Amos 2:1

because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into lime A mark of unrelenting hate and vindictiveness: the Moabites pursued their fallen adversary even into the rest of the grave; they not only violated the sanctity of his tomb, but even removed his bones, and treated them with an unwonted and shocking indignity (cf. 2 Kings 23:16). The reverence with which, in ancient times, the tomb was regarded, is well known: and ancient sepulchral inscriptions often invoke terrible maledictions upon those who disturb the remains deposited within [141]. The prophet displays a high-souled superiority to distinctions of race: he reprobates an indignity offered to Israel's rival not less sternly than one offered to Israel itself. In illustration of the fact, Wellhausen quotes the Kitâb al-"Aghânixii. 21, 11; Ibn Athir v. 178. 12, 203. 23; Maç. v. 471. Nothing further is known of the deed referred to: it may be conjectured to have been one of recent occurrence which sent a thrill of horror through all who heard of it. The Edomites were neighbours of Moab not less than of Judah; and perhaps similar rivalries were prevalent between them. On the occasion of the joint expedition undertaken by Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, for the purpose of coercing the Moabites to obedience, after their revolt under Mesha, the Moabite king is represented (2 Kings 3:26) as actuated by a peculiar animosity against the king of Edom. According to Jerome, it was a Hebrew tradition that this was the king whose bones, after burial, were treated for vengeance in this manner.

[141] Comp. the quotation in the note on v.9; and see also the inscription from el -Olâ (S.E. of Edom) translated in Studia Biblica, vol. i. p. 212 (Euting, Nabatäische Inschriften, 1885. No. 2: see also Nos. 3, 4).