Genesis 36:10

These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Genesis 36:10. These are the names — Observe here, 1st, That only the names of Esau’s sons and grandsons are recorded: not their history, for it is the Church that Moses preserves the records of, not of those that were without. The elders only, that lived by faith, obtained a good report. 2d, That the sons and grandsons of Esau are called dukes. Probably they were military commanders, that had soldiers under them; for Esau and his family lived by the sword, Genesis 27:40. 3d, We may suppose those dukes had numerous families of children and servants. God promised to multiply Jacob and to enrich him; yet Esau increases and is enriched first. God’s promise to Jacob began to work late, but the effect of it remained longer, and it had its complete accomplishment in the spiritual Israel.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

36:1-43 Esau and his descendants. - The registers in this chapter show the faithfulness of God to his promise to Abraham. Esau is here called Edom, that name which kept up the remembrance of his selling his birth-right for a mess of pottage. Esau continued the same profane despiser of heavenly things. In outward prosperity and honour, the children of the covenant are often behind, and those that are out of the covenant get the start. We may suppose it a trial to the faith of God's Israel, to hear of the pomp and power of the kings of Edom, while they were bond-slaves in Egypt; but those that look for great things from God, must be content to wait for them; God's time is the best time. Mount Seir is called the land of their possession. Canaan was at this time only the land of promise. Seir was in the possession of the Edomites. The children of this world have their all in hand, and nothing in hope, Lu 16:25; while the children of God have their all in hope, and next to nothing in hand. But, all things considered, it is beyond compare better to have Canaan in promise, than mount Seir in possession.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

After the removal to Mount Seir the race of Esau is traced further. It is remarkable that the phrase, "And these are the generations of Esau," is now repeated. This is sufficient to show us that it does not necessarily indicate diversity of authorship, or is a very distinct piece of composition. Here it merely distinguishes the history of Esau's descent in Mount Seir from that in Kenaan. "Father of Edom." Edom here denotes the nation sprung from him. Eliphaz has five sons by his wife, and by a concubine a sixth, named Amalek, most probably the father of the Amalekites Genesis 14:7. "Timna" was probably a very young sister of Lotan Genesis 36:22, perhaps not older than her niece Oholibamah Genesis 36:25. Eliphaz was at least forty-one years younger than Esau. Yet it is curious that the father takes the niece to wife, and the son the aunt. "Teman" is the father of the Temanites, among whom we find Eliphaz the Temanite mentioned in Job JObadiah 2:11. The name Kenaz may indicate some affinity of Edom with the Kenizzites Genesis 25:19, though these were an older tribe. The other tribes are not of any note in history. Zepho is Zephi in Chronicles, by the change of a feeble letter. Such variations are not unusual in Hebrew speech, and so make their appearance in writing. Thus, in Genesis itself we have met with Mehujael and Mehijael, Peniel and Penuel Genesis 4:18; Genesis 32:30-31. The sons of Esau by Oholibamah are younger than the other two, and hence, these sons are not enumerated along with those of the latter.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir—This was divinely assigned as his possession (Jos 24:4; De 2:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

These are the names of Esau's sons,.... In this and some following verses, an account is given of the sons of Esau, which agrees with what is before observed, and of his sons' sons:

Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau: who seems to be his first wife, and this his first son:

Reuel the son of Bashemath and wife of Esau; his second son by another wife, a daughter of Ishmael, Genesis 36:3.

Geneva Study Bible

These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Eliphaz] See Genesis 36:4.

Reuel] See Genesis 36:4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 10-12. - These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau (vide ver. 4). And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, - the name was afterwards given to a district of Idumea (Jeremiah 49:20), and borne by one of Job's friends (Job 2:11) - Omar, - "Eloquent" (Gesenius), "Mountain-dweller" (Furst) - Zepho, - "Watch-tower" (Gesenius); called Zephi in 1 Chronicles 1:36 - and Gatam, - "their touch" (Gesenius), "dried up" (Furst) - and Kenaz - "Hunting" (Gesenius). And Timna - "Restraint" (Gesenius, Furst, Murphy) - was concubine - pilgash, (vide Genesis 16:3; Genesis 25:6) - to Eliphaz Esau's son; perhaps given to him by Adah, so that her children were reckoned Adah's (Hughes) and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek - "Inhabitant of the Valley," or "Warrior" (Furst); "a nation of head-breakers" (Lunge); "Laboring" (Gesenius, Murphy). It is probable that this was the founder of the Amalekite nation who attacked Israel at Horeb (Keil, Kalisch, Murphy), though by others (Gesenius, Michaelis, Furst) these have been regarded as a primitive people, chiefly on the grounds that Amalek is mentioned in Genesis 14:7 as having existed in the days of Abraham, and that Balaam calls Amalek the first of nations (Numbers 24:20); but the first may simply be a prolepsis (Hengstenberg), while the second alludes not to the antiquity of the nation, but either to its power (Kalisch), or to the circumstance that it was the first heathen tribe to attack Israel (Keil). These (including Eliphaz for the reason specified above) were the sons of Adah Esau s wife. Genesis 36:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(cf. 1 Chronicles 1:36-37). Esau's Sons and Grandsons as Fathers of Tribes. - Through them he became the father of Edom, i.e., the founder of the Edomitish nation on the mountains of Seir. Mouth Seir is the mountainous region between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic Gulf, the northern half of which is called Jebl (Γεβαλήνη) by the Arabs, the southern half, Sherah (Rob. Pal. ii. 552). - In the case of two of the wives of Esau, who bore only one son each, the tribes were founded not by the sons, but by the grandsons; but in that of Aholibamah the three sons were the founders. Among the sons of Eliphaz we find Amalek, whose mother was Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz. He was the ancestor of the Amalekites, who attacked the Israelites at Horeb as they came out of Egypt under Moses (Exodus 17:8.), and not merely of a mixed tribe of Amalekites and Edomites, belonging to the supposed aboriginal Amalekite nation. For the Arabic legend of Amlik as an aboriginal tribe of Arabia is far too recent, confused, and contradictory to counterbalance the clear testimony of the record before us. The allusion to the fields of the Amalekites in Genesis 14:7 does not imply that the tribe was in existence in Abraham's time, nor does the expression "first of the nations," in the saying of Balaam (Numbers 24:20), represent Amalek as the aboriginal or oldest tribe, but simply as the first heathen tribe by which Israel was attacked. The Old Testament says nothing of any fusion of Edomites or Horites with Amalekites, nor does it mention a double Amalek (cf. Hengstenberg, Dissertations 2, 247ff., and Kurtz, History i. 122, 3, ii.240ff.).

(Note: The occurrence of "Timna and Amalek" in 1 Chronicles 1:36, as coordinate with the sons of Eliphaz, is simply a more concise form of saying "and from Timna, Amalek.")

If there had been an Amalek previous to Edom, with the important part which they took in opposition to Israel even in the time of Moses, the book of Genesis would not have omitted to give their pedigree in the list of the nations. At a very early period the Amalekites separated from the other tribes of Edom and formed an independent people, having their headquarters in the southern part of the mountains of Judah, as far as Kadesh (Genesis 14:7; Numbers 13:29; Numbers 14:43, Numbers 14:45), but, like the Bedouins, spreading themselves as a nomad tribe over the whole of the northern portion of Arabia Petraea, from Havilah to Shur on the border of Egypt (1 Samuel 15:3, 1 Samuel 15:7; 1 Samuel 27:8); whilst one branch penetrated into the heart of Canaan, so that a range of hills, in what was afterwards the inheritance of Ephraim, bore the name of mountains of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15, cf. Genesis 5:14). Those who settled in Arabia seem also to have separated in the course of time into several branches, so that Amalekite hordes invaded the land of Israel in connection sometimes with the Midianites and the sons of the East (the Arabs, Judges 6:3; Judges 7:12), and at other times with the Ammonites (Judges 3:13). After they had been defeated by Saul (1 Samuel 14:48; 1 Samuel 15:2.), and frequently chastised by David (1 Samuel 27:8; 1 Samuel 30:1.; 2 Samuel 8:12), the remnant of them was exterminated under Hezekiah by the Simeonites on the mountains of Seir (1 Chronicles 4:42-43).