ad married into the family of a
Horite chief. His descendants, partly by conquest, partly by absorption,
planted themselves securely in the country which was henceforth to be
called Edom. Horite and Amalekite Bedawin were alike absorbed into the
new-comers, whose position in Edom resembled that of the Israelites in
Canaan.

How long the work of conquest and settlement lasted we do not know. It
resulted in the formation of numerous tribes, each under its chieftain,
the _aluph_ or "duke" as he was termed. These "dukes" corresponded with
the "princes" of the tribes of Israel. But whereas the "princes" of the
Israelitish tribes did not survive the life in the desert, the "dukes"
of Edom give way only to kings. For this there was a good reason. The
invasion of Canaan and the promulgation of the Mosaic Law changed the
whole organisation of the Hebrew people. On the one hand, the Israelites
required a leader who should lead them in the first instance against the
Canaanites, in the second against the foreign oppressors who enslaved
them from time to time. On the other hand, the high-priests at Shiloh
exercised many of the functions which would naturally have belonged to
the head of the tribe. Neither "judge" nor high-priest was needed in
Edom. There the native population was weak and uncivilised; it possessed
neither cities nor chariots of iron, and its subjugation was no
difficult task. Once in possession of the fastnesses of Seir, the
Edomites were comparatively safe from external attack. It was a land of
dangerous defiles and barren mountains, surrounded on all sides by the
desert. There was no central sanctuary, no Levitical priesthood, no
Mosaic Law. The "duke" consequently had no rival; the history of Edom
knows nothing of judges or high-priests.

The law of evolution, however, which governed other Semitic communities
prevailed also in Edom. The dukes had to give place to a king. The
tribes were united under a single leader, and the loosely federated
clans became a kingdom. As in Israel, so too in Edom the kingdom was
elective. But, unlike Israel, it remained elective; there was no
pressure of Philistine conquest, no commanding genius like David, no
central capital like Jerusalem to make it centralised and hereditary.
Several generations had to pass before the Edomites were called upon to
fight for their independence against a foreign invader, and when they
did so the struggle ended in their subjugation. The elective pri