(12) Teman.--According to Genesis 36:11, a name for a grandson of Esau. The district and chief town of this name are often referred to in the Prophets (Jeremiah 49:7-8; Ezekiel 25:13; Habakkuk 3:3; Obadiah 1:8-9). The wisdom and might of the Temanites were well known, and Eliphaz the Temanite was one of the sage interlocutors of the Book of Job. It was situated, according to Burckhardt and Robinson, south of the Wady Musa.

Bozrah.--Referred to in Jeremiah 49:13; Jeremiah 49:22; Micah 2:12; Isaiah 34:6; Isaiah 63:1. Quite distinct from Bozrah in Moab (Jeremiah 48:24). The former is situated south of the Dead Sea, identified by Robinson and Burckhardt with the village of El Buseireh in Jebal.

Verse 12. - Teman is the region of Idumaea, of which Bozrah is the capital. Both Jerome and Eusebius ('Onomast.') speak of a city so called not far from Petra; but in the Old Testament the name is applied to a district; and as the word in Hebrew means "south," it is probably the southern portion of the land of Edom. Bozrah (hod. Busaireh) was the old capital of Edom, situated on a hill south of the Dead Sea (see Genesis 36:33; Isaiah 34:6). Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:17) predicts the punishment of Edom, and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 25:12-14) does likewise. The monologue of Obadiah has been already referred to. The instrument of vengeance in the present ease was Nebuchadnezzar, though it suffered much at the hands of other enemies, as the Nabathaeans and Maccabees.

1:18-21 There shall be abundant Divine influences, and the gospel will spread speedily into the remotest corners of the earth. These events are predicted under significant emblems; there is a day coming, when every thing amiss shall be amended. The fountain of this plenty is in the house of God, whence the streams take rise. Christ is this Fountain; his sufferings, merit, and grace, cleanse, refresh, and make fruitful. Gospel grace, flowing from Christ, shall reach to the Gentile world, to the most remote regions, and make them abound in fruits of righteousness; and from the house of the Lord above, from his heavenly temple, flows all the good we daily taste, and hope to enjoy eternally.But I will send a fire upon Teman,.... A principal city of Edom or Idumea, so called from Teman a grandson of Esau, Genesis 36:11. Jerom (x) says there was in his time a village called Theman, five miles distant from the city Petra, and had a Roman garrison; and so says Eusebius (y); who places it in Arabia Petraea; it is put for the whole country; it signifies the south. So the Targum renders it,

"a fire in the south.''

The "fire" signifies an enemy that should be sent into it, and destroy it: this was Nebuchadnezzar, who, as Josephus (z) says, five years after the destruction of Jerusalem led his army into Coelesyria, and took it; and fought against the Ammonites and Moabites, and very probably at the same time against the Edomites:

which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah; another famous city of the Edomites; there was one of this name in Moab; either there were two cities so called, one in Edom, and another in Moab; or rather this city lay, as Jarchi says, between Edom and Moab; and so sometimes is placed to one, and sometimes to another, its it might belong to the one and to the other, according to the event of war. It is the same with Bezer in the wilderness, appointed a Levitical city, and a city of refuge, by Joshua, Joshua 20:8; and belonged to the tribe of Reuben; but being on the borders of that tribe, and of Moab and Edom, it is ascribed to each, as they at different times made themselves masters of it. It is the same with Bostra, which Ptolemy (a) places in Arabia Petraea; and being on the confines of Arabia Deserts, and surrounded on all sides with wild deserts, it is commonly spoken of as situated in a wilderness, Jerom (b) speaks of it as a city of Arabia in the desert, to the south, looking to Damascus; and, according to the Persian (c) geographer, it is four days' journey southward from Damascus; and Eusebius places it at the distance of twenty four miles from Adraa or Edrei. The destruction of this place is prophesied of by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 48:24; and perhaps these prophecies were accomplished when Nebuchadnezzar made war with the Ammonites and Edomites, as before observed; or however in the times of the Maccabees, when Judas Maccabeus took this city, put all the males to the sword, plundered it, and then set fire to it, which literally fulfilled this prophecy,

"Hereupon Judas and his host turned suddenly by the way of the wilderness unto Bosora; and when he had won the city, he slew all the males with the edge of the sword, and took all their spoils, and burned the city with fire,'' (1 Maccabees 5:28)

It was afterwards rebuilt, and became a considerable city; in the time of the above Persian geographer (d), it had a very strong castle belonging to it, a gate twenty cubits high, and one of the largest basins or pools of water in all the east. In the fourth century there were bishops of this place, which assisted in the councils of Nice, Antioch, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, as Reland (e) observes; though he thinks that Bostra is not to be confounded with the Bezer of Reuben, or with the Bozra of Moab and Edom; though they seem to be all one and the same place.

(x) De locis Hebr. fol. 95. B. (y) Onomast. ad vocem (z) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7. (a) Geograph. l. 5. c. 17. (b) De locis Hebr. in voce "Trachonitis", fol. 95. B. (c) Apud Calmet, Dictionary, on the word "Bosor". (d) Apud Calmet, ut supra. (e) Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. l. 3. p. 666.