XXXVI. THE TÔLDÔTH ESAU. (1) THE GENERATIONS OF ESAU. — This _tôldôth,_ consisting of Genesis 36:1 to Genesis 37:1, is very remarkable, if it were only for the difficulties with which it abounds, and which have too often been aggravated by the determination of commentators to make Holy Scripture ben... [ Continue Reading ]
ADAH THE DAUGHTER OF ELON THE HITTITE. — In Genesis 26:34, she is called “Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,” and is placed second. Here she is everywhere placed first. We do not often elsewhere find women possessed of two names, but it has not been sufficiently borne in mind that she was a... [ Continue Reading ]
BASHEMATH ISHMAEL’S DAUGHTER, SISTER OF NEBAJOTH. — The Samaritan text reads Mahalath here, and in Genesis 36:4; Genesis 36:10; Genesis 36:17, as in Genesis 28:9. There can be little doubt that Mahalath is the right reading, but the versions, nevertheless, agree with the Masoretic Hebrew text, so th... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE LAND OF CANAAN. — We find Esau with a band of armed men in Seir on Jacob’s return from Padan-aram, but he still had his home at Hebron with his father until Isaac’s death, twenty-two years afterwards. Evidently he had taken Aholibamah home thither, and she had borne him three sons. After Isaa... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO THE COUNTRY FROM THE FACE. — Heb. _into a land away from the face, &c. _... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAND WHEREIN THEY WERE STRANGERS. — The large growth of their wealth made the separation of Esau and Jacob as inevitable as had been that of Abraham and Lot. It is a usual incident in the life of nomads, and a tribe can multiply only to the extent of the capabilities of their district to support... [ Continue Reading ]
MOUNT SEIR. — The land of Idumea extends from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Elath, and consists of a chain of mountains running parallel to the Akaba, or continuation of the deep depression through which the Jordan flows till it loses itself in the Dead Sea. The hills are of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FATHER OF THE EDOMITES. — Heb., _the father of Edom._ He was himself the man Edom, but the word here means the country of which he was the colonizer.... [ Continue Reading ]
AMALEK. — We have already read of the “field of the Amalekite” in Genesis 14:7. As Balaam describes Amalek as “the beginning of nations” (so the Heb., Numbers 24:20), the race can scarcely have had so ignoble an origin as to have sprung from a concubine of Eliphaz; for we gather from Amos 6:1 that t... [ Continue Reading ]
DUKES. — Duke is the Latin word _dux,_ a leader; but the Hebrew word _alluph_ signifies _a tribal prince,_ It is derived from _eleph,_ a thousand, used in much the same way as the word _hundred_ with us for a division of the country. Probably it was one large enough to have in it a thousand grown me... [ Continue Reading ]
DUKE KORAH. — The Samaritan Pentateuch rightly omits this name. He was a son of the Horite wife, Aholibamah.... [ Continue Reading ]
DUKE JEUSN... — Aholibamah’s three sons are dukes, but only the grandsons of the other wives. The reason of this probably is that she belonged to the dominant family of Seir, and her sons took the command of districts and tribes of the Horite people in her right.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SONS OF SEIR THE HORITE. — This genealogy is given partly because it contains that of Aholibamah, but chiefly because the Horites were in time fused with the descendants of Esau, and together formed the Edomites.... [ Continue Reading ]
TIMNA. — Not the Timna mentioned in Genesis 36:12; for she is here described as sister of Lotan the brother of Zibeon, who was grandfather of Aholibamah, Esau’s wife. But the Timna mentioned there was the concubine of Esau’s grandson, and junior by four generations.... [ Continue Reading ]
ANAH THAT FOUND THE MULES. — Mules is the traditional rendering of the Jews; but as horses were at this date unknown in Palestine, Anah could not have discovered the art of crossing them with asses, and so producing mules. Jerome, moreover, says that “the word in Punic, a language allied to Hebrew,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGS. — In the triumphal song of Moses on the Red Sea we still read of “dukes of Edom” (Exodus 15:15; but when Israel had reached the borders of their land, we find that Edom had then a king (Numbers 20:14). But in the list given here, no king succeeds his father, and probably these were petty... [ Continue Reading ]
JOBAB. — The LXX. identify him with Job, but on no probable grounds.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO SMOTE MIDIAN... — All memory of this exploit has passed away, and the complete silence of the Bible regarding every one of these kings, makes it probable that they belonged to an early date prior to the time in Israel when historical events were carefully recorded.... [ Continue Reading ]
REHOBOTH BY THE RIVER. — Heb., _Rehoboth hannahar,_ Rehoboth-of-the-river, so called, perhaps, to distinguish it from Rehoboth-ir (Genesis 10:11). If the river is the Euphrates, this city was not on Edomite ground, and Saul probably reigned in Idumea by right of conquest.... [ Continue Reading ]
HADAR. — He is more correctly called Hadad in the Samaritan text here, and in the Hebrew also in 1 Chronicles 1:50. The two letters r and _d_ are in Hebrew so much alike, that they are repeatedly confused with one another. As we have already observed (see Note on Genesis 36:1) he was probably alive... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING TO THEIR FAMILIES, AFTER THEIR PLACES. — The final list of the dukes is said, both here and in Genesis 36:43, to be territorial, by which is meant, not that the persons mentioned were not real men, but that Edom finally settled down into eleven “thousands” named after these chieftains. So... [ Continue Reading ]