Qos (Hebrew ), also
Qos,
Qaus,
Koze) was the national god of the
Edomites. He was the
Idumean rival of
Yahweh, and structurally parallel to him. Thus 'son of Qos' 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('Qos gleamed forth'), referring to the 'father' of a family or clan of Edomite
netînîm 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.
