Seir is the proper name for the rugged, reddish-brown mountain range and territory stretching south from the Dead Sea into the Arabah, permanently associated with Esau and his Edomite descendants. The name appears 36 times and may derive from the word for 'hairy' or 'wooded' — a wordplay Genesis exploits when describing Esau as ish sa'ir, 'a hairy man' (Gen 27:11). In the earliest poetry, Seir is the direction from which God marches forth: 'LORD, when you went out from Seir' (Judg 5:4; cf. Deut 33:2). The territory served as Esau's inheritance after he parted from Jacob (Gen 32:3; 33:14-16; 36:8-9), and the Horites were its pre-Edomite inhabitants (Gen 14:6; Deut 2:12). Prophetic texts use Seir as a byword for Edom under divine judgment (Ezek 25:8; 35:2-15).