bozrah were to be destroyed. These two cities represented the whole country, and God was going to teach them a lesson, and it was a painful suffering lesson.