Genesis 35:21

The tower of Edar. — Heb., Eder. Micah (Genesis 4:8) calls it “the hill of the daughter of Zion;” but the word used often means a beacon-hill, a hill on which a tower for observation is erected, wrongly translated in the Authorised Version a stronghold. The tower may, therefore, have been a few miles south of Jerusalem; and as the word “beyond” includes the idea of up to, as far as, the meaning is that Jacob now occupied this region permanently with his cattle. Until Esau, with his possessions, withdrew to Seir, there would be no room for Jacob and his flocks and herds at Hebron, but he would at Eder be so near his father as to be able often to visit him. And thus his exile was now over, and he was at last at home.