# Qos-gabri (king of Edom)
Qos-gabri (cuneiform *qa-us-gab-ri*; also written [Qaus-gabri](https://www.edgepedia.org/qaus-gabri), Qawsgabar, or Qos-Gabr) was a king of Edom, the Iron Age kingdom in the highlands of southern Transjordan, who flourished in the 7th century BC as a vassal of the [Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/neo-assyrian-empire). His name means "Qaus is powerful", invoking the national god of Edom. He is one of only three Edomite kings known from cuneiform sources, and he appears under both [Esarhaddon](https://www.edgepedia.org/esarhaddon) (r. 680–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631? BC).[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20200730231502/https:/www.livius.org/articles/people/edomites/) • [2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5434-edox-idumea) • [3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Subject | Qos-gabri (Qaus-gabri), king of Edom |
| Meaning of name | "Qaus is powerful"; 7th-century vocalization Qauš[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x) • [4](https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/7231) |
| Overlords | Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631? BC)[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20200730231502/https:/www.livius.org/articles/people/edomites/) |
| Attestation dates | Submissive to Esarhaddon c. 673 BC and to Ashurbanipal c. 667 BC; the Ashurbanipal report is preserved in Prism C, datable to c. 646 BC[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) |
| Non-Assyrian evidence | Clay bulla reading "(Belonging to) Qos-Gabr, King of Edom", from Umm al-Biyara, Petra[6](https://www.academia.edu/648167/_The_Seal_Material_in_P_Bienkowski_ed_Umm_al_Biyara_Excavations_by_Crystal_M_Bennett_in_Petra_1960_1965_2011) |
| Edom in cuneiform | Edom appears as "Udumi"; three kings known from cuneiform sources: Qaus-malaka, Malik-rammu, and Qaus-gabri[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5434-edox-idumea) |
| End of Edom | Polity collapsed under Nabonidus's western campaign, dated 553 BC in the Nabonidus Chronicle, with one recent argument for 551 BC[7](https://doi.org/10.1086/basor25067039) |
## Sources and attestation
Qos-gabri is known entirely from Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions and a single clay bulla. Esarhaddon's Prism B names him; the only report from Ashurbanipal's reign is preserved in Prism C, which can be dated to about 646 BC.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) He was submissive to Esarhaddon about 673 BC and to [Ashurbanipal](https://www.edgepedia.org/ashurbanipal) about 667 BC.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) The BAS Library adds that he is named among the rulers supplying labor and materials for Esarhaddon's building projects in Nineveh (c. 673 BC; ANET 291) and providing assistance in Ashurbanipal's wars against Egypt (beginning 669 or 667 BC; ANET 294).[8](https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/ammon-moab-and-edom-gods-and-kingdoms-east-of-the-jordan/)
The sole non-Assyrian attestation is a clay bulla from Umm al-Biyara in Petra reading "(Belonging to) Qos-Gabr, King of Edom". It measures 1.6 cm x 1.9 cm x 0.6 cm, with an impression of 1.5 cm x 1.3 cm, and bears a human-headed sphinx combining Levantine and Syro-Phoenician iconographic elements; royal attribution of the sphinx remains unproven in the Edomite context. The bulla was found alongside loom weights and a jug in a context interpreted as likely related to government tax payments.[6](https://www.academia.edu/648167/_The_Seal_Material_in_P_Bienkowski_ed_Umm_al_Biyara_Excavations_by_Crystal_M_Bennett_in_Petra_1960_1965_2011)
## Date and chronology
The fixed points for Qos-gabri's floruit are the Assyrian annal dates: submission to Esarhaddon around 673 BC and to Ashurbanipal around 667 BC, with the Prism C report written about 646 BC.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) An older reference work dates his appearance under Esarhaddon to c. 680; the annal-based date of c. 673 BC is the one used in the specialist Assyriological literature.[2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5434-edox-idumea) • [5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf)
The bulla itself carried unusual chronological weight. The Iron Age pottery chronology of the Edomite plateau had been tied to the seventh and sixth centuries BC largely by this single [Umm el-Biyara](https://www.edgepedia.org/umm-el-biyara) bulla reading "Qos gabar king of Edom", leaving the plateau corpus otherwise a floating chronology.[9](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/reassessing-the-chronology-of-biblical-edom-new-excavations-and-14c-dates-from-khirbat-ennahas-jordan/2F802446A9534974F7DA094105A6B84A) The rarity of the name Qos-Gabr in Edomite onomastics supports the link between the bulla and the Assyrian-attested king of c. 673–667 BC.[6](https://www.academia.edu/648167/_The_Seal_Material_in_P_Bienkowski_ed_Umm_al_Biyara_Excavations_by_Crystal_M_Bennett_in_Petra_1960_1965_2011)
## Edom under Assyrian overlordship
After the Assyrians conquered Israel (724 or 722 BC) they reduced the other kingdoms of the area, Judah, Edom, Moab, and Ammon, to vassal states; as an Assyrian vassal, Edom retained some of its independence.[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20200730231502/https:/www.livius.org/articles/people/edomites/) Assyria never put Edom under direct rule and always called its leaders kings.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) From the eighth century BC onward, imperial control meant that Edomite kings gave tribute, paid heavy taxes, and made official visits to the imperial courts.[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x)
The relationship was conditional rather than administrative. Esarhaddon summoned Qaus-gabri to bring building material to Nineveh; so long as a vassal paid tribute regularly and its king appeared when required, Assyria would not interfere in its affairs.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) Assyrian troops entered Edom only once, under Ashurbanipal in the war against Arab tribes (c. 660 BC), when forces pursued attackers through Transjordan; the places they scoured, listed in Prism A of the annals (dated c. 643 BC), include both *ilu u-du-me* (Edom) and *ilu sa-'-ar-ri* (Seir).[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf)
## How it compares with neighboring rulers
Qos-gabri belongs to a short sequence of Assyrian-attested Edomite rulers: Qaus-malak in a tributary list of Tiglath-pileser III (c. 737–732 BC by Millard's dating; c. 734 BC by the BAS Library's), the earliest securely dated Edomite personal name honoring Qaus; [Ayarammu](https://www.edgepedia.org/aya-rammu) (Malik-rammu), who bowed before [Sennacherib](https://www.edgepedia.org/sennacherib) in 701 BC alongside the kings of Moab and Ammon; and Qos-gabri himself.[5](https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf) • [8](https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/ammon-moab-and-edom-gods-and-kingdoms-east-of-the-jordan/) • [2](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5434-edox-idumea) In the Assyrian records under Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal he appears as one of the vassal rulers of Transjordan alongside the kings of Ammon and Moab.[10](https://escholarship.org/content/qt98n930w8/qt98n930w8_noSplash_61e23b150d78d2934673d001fd8212c7.pdf)
Qos-gabri is named among the kings who provided assistance in Ashurbanipal's wars against Egypt beginning 669 or 667 BC.[8](https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/ammon-moab-and-edom-gods-and-kingdoms-east-of-the-jordan/)
## The name of Qos
The royal name carries the theophoric element Qos (Qauš), the foremost deity of Edom, its populace and its ruling elite. The two Assyrian-attested Edomite royal names Qaušmalaku and Qaušgabri, meaning "Qaus is king" and "Qaus is powerful", are the earliest firm references to the god.[4](https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/7231) The cuneiform spelling of the king's name is *qa-us-gab-ri*, "Qos is powerful".[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x) The vocalization of the divine name *qws* in seventh-century Akkadian was Qauš (*qa-uš*), and the Egyptian vocalization Q3ws; the contracted form Qûs/Qôs is attested later, in the Persian-period Tawilan tablet.[4](https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/7231)
The god appears to have functioned as a local variant of the storm-god and/or divine-warrior type, known primarily from short inscriptions and personal names.[11](https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0404477) The Edomite onomasticon includes 50 personal names bearing the element Qos, carried by kings, their servants, and ordinary individuals, with the earliest in an eighth-century cuneiform document.[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x) Outside the heartland, the Qos cult spread west of the Wadi Aravah with Edomite expansion: an Edomite ostracon from the 7th-century fortress of [Horvat Uza](https://www.edgepedia.org/horvat-uza), a letter from an Edomite named Imlk, includes a greeting in the name of Qos, the chief god of Edom, and the shrine of [Horvat Qitmit](https://www.edgepedia.org/horvat-qitmit) yielded seven inscribed fragments, some bearing the theophoric name of Qos.[12](https://publication.doa.gov.jo/uploads/publications/25/SHAJ_10-597-602.pdf) • [3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x) At Busayra, Edom's foremost city, a large temple complex likely centered on the worship of Qos.[11](https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0404477)
## References
1. "Edomites", Livius. https://web.archive.org/web/20200730231502/https:/www.livius.org/articles/people/edomites/
2. "Edom, Idumea", Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5434-edox-idumea
3. B. A. Porter, "Authority, Polity, and Tenuous Elites in Iron Age Edom (Jordan)", *Oxford Journal of Archaeology* (2004). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.x
4. Justin Kelley, "Toward a New Synthesis: of the God of Edom and Yahweh", *Antiguo Oriente* 7 (2009). https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/7231
5. A. R. Millard, "Assyrian Involvement in Edom", in *Early Edom and Moab*. https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/early-edom/035_millard.pdf
6. "The Seal Material", in P. Bienkowski (ed.), *Umm al-Biyara: Excavations by Crystal-M. Bennett in Petra 1960–1965* (2011). https://www.academia.edu/648167/_The_Seal_Material_in_P_Bienkowski_ed_Umm_al_Biyara_Excavations_by_Crystal_M_Bennett_in_Petra_1960_1965_2011
7. "Nabonidus, as-Silaʿ, and the Beginning of the End of Edom", *Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research* (2007). https://doi.org/10.1086/basor25067039
8. "Ammon, Moab and Edom: Gods and Kingdoms East of the Jordan", BAS Library. https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/ammon-moab-and-edom-gods-and-kingdoms-east-of-the-jordan/
9. "Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan", *Antiquity*. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/reassessing-the-chronology-of-biblical-edom-new-excavations-and-14c-dates-from-khirbat-ennahas-jordan/2F802446A9534974F7DA094105A6B84A
10. University of California, Berkeley dissertation on the Iron Age Edomite polity (Busayra Cultural Heritage Project). https://escholarship.org/content/qt98n930w8/qt98n930w8_noSplash_61e23b150d78d2934673d001fd8212c7.pdf
11. "Kingdom of Edom" (reference entry). https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0404477
12. Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, "Judah Versus Edom in the Eastern Negev", *Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan* 10. https://publication.doa.gov.jo/uploads/publications/25/SHAJ_10-597-602.pdf
13. "Why the Bible Is Mute about Qos, the Edomite God", TheTorah.com. https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-the-bible-is-mute-about-qos-the-edomite-god
14. Piotr Bienkowski, "The Emergence of Edom: Recent Debate", *The Ancient Near East Today* (March 2023). https://anetoday.org/bienkowski-emergence-edom/
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Periods and civilizations › Ancient Near East, Egypt, Nubia, and the Punic world › Ancient Levant › Philistia, Transjordan, and North Arabia › Philistia, Transjordan, and North Arabia: rulers and royal family*
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