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.