The sons of Esau Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.
Verse 35 names five sons of Esau. Esau's family was not the line God chose — so why does Chronicles record it at all, and why does it come first?
A chapter of bare names looks like filler next to the great teaching passages of the Bible. One writer answers that feeling directly:
We do not claim that we should read 1 Chronicles 1 with the same interest as John 17 or Romans 8. But we do say that each of these Scriptures is inspired by God, one just as much as another. And more than that: 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a niche which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
Isaac had two sons, and Chronicles lists Esau's family first. This is no accident. The same order shows up again and again in the chapter, and one writer points to this verse as an example:
There is another thing in this too. It shows not only the general way of God here, but the principle of God throughout Scripture — "first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual." We find it just the same here. Japheth and Ham, with their sons, come before us ahead of Shem and the line of God's promise in Shem... Even in looking at the sons of Isaac, the sons of Esau are put first, as in the 35th verse... God's purposes ripen latest. God lets the world take its own way, and it exalts men in the earth. God means to exalt the Man who humbled Himself.
Genesis tells Esau's story at length, with wives and mothers named. Chronicles cuts it short:
As for Esau (vv. 35-42), his sons are mentioned in abbreviated form, without the names of their mothers and the many details given us in Genesis.
Critics call such trimming sloppy copying from older records. The same writer answers the charge:
These details are in no way a very inexact or deliberately altered compilation of other documents, as rationalists claim. They are a selection out of earlier documents of what fits the purpose God has before Him.
Read on from verse 35 and these five sons become chiefs, and then kings. That speed is the point:
Even then we find a rapid development of power in the family of Esau. They were all great people, to be sure — chief this and chief that, right to the end of the chapter. Kings even reigned there, we are told, before there were any in Israel. I have no doubt this is given to us to mark how fast what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
One writer sums up Edom's record and gives it a name:
Esau is Edom, the father of the Edomites. His sons are chiefs, and before Israel had a king they had kings. The chapter reviews the pride and pomp of chiefs and kings, and the alliances with God's enemies. No feature of God marks any of it. We cannot help recognising the line of the flesh.
The second son listed carries a name worth stopping over. One writer traces that name back through Esau's wife:
Through God's amazing grace, we find in Genesis 28:9 that this very daughter of Ishmael, Mahalath, was brought as a bride back to the very home that her father had lost through his sin... Esau and Mahalath had a little son whom they called Reuel. And Reuel, we are told, means "The Friend of God". This, you remember, is the lovely name that Abraham, the baby's great-grandfather, bore. To me, it is very sweet that they chose this name for their child.
Scripture finishes the list of Esau's sons and their descendants, and never traces it again. One writer reads that silence as final:
Once the lineage according to nature has been listed, the question is treated as closed forever. God does not come back to it. He cannot use the "natural man" in any way. From now on that man is left to himself, without connection or relationship to God, so that he may give place to a lineage according to the election of grace and according to the eternal counsels of God.
- First — The natural line comes first in Scripture. Japheth and Ham come before Shem, and Esau's sons come before Israel's.
- Fast — What is not of God shoots up quickly. Esau's family had chiefs, and kings, before Israel had any king. Growth according to God is slower, but it lasts.
- Trimmed — Chronicles shortens Esau's line. It leaves out the mothers and the details Genesis gives. That is selection for God's purpose, not careless copying.
- Touched — Even in this line one name stands out: Reuel, "The Friend of God," Abraham's own title, given to a son of Esau.
- Finished — When the list of nature's line ends, God does not come back to it. He makes room for a line chosen by grace.
-- The sons of Eliphaz Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.
The record of Israel's line pauses here to trace Esau's family, and this verse names the sons of Eliphaz, ending with Amalek. Why does a book heading toward David and the kingship stop to list the family of the brother God set aside?
Commentators see a pattern here that runs through all of Scripture. The natural line comes first; God's chosen line comes after.
It is clear that the Spirit of God purposely presents these things. They are not done loosely or arbitrarily in any way. There is a purpose... But even in looking at the sons of Isaac, as a rule the sons of Esau are put first, as in verse 35... God's purposes ripen latest. God lets the world take its own way, and it exalts men in the earth. God means to exalt the Man who humbled Himself.
Kelly also marks the speed of that rise, and what it signals.
It is always so — first comes what is natural, afterwards what is spiritual. Even then we find power developing fast in the family of Esau. They were all great people, to be sure — duke after duke, right to the end of the chapter. Kings even reigned there, we are told, before there were any in Israel. I have no doubt this is given to us as an important sign of how fast what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
The list ends with Amalek.
Edom became the treacherous foe of the people of Israel. Amalek was born to the concubine of Eliphaz, and he became one of the terrible enemies of Israel, with whom there was to be continual warfare (Exodus 17:8-14).
Because Amalek came from Esau's line, commentators read him as a picture of something inside us, not only a nation outside us.
Amalek was Israel's first foe after leaving Egypt. The Amalekites were descendants of Esau; and this, joined with the attack in the wilderness, gives us a clear clue as to what they represent. Esau, the firstborn, stands for what is natural. Jacob, the younger, suggests the sovereignty of grace that sets aside the firstborn. It is the flesh which is the firstborn in us, and only as born again is faith present... It may be cultivated, refined, improved, and whatever else, but it remains unchanged. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God." The descendant of Esau, Amalek, seems to suggest the lusts of the flesh rather than mere nature in general.
Teman, the first son listed here, later names both a people and a place.
Son of Eliphaz, a son of Esau, and a duke of Edom; also his descendants and the district they lived in... Its wisdom is spoken of, and God's judgements are pronounced upon it. One of Job's friends was Eliphaz the Temanite.
One question about Amalek has no settled answer.
There is a difficulty connected with these names. Genesis 14:7 mentions Amalekites some hundred years before Amalek, the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau, was born (Genesis 36:12). No one knows whether everything we read of the tribe after this refers to Esau's descendants, or whether the more ancient people were merged with them.
The list has a purpose beyond family history.
Yet Esau (Edom) prospers and grows great in material things, his sons becoming "dukes" before Jacob's family reach such honour... Esau's family illustrates the common history of the flesh always exalting itself. So the long list of names is meant to impress on us that God has taken full account of the flesh and all its activities, finding it only vanity.
Kelly adds a word for anyone tempted to skip lists of names.
Even if we only glance at this first chapter, the genealogy is not without spiritual fruit. There is nothing in the Bible without profit for the soul — not even a list of names.
- Order. Esau's sons come first in the record. Throughout Scripture what is natural comes first, and what is of God ripens last.
- Speed. Edom rose fast into dukes and kings. What is not of God shoots up quickly; what grows according to God is slower and lasts.
- Fruit. The line that rose fastest produced Amalek, born of a concubine, who became a lasting enemy of God's people.
- Mirror. Amalek springs from Esau, the firstborn God set aside. Commentators read him as the flesh in us: it can be improved, but never changed.
- Account. God keeps the full record of the line He passed over. He counts the flesh in full detail and finds it only vanity.