SEIR
SEIR,
M. (
Σηεὶρ, LXX.
Σάειρα, Σήειρον, Joseph). “The land of Seir” is equivalent to “the country of Edom.” (
Gen. 32.3.) Mount Seir was the dwelling of Esau and his posterity (36.8, 9;
Deut. 2.4, 5), in the possession of which they were not to be disturbed. (
Josh. 24.4.) Its general situation is defined in
Deuteronomy (1.2) between Horeb and Kadesh Barnea.
The district must have been extensive, for in their retrograde movement from Kadesh, which was in Seir (1.44), the Israelites compassed Mount Seir many days (2.1, 3).
The original inhabitants of Mount Seir were the Horims; “but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead” (2.12, 22; comp.
Gen. 14.6).
It obviously derived its name from “Seir the Horite” (36.20, 21), and not, as Josephus erroneously supposes, from the Hebrew HEBREW == hirsutus. (
Ant. 1.20.3.)
The range bordering
Wady Araba is marked
M. Shehr in some modern maps, but without sufficient authority for the name. Dr. Wilson confines the name to the eastern side of the
Araba, from a little north of Petra to the
Gulf of Akabah, which range he names
Jebel-esh-Sherah (
Lands of the Bible, vol. i. pp. 289, 290, 337, 340); but since Kadesh was in Seir, it is obvious that this name must have extended much more widely, and on both sides the
Araba. Mr. Rowlands heard the name
Es-Serr given to an elevated plain to the east of Kadesh, which must, he thinks, be the Seir alluded to in
Deut. 1.44, where the Israelites were chased before the Amalekites. (Williams's
Holy City, vol. i. appendix, p. 465.)
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G.W]
