Male gender
Scripture in Hebrew אֱדוֹם (ancient Hebrew).

Edom is the name of the nation born to Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah and brother of Jacob (Genesis 25:30).

Edom bordered Israel to the south and was a kingdom long before Israel (Genesis 36:31). Edom and Israel clashed throughout their existence. King Saul fought them (1 Samuel 14:47), but David conquered them (2 Samuel 8:14) and Edom remained under Israel’s control until the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20).

The ethnonym אדמי, Edomite, occurs only sporadically in the Bible (Deuteronomy 23:8, 1Samuel 21:8, 1Kings 11:14), and is written without the letter וֹ “waw.” This means that Edomite is written in the same way as Adamite (one belonging to Adam).

In Greek times Edom became Idumea (spelled Ιδουμαια and mentioned only in Mark 3:8) and Herod’s own family was Idumea.

In the famous soup scene in which Esau receives the nickname Edom, the author seems to be making a pun. The word soup (נזיד, nazid) is derived from the verb זיד / זוד (zid/ zud), which means “to boil” in a literal sense, but figuratively to act proudly or presumptuously. This verb is used in the sense of boiling only once, in our soup scene. All other occurrences of this verb have to do with arrogance or other aggressive attitudes. It makes sense that a Jewish audience would understand aggression as the literal meaning of this verb, and the meaning of boil as a figurative charge.

When Esau enters, weary from the camp, he demands that Jacob give him “that red stuff, that red stuff.” The word for “red stuff” is אדם (adom); a word very similar to the name Edom. The identical root אדם (‘dm) is the source of the name Adam. Another derivation is אדמה (adama), which means field. Esau is a “man of the fields,” and although the word adama is not used but rather שדה (sadeh), which also means field, the association is clear.