Genesis 36:9

36:9-43 This passage begins a second account of Esau’s descendants (36:1); it traces the family to subsequent generations and alliances.

36:9-14 The descendants of Esau’s five sons are named.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

These were the descendants of Esau

This sentence introduces the account of Esau's descendants in Genesis 36:9-43. AT: "This is an account of the descendants of Esau" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

in the hill country of Seir

This means that they lived in the hill country of Seir. The full meaning of this may be made explicit. AT: "who lived in the hill country of Seir" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Eliphaz ... Reuel

These are names of Esau's sons. See how you translated these names in Genesis 36:4. (See: How to Translate Names)

Adah ... Basemath

These are names of Esau's wives. See how you translated these names in Genesis 36:2-3. (See: How to Translate Names)

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz ... Amalek

These are names of the sons of Eliphaz. (See: How to Translate Names)

Timna

This is the name of Eliphaz's concubine. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

descend

Esau

Edom

concubine

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Or, the edomites.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Observe here, 1. That only the names of Esau's sons and grandsons are recorded, only their names, not their history; for it is the church that Moses preserves the records of, not the record of those that are without. Those elders that lived by faith alone obtained a good report. It is Sion that produces men of renown, not Seir, Psa 87:5. Nor does the genealogy go any further than the third and fourth generation; the very names of all after are buried in oblivion. It is only the pedigree of the Israelites, who were to be the heirs of Canaan, and of whom were to come the promised seed, and the holy seed, that is drawn out to any length, as far as there was occasion for it, even of all the tribes till Canaan was divided among them, and of the royal line till Christ came. 2. That these sons and grandsons of Esau are called dukes, Gen 36:15-19. Probably they were military commanders, dukes, or captains, that had soldiers under them; for Esau and his family lived by the sword, Gen 27:40. Note, Titles of honour have been more ancient out of the church than in it. Esau's sons were dukes when Jacob's sons were but plain shepherds, Gen 47:3. This is not a reason why such titles should not be used among Christians; but it is a reason why men should not overvalue themselves, or others, for the sake of them. There is an honour that comes from God, and a name in his house that is infinitely more valuable. Edomites may be dukes with men, but Israelites indeed are made to our God kings and priests. 3. We may suppose those dukes had numerous families of children and servants that were their dukedoms. God promised to multiply Jacob, and to enrich him; yet Esau increases, and is enriched first. Note, It is no new thing for the men of this world to be full of children, and to have their bellies too filled with hidden treasures, Psa 17:14. 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 Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites Though Esau had two names, yet in this place the second name refers to his posterity, who are called Idumeans. For, to make it appear what God had bestowed upon him for the sake of his father Isaac, Moses expressly calls him the father of a celebrated and famous people. And certainly, it served this purpose not a little, to trace the effect and fulfillment of the prophecy in the progeny of Esau. For if the promise of God so mightily flourished towards a stranger, how much more powerfully would it put itself forth towards the children, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and consequently the inheritance of grace? Esau was an obscure man, and a sojourner in that country: whence therefore is it, that suddenly rulers should spring from him, and a great body of people should flourish, unless because the benediction which proceeded from the mouth of Isaac, was confirmed by the result? For Esau did not reign in this desert without opposition; since a people of no ignoble name previously inhabited Mount Seir. On this account Moses relates that the men who had before inhabited that land were mighty: so that it would not have been easy for a stranger to acquire such power as Esau possessed, if he had not been divinely assisted.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. the Edomites] Heb. Edom, as in Gen_36:43 : cf. 1Sa_14:47.

9–14. The “sons” of Esau by Adah, Basemath, and Oholibamah must be regarded as the names of clans, and, like the sons of Ishmael and Israel, are 12 in number (Amalek, the son of Esau’s concubine, Timna, is excluded from this list of twelve).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Gen 36:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Of Edom, or of all the nations who inhabited Idumea, sprung from Esau’s grand-children. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And these are the generations of Esau repetition of this clause shows that it does not necessarily indicate diversity of authorship, or a very distinct piece of composition" (Murphy)the father of the Edomites ( i.e. the founder of the Edomitish nation) in mount Seir.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(cf. Ch1 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 (Exo 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 Gen 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 (Num 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 Ch1 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 (Gen 14:7; Num 13:29; Num 14:43, Num 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 (Sa1 15:3, Sa1 15:7; Sa1 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 (Jdg 12:15, cf. Gen 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, Jdg 6:3; Jdg 7:12), and at other times with the Ammonites (Jdg 3:13). After they had been defeated by Saul (Sa1 14:48; Sa1 15:2.), and frequently chastised by David (Sa1 27:8; Sa1 30:1.; Sa2 8:12), the remnant of them was exterminated under Hezekiah by the Simeonites on the mountains of Seir (Ch1 4:42-43).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Esau’s Sons and Grandsons

v. 9. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir:

v. 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.

v. 11. And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho (or Zephi, 1Ch 1:36),and Gatam, and Kenaz.

v. 12. And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son, having probably been adopted for that purpose by Adah;and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek; these were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. If this is the Amalek that was the ancestor of the Amalekites who afterward were such bitter enemies of the children of Israel, it was probably due to the fact that Amalek separated himself from his brethren at an early date and grew into an independent people, his descendants occupying the country immediately south of Canaan and spreading from there to the very boundaries of the Promised Land.

v. 13. And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah; these were the sons of Bashemath, Esau’s wife.

v. 14. And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife; and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. In the case of Aholibamah, therefore, the sons, in the case of the other wives, the grandsons perpetuated the name of Edom and were considered the fathers of the tribes. The sons of Eliphaz continued the Canaanitic line, those of Reuel the Ishmaelitic, and the three sons of Aholibamah the Horite line.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ואלה AND THESE — are the generations that his sons begat after he went to Seir.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF ESAU THE FATHER OF EDOM. Scripture comes to mention the generations which his children begot after they went with him to Se’ir for Esau did not beget there. Thus Scripture begins from him by saying that he had already begotten Eliphaz and Re’uel, and they begot these children in the land of Se’ir. It also mentions together with them the children of Oholibamah, who were born in the land of Canaan, even though it does not mention any children that were born to them in the land of Se’ir, so that they be counted together with their brothers, the sons of Esau, mentioned in the beginning of the section. It is also mentioned because they became chieftains in Se’ir since Scripture mentions all their chieftains.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ואלה תולדות, now the Torah lists the descendants that were born to him while he lived in Mount Seir.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.