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.
The sons of Reuel Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
This verse sits in a long list of Esau's descendants in the opening chapter of 1 Chronicles: one line names Reuel's four sons, then the record moves on. Why does a book built around David and the temple stop to name the family of Jacob's rejected brother?
Chronicles follows a deliberate order. God's chosen family comes first in His thoughts. The natural family comes first on the page.
It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Chronicles names Isaac first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But it writes out Ishmael, the elder, first (v. 29), as the seed according to the flesh. So with Isaac: it writes out the descendants of his son Esau first (v. 35), as we have already seen with Ham and Ishmael.
These four were not obscure private people. The record of the first of them, Nahath, shows how far the family rose.
Son of Reuel, a son of Esau, and one of the chiefs of Edom. Gen. 36:13, 17; 1 Chr. 1:37.
Edom had chiefs and kings long before Israel had any. Commentators see a settled pattern in that.
We see at once what remarkable maturity there was here. It is always so — first the natural, then the spiritual. Even at that early date, power grew fast 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. Even kings, we are told, reigned there before there were any in Israel. I have no doubt God gives us this as an important mark of how fast what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
The two lines could not settle side by side, and the record of the rejected line has its own purpose.
The man "after the flesh" cannot live together with the one whom God has chosen. Yet Esau (Edom) prospers and grows greatly in material things, his sons becoming chiefs before Jacob's family reach such honour (apart from Joseph in Egypt). Esau's family illustrates the common history of the flesh always exalting itself. The long list of names is therefore meant to impress on us that God has taken full account of the flesh and all its activities, and finds it only vanity.
Genesis tells this family's story at length. Chronicles does not.
As for Esau (vv. 35-42), Chronicles mentions his sons in shortened form, without the names of their mothers and the many details Genesis gives us.
The father named in this verse has a striking name. Its story starts with his mother, Mahalath, a daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael.
Through God's amazing grace, we find in Genesis 28:9 that this very daughter of Ishmael, Mahalath, is 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 babe's great-grandfather, bore.
The first son's name has a meaning of its own.
Nahath — Rest.
A chapter of bare names can feel like dead weight next to the great teaching passages. Commentators grant that the interest is not equal, yet they refuse to rank one part of Scripture below another.
We do not claim that we should dwell with equal interest on the first chapter of First Chronicles and on the seventeenth chapter of John or the eighth chapter of Romans... 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.
- Order — the flesh comes first on the page. Chronicles writes out Esau's line before Israel's, though God's chosen line is first in His thoughts.
- Speed — the flesh comes first in time too. Reuel's sons were chiefs in Edom before Israel had a king, because what is not of God shoots up fast.
- Patience — growth according to God is slower, but it lasts.
- Verdict — the length of the list is the point. God has taken full account of the flesh, and finds it only vanity.
- Grace — even here a son is called Reuel, "the friend of God", the name Abraham bore. A chapter of names fills a niche John 17 cannot fill.
And the sons of Seir Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan.
This verse sits inside the record of Esau's descendants, yet it names the sons of Seir — whose people held that hill country before Edom ever settled there. Why does a genealogy heading toward Israel's King pause over a family that never carried the promise?
Lists of names invite skipping. One writer faces that instinct directly. He grants that such chapters hold us less, yet gives up nothing of their authority or their use:
We do not claim that 1 Chronicles 1 holds us with the same interest as John 17 or Romans 8. But we do say that God inspired each of these scriptures, one just as much as another. And more than that: 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do. Beyond all this, we must remember that we are not able to judge what does and does not deserve a place in inspired Scripture. We are ignorant and short-sighted. The very part we might think beneath the dignity of inspiration may bear in some very important way on God's ways with the world at large, or with His people in particular.
One writer points out what "Horite" means, and what these men made of themselves:
Others, too, put themselves forward as great men — the sons of Seir the Horite, or cave-dweller, the inhabitant of the land.
Their land changed hands, changed names, and came under a word of judgment:
Mount Seir is the early name of the long range of mountains stretching from about eight miles south of the Salt Sea to near the Gulf of Akaba. It is also called "the land of Seir." It was occupied at first by the Horites, and afterwards by the descendants of Esau, and took the name EDOM. The Israelites had to go all the way round this mountain range to reach their entrance to the promised land. The word of the Lord announced to the prophet the lasting desolation of Mount Seir.
The order of this chapter follows a pattern. Again and again the son who does not carry the promise is enumerated first:
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place, but in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first. It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts, but Ishmael, the elder, is enumerated first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh. So with Isaac, the descendants of his son Esau are enumerated first (v. 35), as we have already seen with Ham and Ishmael.
Seir's family were settled in the land while Abraham's descendants still had nothing there:
The world that has turned away from God sets itself up in power, while the heirs of promise are still poor pilgrims upon the earth.
The chapter gives these men no deeds and no history — only names. That silence is deliberate:
The Holy Spirit does not take up our time with the grandeur and might of those who rose to prominence when Israel lost the inheritance. He mentions such men only where they touch the condition of Israel. Instead He passes on to the birth of the true King. Here we have only a list of names to tell us that this chief and that king once lived. Their power did not last, their greatness faded, and Scripture dismisses them in a few words.
These names are preserved, yet they are not the thread God is following. When the New Testament picks up the genealogy, whole branches simply fall away:
Once it is a question of the genealogy of Christ in the Gospels, the line according to the flesh contained in these chapters disappears completely. It gives place to the line through which God fulfils His purposes concerning His King, according to election of grace. And once it is a question of grace, God does not take perfect people to make up Christ's lineage. Far from it: He chooses sinful men — often from among the worst of them — or sinful women. In this way He shows the freedom of His choice.
- First in the cave. Seir's sons were Horites, or cave-dwellers. They held the hill country before Esau's family took it and renamed it Edom.
- First on the page. Scripture lists the natural line first — Ishmael's sons before Isaac's, Esau's descendants before Israel's.
- First in power. The world takes power first, while the heirs of promise are still poor pilgrims with nothing.
- First to fade. All that survives of that early greatness is a list of names; the record moves on to the true King.
- Last, and lasting. In Christ's genealogy the line of flesh drops out altogether, and grace keeps only the line God chose.
-- And the sons of Lotan Hori and Homam. And Lotan's sister, Timna.
The names in this verse belong to a long chain of Horite families — the people of Mount Seir — in the opening genealogy of 1 Chronicles. Two questions arise: who were these people, and why record a man's sons and his sister at all?
Lotan belongs not to Esau's family but to the older population of the region Esau later occupied. One commentator explains their name and where they lived.
Others, too, posed as grandees — the sons of Seir the Horite, or cave-dweller, the inhabitant of the land.
A reference work fills in what became of them, and why the rock country still carries their mark.
Descendants of Seir, and the original inhabitants of Mount Seir. They were destroyed by the children of Esau. It is thought that they were cave-dwellers, as the name implies. The sandstone rocks of Mount Seir are full of carved-out dwellings, and there are traces of the same throughout the region of Edom.
The chapter runs the line of nature out to its end before it turns to the line of promise. That order is deliberate.
Man has become sinful; he fell at once after his beginning. Though God has purposes of grace toward him, one fact stands: as a sinner he first begets sons in his own image. These sons have no connection with the divine counsels. They are the seed of a fallen and corrupted nature. If God in His mercy does not intervene, man can only beget evil. So in these chapters we find the line of the flesh first, and the line of the Spirit second. God does not beget until sinful man has first proven what his nature could produce. This is why the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15:46: "But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual."
Edom's descendants climbed into rank and title fast. The family carrying God's promise did nothing of the kind.
The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and inside it, and they are even harshly oppressed. Meanwhile the generations of Edom rise fast into importance, away from Canaan, in Mount Seir. The descendants of Edom soon claim the distinction of chiefs.
Compare this section with Genesis 36 and material is missing. That trimming is itself evidence of design.
As for Esau, this chapter lists his sons in shortened form. It leaves out the names of their mothers and the many details given us in Genesis… We believe we must point out these details, for they mark out the aim of the Spirit of God in this book. Rationalists call these lists a very inexact or deliberately altered compilation of other documents. They are nothing of the kind. They are a selection out of earlier documents of what suits the purpose God has before Him.
The verse ends with a woman who has no descendants listed. A reference work adds only her father's name:
Daughter of Seir the Horite.
Yet her name is there. One commentator draws out what such record-keeping says about God.
No flesh shall glory. Let the one who glories glory in the Lord. Yet God takes pleasure in recording their names, early and late in the Old Testament. He records them again in the last book of the New Testament, but with instructive variations. For the Bible is not only God's word, it is an intensely moral book, little discerned by those who make the mind their all.
Some readers doubt whether lists of names belong in Scripture at all.
Someone may still challenge us with a question like this: "Do you believe that the long string of names in the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles — those genealogical tables — are divinely inspired? Were they written for our learning? And if so, what are we to learn from them?" We declare without hesitation our reverent belief in the divine inspiration of all of these. And we have no doubt at all that their value, interest and importance will be proved in full, by and by, in the history of that people to whom they specially apply.
- Cave-dwellers. Lotan is a son of Seir the Horite. The Horites were the first people of Mount Seir, cave-dwellers whose rock homes still mark the region, until Esau's children destroyed them.
- Nature first. Fallen man begets sons in his own image before God brings in the line of promise: not the spiritual first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
- Rank now.
- Selected, not scraped. The details trimmed from Genesis show a purpose at work: the Spirit selected, and did not carelessly copy or alter old records.
- Named anyway. No one here glories in the Lord, yet God takes pleasure in recording names — even a sister's. One writer holds that the value of such lists will be proved in full in time.
-- The sons of Shobal Alian, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shephi and Onam. -- And the sons of Zibeon Ajah and Anah.
The Bible's longest genealogy pauses here over a family that was not Israelite at all. Shobal and Zibeon were sons of Seir, whose people held the land before Esau's descendants took it. Why does a record running toward the Messiah stop to count them, and what can a reader learn from names nobody remembers?
These Horite names fall inside a long block on Esau before the chapter turns to Israel. One writer sees God's own way of working in that order.
But even in looking at the sons of Isaac, as a rule the sons of Esau are put first, as in verse 35. These are followed through, and even the mention of the kings who reigned before there were any over the children of Israel. 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.
Names repeat in this list. Anah is a son of Seir in verse 38, and a son of Zibeon here. One reference work leaves such overlaps open.
Son of Seir and one of the chiefs of the Horites. Genesis 36:20-29; 1 Chronicles 1:38, 40. Some judge the two men of this name to be the same person.
The name of that people points to how they lived, and their story did not end well.
Descendants of Seir, and the original inhabitants of Mount Seir. The children of Esau destroyed them. Genesis 14:6; Genesis 36:20-21, 29; Deuteronomy 2:12, 22. It is thought that they were cave-dwellers, as the name implies. The sandstone rocks of Mount Seir are full of hollowed-out dwellings, and there are traces of the same throughout the region of Edom.
The jump from Esau's sons to Seir's sons feels abrupt. One writer ties it to the power Esau's family won outside the promise.
He was a prosperous man; kings and chiefs came from him. He was a descendant of the man God called out from his relatives and his country. That man was to be separate from all peoples and to receive the promises. Esau returns to the people Abraham left. Neither the call nor the promise was for him. In his sons he rises to supreme power. This may be the reason why the sons of Seir are brought in so abruptly. Seir was a Horite who lived in the land, and as a chief he may have given his name to Mount Seir. The children of Esau drove the Horim out.
The parallel list in Genesis gives Seir's sons titles of rank. One writer sets those titles beside where the men came from.
Others, too, put themselves forward as great men. These were the sons of Seir the Horite, or cave-dweller, who lived in the land. Verses 29 and 30 sum them up: "These are the chiefs of the Horites: the chiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan."
One writer weighs this branch against Israel's line and where it leads.
Israel's genealogies are full of interest for this reason: they include the birth of the Messiah and finish with it. No other ancestry or line is worth recording. The one exception is "the chiefs of Esau, and the chiefs of Edom," and they stand apart in an unenviable place of their own, outside.
Most readers skip these lines. One writer admits the pull of the famous chapters, then makes a claim for the lists.
We do not claim that we should linger with equal interest over 1 Chronicles 1 and John 17 or Romans 8. That hardly needs saying, since no one asks it. But we do say that God inspired each of these Scriptures, one just as much as another. And more than that: 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a gap which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
A page of forgotten names also says something about the reader.
There is something deeply sobering to the soul about being allowed to go over such a record of names. Man forgot them long ago. God has remembered every one of them, and every detail of their path through this world. One day our names will be lost to mankind too, but God will not forget us or our ways.
- Recorded first. Esau's line and Seir's sons come before Israel's. God lets the world take its own way; His purposes ripen latest.
- Recorded as chiefs. Cave-dwellers rose to hold titles and power in Seir — fast greatness, gained away from the call and the promise.
- Recorded, then removed. Esau's descendants drove the Horites out of Mount Seir, the land they first held. Power won that way did not hold.
- Recorded outside. These names stand apart in a place of their own, while the genealogies of Israel run on to the birth of the Messiah.
- Recorded by God. A chapter of names does work that John 17 and Romans 8 cannot do, and it tells you that names men forget, God keeps.
-- The sons of Anah Dishon. -- And the sons of Dishon Hamran, and Eshban, and Jithran, and Cheran.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
-- The sons of Ezer Bilhan, and Zaavan, [and] Jaakan. -- The sons of Dishan Uz and Aran.
This verse closes a short list of Horite names: the sons of Ezer and the sons of Dishan. It raises the question every reader of these chapters asks. Why does Scripture keep names like Bilhan, Zaavan, Uz and Aran at all?
Ezer and Dishan belong to a family that held Mount Seir before Esau's descendants took it.
Descendants of Seir, and the original inhabitants of Mount Seir. Esau's children destroyed them. It is thought that they were cave-dwellers, as the name implies. The sandstone rocks of Mount Seir are full of carved-out dwellings, and there are traces of the same throughout the region of Edom.
The chapter inserts them right after Esau's own sons. One commentator ties that sudden entry to Esau's rise, and follows what came of the two families mixing.
Esau rises to supreme power in his sons. This may be the reason why the sons of Seir are brought in so suddenly. Seir was a Horite who lived in the land, and as a chief he may have given his name to Mount Seir. Esau's children drove the Horites out. "By your sword you shall live," Isaac said to his firstborn, and Esau's line became the dominant one. Yet soon the two races were blended in Eliphaz, son of Esau, and Timna, daughter of Seir. Here one who could claim descent from Abraham was joined to one of the race of Ham. What could come of such a union but Amalek, the bitter and first enemy of Israel in the wilderness?
The first son of Dishan carries a name that turns up again in one of the Bible's best-known books. Writers identify this Uz simply:
Son of Dishan, a son of Seir. Gen. 36:28; 1 Chr. 1:42.
Job's homeland bears the same name, and commentators place it in the country these Horites once held.
The man we read about in this most interesting and instructive book was a Gentile from the land of Uz. According to Lamentations 4:21, that land became the dwelling place of Edom. Job appears to have lived in Uz before the sons of Edom had established their hold on the country.
Compare this verse with the list in Genesis 36 and some of these names are spelled differently. Writers treat that as deliberate, not sloppy.
It may be worth noting something about this and other genealogies, which unbelievers seldom attack. The differences in form between Genesis, Numbers and Chronicles come from the reason each list was introduced in its own place. The difficulties spring from that design, not from any error in the writer. They come from ignorance in readers who misunderstand them. Both the differences and the difficulties are the strongest evidence of their truth and inspired character. Nothing would have been easier than to make the various forms match and to remove whatever sounds strange to western ears.
Chronicles also trims the account it inherits.
As for Esau (vv. 35-42), his sons appear in shortened form, without the names of their mothers and the many details given us in Genesis.
Up to verse 42 this chapter lists the line outside God's promise. Japheth, Ham, Ishmael, Keturah's sons, Esau and now the Horites all come first. The order itself teaches something.
There is another thing here. It shows not only the general way of God in this chapter, but the principle of God throughout all of Scripture — "It is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual." 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.
Another commentator names what the long list is meant to leave with us.
The long list of names is therefore meant to impress one thing on us. God has taken full account of the flesh and all its activities, and finds it only vanity.
One writer admits these lists do not hold us like the Gospels, then says why they still stand.
We do not claim that we should hang over the first chapter of First Chronicles with the same interest as over the seventeenth chapter of John or the eighth chapter of Romans. But this we do say. Each of these scriptures is inspired by God, one just as much as another. More than that, 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place which John 17 cannot fill. They do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
- Recorded. Ezer and Dishan came from Seir the Horite. The Horites lived in the caves of Mount Seir until Esau's children destroyed and drove them out.
- Reaching. Dishan's son Uz shares his name with the land where Job lived — country that later became Edom's home.
- Recopied. The spellings differ from Genesis by design. Writers hold that these very differences are strong evidence that the record is true.
- Ranked last. Scripture lists the natural line first and the chosen line after it. God's purposes ripen latest, while the world rises fast.
- Retained. These names do a work no other passage does; they stand as God's full account of the flesh, found to be only vanity.