Idumea

Idumea, also called Idumaea in Latin and Idoumaía in Greek, refers to the ancient territory inhabited by the Edomites, southeast of the historic Kingdom of Judah. The name derives from Edom, the Hebrew word for red, linked in biblical genealogies to Esau, the progenitor of the Edomites.

Geographically, Idumea lay to the south of Judah, encompassing parts of the Arabah valley and extending toward the southern Negev and the region around the Dead Sea. In antiquity its borders shifted with changing political control, but it generally formed the southern portion of the Edomite realm.

Historically, the Edomites controlled this region from the early Iron Age. After the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, Edom’s power waned. In the 2nd century BCE, the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus compelled many Edomites to convert to Judaism and incorporated Idumea into the Jewish state. The Herodian dynasty, including Herod the Great, traced its Edomite ancestry, illustrating the region’s integration into Judean-Roman political life. Under Roman rule Idumea was often treated as part of Judaea, and by the high Roman period it had ceased to exist as a separate political unit.

Today, Idumea is a term of historical geography used mainly in biblical and classical contexts to designate the southern Levant region formerly known as Edom. The name appears in various translations of biblical texts and in classical references to describe this southern region of the ancient Near East.