Section VI Esau, the Man Who Took His Brother Back
Genesis 36:1-43
This chapter is a compilation of six ancient lists which are related to Esau and his posterity. They are placed here in order to give him an exit from the story of God's dealings with the lineage of Abraham. From this point on the Scriptures depict the Edomites as in some way opposed to the Israelites. Never are the Edomites pictured as being genuinely religious, though archaeological research has shown that they did possess pagan idols.
The first hst (36:1-8) deals with Esau's wives and their children and is oriented toward Canaan. The second one also includes the grandchildren but is tied to the land of Edom (Seir, see map 2), an area southeast of the Dead Sea, rising to over 3,000 feet above sea level in some spots. The third list designates the sons of Esau as heads of clans. The fourth gives the family tree of the Horites, “cave dwellers,” who occupied the land prior to the coming of Esau's family. The fifth genealogy records a group of Edomite kings who preceded the appearance of kings in Israel. The sixth list enumerates descendents of Esau according to geographical areas which became, more or less, their respective homes in ancient times. A list very similar to these six appears in I Chron. 1:35-54.
A. ESAU'S WIVES AND THEIR SONS, 36:1-8
In 26:34 and 28:9 the wives of Esau are listed as Judith, Bashemath, and Mahalath. Since in the ancient Near East girls often changed names at the time of marriage, it would seem that Bashemath (26:34) was the same as Adah (36:2), and that Mahalath (28:9) was the same as Bashemath of 36:3. The Judith of 26:34 appears to have been a different girl from Aholibamah (36:2). Evidently “Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite” (26:34) either was childless or died at an early age, and Aholibamah was taken as a replacement. It is to be observed that the name of her father, Anah, and grandfather, Zibeon, appear in the list of Seirites (36:20). The Samaritan, Greek, and Syriac texts have “daughter of Anah, son of Zibeon,” which is likely the correct reading. The term Hivite should probably be understood as a synonym for “Horite” (36:20), which happens frequently in Scripture, or as a textual variant, since the Hebrew characters for w and r are only slightly different in shape.
The departure of Esau for mount Seir (8) seems to have been a peaceful separation from Jacob. The phrase the land … could not bear them (7) suggests that there was insufficient pasturage for their extensive holdings of livestock.
B. ESAU'S SONS AND GRANDSONS, 36:9-14
The Edomites were now in mount Seir (9) and this genealogy carries the lineage into another generation. Eliphaz (12) had a secondary wife, whose son was Amalek. His descendents were to become implacable foes of the people of Israel.
C. THE PROMINENCE OF ESAU'S DESCENDENTS, 36:15-19
Notable in this record is the presence of the Hebrew term alluf, which KJV translates as dukes (15), following the Latin Vulgate, dux. The root meaning of the term is “ox,” but a close cousin, elef, means “thousand.” This has led some to suppose that what is meant here is “leader of a thousand.”1 Some translators prefer “chief.” It has been proposed that a better translation is “clans” on the basis of the recurring phrase, in the land of Edom (16).
D. THE SONS OF THE CAVE DWELLERS, 36:20-30
This list related to the people who inhabited the land (20) before Esau's arrival seems to indicate that Esau's descendents and the Seirites, who already dwelt in the land, soon intermarried and blended into one people.
These people were descendents of the Horite. The term means “cave dweller,” which seems to have been the mode of living for early inhabitants of Seir. Horite is also a name which the Hebrews used for a non-Semitic nation known to us as Hurrians which dominated the Upper Tigris valley, but had colonists in Palestine (see comments on Genesis 34). It is doubtful that any physical relationship existed between the Hurrians and these people.2
The focus of interest here returns to the Edomites with the spotlight on the power which Esau's descendents gained.
The office of king was not determined by heredity but was granted to men who had proved themselves as leaders of men. For centuries this was a characteristic of the Edomites. At that early date Edom (31) did not have an established city.
Some have argued that the phrase before there reigned any king over the children of Israel shows that Moses did not write the Pentateuch. The assumption would be that the phrase indicates a date during Israel's kingdom period or later for the composition of the Pentateuch. But it has not been proved conclusively by archaeological research that Edom did not have kings at Moses' time. It should also be observed that, even if this phrase came from a later period, it can be understood as a marginal note which crept into the text with no bearing on Mosaic authorship per se.
F. AREAS WHERE THE EDOMITES LIVED, 36:40-43
If, in this hst, the name Elah (41) is understood as a shorter form of Elath, then all the names recorded here would be designations of geographical areas to the southeast and to the south of the Dead Sea.
The term dukes (40, alluf) appears here again and the same problem arises as in 36:15-19. Is the best translation of the word “chiefs” or “clans”? Or is it here a name for the territory governed by these people? The issue is not easily solved and at present there is no answer to this question.