Qos (also spelled Qaus, Qaws, or Koze
The Edomites likely began worshipping the god Qōs (or Qaus) as a major deity around the 8th century B.C.E., with worship becoming firmly established by the 7th–6th centuries B.C.E.. Originating in southern Jordan/northern Arabia, Qōs became their chief national deity during the Assyrian period and grew intensely popular during the Persian period (6th-4th centuries B.C.E.). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Key details regarding the adoption of Qōs include:
Earliest Evidence: While some suggest earlier links, the first concrete evidence of Qōs as a prominent Edomite deity appears in the 8th century B.C.E. with the rise of the Edomite state.
Archaeological Findings: Excavations at Horvat Qitmit, an Edomite shrine dating to the late 7th or early 6th century B.C.E., indicate the worship of Qōs as a significant, likely supreme, deity, notes this Wikipedia article and this Christian Forums post.
Nature of the Deity: Qōs is associated with being a "mighty" king, a storm god, and a lord of animals.
Theological Transition: Prior to the prominence of Qōs, it is possible the Edomites worshipped other deities, with some scholars (as explored on TheTorah.com) suggesting that in much earlier times they may have shared a common, early, or different deity (like a form of Yahweh) with the Israelites. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
The worship of Qōs was so central to the Edomites that, as analyzed in this BYU ScholarsArchive paper, it persisted until the forced conversion of the Idumeans to Judaism in the 2nd century B.C.E
Qos is known primarily from inscriptions and personal names rather than from any surviving artwork, which means we do not actually know what he looked like in a visual sense. Evidence for Qos comes from Edomite and later Idumean contexts where his name appears in theophoric names (names that include a deity, such as “Qos-…”), as well as a small number of inscriptions from the southern Levant. However, unlike the gods of Egypt or Mesopotamia, there are no securely identified statues, reliefs, or temple images that can definitively be said to represent him.
Because of this absence, scholars cannot describe a fixed iconography for Qos. There is no confirmed image tradition showing him as human, animal, or symbolic form. Instead, it is likely that Edomite religion, like other early West Semitic traditions, may have focused more on sacred spaces, altars, and symbolic markers rather than standardized divine statues. In such systems, divine presence could be associated with mountains, cult sites, or ritual objects rather than a clearly defined figure.
Some modern interpretations attempt to reconstruct how Qos might have been imagined by comparing him to neighboring West Semitic and Near Eastern storm or warrior deities, who were sometimes linked with power, weather, or celestial authority. Because of these parallels, Qos is occasionally speculated to have had storm-god-like qualities or symbolic associations. However, these ideas are indirect inferences based on regional patterns, not evidence from Edomite art itself.
Later traditions and modern scholarship sometimes project imagery such as horns or solar symbols onto Qos by analogy with other ancient gods in the broader region. But these are reconstructions rather than historical depictions. The strongest conclusion supported by the evidence is simply that Qos likely did not have a standardized or preserved visual representation, and any imagined form is speculative, based on broader cultural comparisons rather than direct archaeological proof.
