Hot Springs

A single notice in scripture marks the discovery of hot springs, embedded in the Edomite genealogy of Esau's line. The detail belongs to the wilderness pasturage of Seir.

The Discovery in the Wilderness of Edom

The find is credited to Anah, son of Zibeon the Horite, while he was tending his father's donkeys: "And these are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; this is Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he fed the donkeys of Zibeon his father" (Gen 36:24). The verse sits inside the catalogue of Esau's descendants and their chiefs (Gen 36), and the parenthetical aside fixes Anah by what he came upon in the open country south of the Dead Sea. The hot springs are noticed once, by name, and the text moves on without locating them more precisely.