Qos (deity)

Qos (Hebrew קוס/קוש), also Qōs, Qaus, Koze) was the national god of the Edomites. He was the Idumean rival of Yahweh, and structurally parallel to him. Thus 'son of Qōs' parallels the Hebrew 'Beniyahu' (son of Yahweh). The name occurs only once in the Old Testament (if we exclude a possible allusion in an otherwise corrupted text in the Book of Proverbs) in the Book of Ezra as an element in a personal name, Barqos('Qōs gleamed forth'), referring to the 'father' of a family or clan of Edomite nĕtînîm or temple helpers returning from the Babylonian exile. The noun frequently appears combined with names on documents recovered from excavations in Elephantine, where a mixed population of Arabs, Jews and Idumeans lived under a Persian-Mesopotamian garrison.