Genesis 36:33 names it as an Edomite city, situated south-east of the Dead Sea, in the area whose capital was, or would later become, Petra. Yovav ben Zerach of Batsrah became one of its kings (cf 1 Chronicles 1:44/5).
Isaiah 34:6 refers to a great slaughter there, and Isaiah 63:1 asks famously: "Who is he that comes from Edom, in reddened garments from Batsrah?" - meaning the Moshi'a, or possibly the Mashiyach. But why Batsrah?
It is rendered as Bozrah in most translations, which risks confusing it with Basra, a town in modern Iraq much in the news at the time of writing this.
Jeremiah 49:13 suggests Batsrah is a name to arouse contempt, and 49:22 predicts its perpetual desolation. This is reflected in Ya'akov's oracles (prophecies?) for his sons in Genesis 49. Amos 1:12 likewise predicts its destruction as payment for Edomite crimes, though these crimes are never stated. Yet the rivalry between Yisra-El and Edom is as old as the Tanach itself. The land to the East of Eden - taking Eden as the shrine of Chevron - where Kayin (Cain) wandered (the land of Nod, which means "wandering") is plainly Edom. The supplanted elder brother of all the principal rivalries - Kayin and Havel, Yishma-El and Yitschak, Esav and Ya'akov - all end up as Edomite chieftains, and down to Herod's day (he was an Edomite, or Idumean, forced to convert to Judaism) the rivalry continued. But why? It is also a strange fact, undoubtedly connected to the meaning of the word Edom (Red), that all the supplanted brothers had red hair.
Batsrah has 2 roots:
a) "to cut off", "cut away", as used for the pruning of grapevines, an act much associated with circumcision, a ritual "introduced" by Av-Raham (Genesis 17:11-14) and first carried out on Yishma-El (17:23).
b) "to make inaccessible", and used for fortifications, even those as small as sheep-pens.
But: Yesha-Yahu's (Isaiah's) Batsrah was either Batsrah in the Hauran or, less likely, Basra on the Persian Gulf, and the prediction of destruction and desolation is to do with the battle for supremacy between the Babylonian and Assyrian empires - and Yesha-Yahu was proven wrong, because both were soon afterwards defeated by the Persian Medes, of whom Yesha-Yahu could not possibly have been aware. The Batsrah of Genesis 36:33, and of Ya'akov's blessings (Genesis 49), was much more likely Little Batsrah in Edom. The one Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) berated was probably Betser, a Levitical city conquered by Mo-Av and noted as a city of refuge in Deuteronomy 4:43.
Which Batsrah then will the Mashiyach, or perhaps it will be the Moshi'a, come from? Impossible to say.
Batsrah has 2 roots:
a) "to cut off", "cut away", as used for the pruning of grapevines, an act much associated with circumcision, a ritual "introduced" by Av-Raham (Genesis 17:11-14) and first carried out on Yishma-El (17:23).
b) "to make inaccessible", and used for fortifications, even those as small as sheep-pens.
But: Yesha-Yahu's (Isaiah's) Batsrah was either Batsrah in the Hauran or, less likely, Basra on the Persian Gulf, and the prediction of destruction and desolation is to do with the battle for supremacy between the Babylonian and Assyrian empires - and Yesha-Yahu was proven wrong, because both were soon afterwards defeated by the Persian Medes, of whom Yesha-Yahu could not possibly have been aware. The Batsrah of Genesis 36:33, and of Ya'akov's blessings (Genesis 49), was much more likely Little Batsrah in Edom. The one Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) berated was probably Betser, a Levitical city conquered by Mo-Av and noted as a city of refuge in Deuteronomy 4:43.
Which Batsrah then will the Mashiyach, or perhaps it will be the Moshi'a, come from? Impossible to say.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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