CHAPTER 36

36:1-44 And these are the generations of Esau; this is Edom. 2 And Esau took to himself wives of the daughters of the Chananites; Ada, the daughter of Ælom the Chettite; and Olibema, daughter of Ana the son of Sebegon, the Evite; 3 and Basemath, daughter of Ismael, sister of Nabaioth. 4 And Ada bore to him Eliphas; and Basemath bore Raguel. 5 And Olibema bore Jeus, and Jeglom, and Core; these are the sons of Esau, which were born to him in the land of Chanaan. 6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and all his possessions, and all his cattle, and all that he had got, and all things whatsoever he had acquired in the land of Chanaan; and Esau went forth from the land of Chanaan, from the face of his brother Jacob. 7 For their substance was too great for them to dwell together; and the land of their sojourning could not bear them, because of the abundance of their possessions. 8 And Esau dwelt in mount Seir; Esau, he is Edom. 9 And these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom in the mount Seir. 10 And these are the names of the sons of Esau. Eliphas, the son of Ada, the wife of Esau; and Raguel, the son of Basemath, wife of Esau. 11 And the sons of Eliphas were Thaeman, Omar, Sophar, Gothom, and Kenez. 12 And Thamna was a concubine of Eliphaz, the son of Esau; and she bore Amalec to Eliphas. These are the sons of Ada, the wife of Esau. 13 And these are the sons of Raguel; Nachoth, Zare, Some, and Moze. These were the sons of Basemath, wife of Esau. 14 And these are the sons of Olibema, the daughter of Ana, the son of Sebegon, the wife of Esau; and she bore to Esau, Jeus, and Jeglom, and Core. 15 These are the chiefs of the son of Esau, even the sons of Eliphas, the first-born of Esau; chief Thaeman, chief Omar, chief Sophar, chief Kenez, 16 chief Core, chief Gothom, chief Amalec. These are the chiefs of Eliphas, in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Ada. 17 And these are the sons of Raguel, the son of Esau; chief Nachoth, chief Zare, chief Some, chief Moze. These are the chiefs of Raguel, in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, wife of Esau. 18 And these are the sons of Olibema, wife of Esau; chief Jeus, chief Jeglom, chief Core. These are the chiefs of Olibema, daughter of Ana, wife of Esau. 19 These are the sons of Esau, and these are the chiefs; these are the sons of Edom. 20 And these are the sons of Seir, the Chorrhite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, Sobal, Sebegon, Ana, 21 and Deson, and Asar, and Rison. These are the chiefs of the Chorrhite, the son of Seir, in the land of Edom. 22 And the sons of Lotan were Chorrhi and Haeman; and the sister of Lotan, Thamna. 23 And these are the sons of Sobal; Golam, and Manachath, and Gaebel, and Sophar, and Omar. 24 And these are the sons of Sebegon; Aie, and Ana; this is the Ana who found Jamin in the wilderness, when he tended the beasts of his father Sebegon. 25 And these are the sons of Ana; Deson—and Olibema was daughter of Ana. 26 And these are the sons of Deson; Amada, and Asban, and Ithran, and Charrhan. 27 And these are the sons of Asar; Balaam, and Zucam, and Jucam. 28 And these are the sons of Rison; Hos, and Aran. 29 And these are the chiefs of Chorri; chief Lotan, chief Sobal, chief Sebegon, chief Ana, 30 chief Deson, chief Asar, chief Rison. These are the chiefs of Chorri, in their principalities in the land of Edom. 31 these are the kings which reigned in Edom, before a king reigned in Israel. 32 And Balac, son of Beor, reigned in Edom; and the name of his city was Dennaba. 33 And Balac died; and Jobab, son of Zara, from Bosorrha reigned in his stead. 34 And Jobab died; and Asom, from the land of the Thaemanites, reigned in his stead. 35 And Asom died; and Adad son of Barad, who cut off Madiam in the plain of Moab, ruled in his stead; and the name of his city was Getthaim. 36 And Adad died; and Samada of Massecca reigned in his stead. 37 Samada died; and Saul of Rhooboth by the river reigned in his stead. 38 And Saul died; and Ballenon the son of Achobor reigned in his stead. 39 And Ballenon the son of Achobor died; and Arad the son of Barad reigned in his stead; and the name of his city was Phogor; and the name of his wife was Metebeel, daughter of Matraith, son of Maizoob. 40 These are the names of the chiefs of Esau, in their tribes, according to their place, in their countries, and in their nations; chief Thamna, chief Gola, chief Jether, 41 chief Olibema, chief Helas, chief Phinon, 42 chief Kenez, chief Thaeman, chief Mazar, 43 chief Magediel, chief Zaphoin. These are the chiefs of Edom in their dwelling-places in the land of their possession; this is Esau, the father of Edom. 44 And Jacob dwelt in the land where his father sojourned, in the land of Chanaan.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. (Gen. 36:1-5). HOW IS HE SPOKEN OF THE POSTERITY OF ESAU AFTER THE STORY OF ISAAC'S DEATH? — The fact that after the account of Isaac's death is spoken of the women Esau had and the number of children he fathered, it is to be understood as a recapitulation. Indeed, that did not begin to happen after the death of Isaac, when Esau and Jacob were already a hundred and twenty years old, because Isaac had them at seventy years and lived a total one hundred and eighty years. [Question 118]

(Gen. 36:6). HOW ESAU RETIRED TWICE ON MOUNT SEIR. — The question arises as to how the Scripture can say that Esau, at the death of his father Isaac, withdrew from the land of Canaan and went to live on Mount Seir, when another passage reads that when his brother Jacob came Mesopotamia, he already lived there. Therefore, we must find the reason why this is said, in order not to believe that Scripture is wrong or deceives us. Esau, after his brother went to Mesopotamia, did not want to live with his parents, either because of the anger that tormented him to be deprived and deceived of the blessing, either for the sake of his wives, who he saw that they were hateful to their relatives, or for any other reason, and so he went to live on Mount Seir. Later, after the return of his brother Jacob and once peace was established between them (Cf. Gen. 33:4), he returned even with his parents, and went back to Seir, giving rise there to the town of the Idumeans, after burying together his father, who had died. And the reason for leaving was that the land which, as the Scripture says, had enriched them so much, was no longer sufficient for both (Cf. Gen. 36:7). [Question 119]

(Gen. 36:21). ON THE LAND OF EDOM, OTHERWISE IDUMAEA. — The words of the Scripture: These are the rulers of the Horrhite, the son of Seir, in the land of Edom, they refer to the time in which the author lived. For when Seir, who begat them, dwelt there, before Esau came to that land, it was evidently not yet called the land of Edom. It is clear that it was none other than Esau who gave the name to that land, since the same person was named Esau and Edom. And from him the origin of the Idumeans, that is, the nation of Edom. [Question 120]

(Gen. 36:31-32). ON THE KINGS OF EDOM. — These are the kings who reigned in Edom before a king reigned in Israel. This passage must not be understood, as if it contained the number of all the kings, from Edom, until the time when the kingdom began in Israel even in the days of Saul. There were many kings in Edom before the coming of Saul in the days of the Judges, which preceded the kingdom; but among these kings Moses could only name those who lived before his death. And not surprised to find, from Abraham to the last king named by Moses, through Esau, the father of the people of Edom; by Raguel the son of Esau; by Zara, son of Raguel; by Jacob the son of Zara, and by Balak his successor, who is given as the first king of Edom, more generations than are counted by Jacob from Abraham to Moses. There indeed are nearly twelve generations, and here scarcely seven as far as Moses. It may have happened that where there are the most, there have been more kings to succeed each other, because death took them away more quickly. Thus, following a different order, St. Matthew has two generations, from Abraham to Joseph (Mt. 1:1-17); St. Luke, according to another order, and counting the generations, not by Solomon, but by Nathan, enumerates fifty-five from Abraham to Joseph (Lk. 3:23-28). In the line where we count the most generations, death has been more prompt than in that where it counts the least. And in fear lest we should be astonished that Balak the son of Beor should be numbered with the kings of Edom, and because of the likeness of the name, it is not imagined that it was this Balac who resisted Moses, the leader of the people of Israel, it must be known that this was Moabite and not Idumean, and that he was from Sephor and not from Beor; there was in the days of Moses a son of Beor, whose name was Balaam, and not Balak, and it was this same Balak who called Balaam to curse the people of Israel (Num. 22:2-6). [Question 121]