These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,
Genesis 36:15 starts the list of chiefs born to Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn son — a family that had already left Canaan and the line of promise. Why does Scripture pause Jacob's story to count the honours of Esau, the brother outside the promise?
While Jacob's household is still small, Esau's grandsons already hold titles — "dukes," in the older wording the writers below use. One commentator reads that speed as a rule, not an accident.
But there is another genealogy (Gen. 36), and strikingly introduced in this place. The Edomite interrupts the course of God's dealings. We see at once what remarkable maturity there was here. It is always so — first that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual. Even then we find a rapid development of power in the family of Esau. They were all great people, to be sure — duke this and duke that, to the end of the chapter. Even kings, we are told, reigned there before Israel had any. I have no doubt this is given to us as an important mark of how rapidly what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
These titles trace back to a promise. Isaac had blessed Esau with earthly plenty, and this chapter is that word coming true.
The chapter shows us that Esau prospered in earthly things, so that his father's blessing was fulfilled to him (27:39-40). He occupied his own territory, became quite independent of Jacob, and his descendants multiplied and became chiefs and well known. They became not only "dukes" but even "kings," and that before any king appeared in Israel's line. In earthly greatness and power the children of this world have always taken precedence over the children of God.
The first name here does not stay just a person. Teman becomes a people and a region.
Son of Eliphaz, a son of Esau, and a duke of Edom; also his descendants and the district they lived in. It is four times connected with Edom, and twice with Dedan: this places it in the south. Scripture speaks of its wisdom, and God pronounces judgements on it. One of Job's friends was Eliphaz the Temanite.
One writer sets the last judgement in that same land, and names the reason.
The last in this series of judgments will fall in Edom, the land of Esau (Teman being Eliphaz's eldest son, Genesis 36:15), because of Edom's undying hatred of Israel.
It is easy to skip a page of unfamiliar names. One commentator finds two things in it: why Esau's line stands apart, and why the list runs so long.
The man "after the flesh" cannot live together with the one whom God has chosen. Yet Esau (Edom) prospers and grows great in material things. His sons become "dukes" (vv. 15-43) before Jacob's family reach such honour — except for Joseph in Egypt. We must remember that Joseph did not exalt himself; Pharaoh exalted him. Esau's family shows the usual history of the flesh, which always exalts 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.
Esau's family settled down while Jacob's family kept wandering. The prophets give Edom one steady character.
All the prophets who have spoken of Edom give that people the same character. They find in Edom the same causes of God's controversy with them. Profaneness, pride, hatred of Israel — these are Edom's common marks. The world was Esau's portion, while Israel was still a stranger and a pilgrim. His children had their dukedoms. They were kings too, and they had their cities. They were settled, like eagles nesting in the clefts of the rocks. All this time Jacob's children were still homeless wanderers in lands that were not theirs, or in barren deserts.
Edom's future is bleak, and one writer turns the lesson back on the reader.
While a remnant of the other nations will come in for blessing in a future day, Edom will not. Let us take the moral of it to heart, for we may easily fall into the same spirit as the Edomite. Jeremiah saw the failures and sins of God's people, but he wept over them. Daniel and other godly men confessed those sins as their own. But the spirit of the Edomite is bitter hatred against people who, whatever their failures, are still the people of God.
- Fast — What is not of God shoots up quickly. Esau's grandsons hold titles while Jacob's family is still small.
- Fair — Their rise is no injustice. Isaac's blessing on Esau promised earthly fatness, and God kept it.
- Flesh — The long roll of titles is God taking full account of the flesh, and finding it vanity.
- Fixed — Growth that comes from God is slower, but it lasts. The wanderers, not the chiefs, hold the promise.
- Forewarned — Edom's marks were profaneness, pride, and hatred of God's people — and Edom alone misses the blessing of a future day. That hatred is a spirit anyone can fall into, so take the warning to heart.
chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah.
Genesis 36:16 closes the list of chiefs descended from Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn. The last name on that list is Amalek, whose people would fight Israel for generations. A page of foreign titles raises a fair question: why does Scripture pause to record the rank of Esau's family at all?
This chapter belongs to Esau, not Jacob. One writer draws out the contrast: the line without the promise climbs first.
Jacob has nothing to do with the chapter. It has its own important place of sketching the earthly lot of Esau. Yet it still teaches us something, though not directly. What is natural comes into power first, and what is spiritual comes afterwards. The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and within it, and even suffer harsh oppression. Meanwhile the generations of Edom rise fast into importance, away from Canaan, in Mount Seir.
Another writer treats this as a rule of everyday experience.
The children of Esau had "dukes" in plenty, giving us an early example of what we find so often in Scripture and in our own experience — that the man who loves the world and ignores God goes ahead in the world beyond the man who fears God.
Older translations call these men "dukes"; the ESV calls them chiefs. Neither word means European nobility.
Genesis 36 gives us the rise and progress of their national greatness. First comes the line of their dukes, as they are called. In modern language these would probably answer to the sheikhs of their tribes. Later come the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.
Of all the names in this verse, Amalek is the one Scripture never lets drop. One writer sets him beside Pharaoh: two enemies, each blocking a different thing.
Pharaoh represents the hindrance to Israel's rescue out of Egypt. Amalek represents the hindrance to their walk with God through the wilderness. Amalek stands before us as the type of the flesh. He was the grandson of Esau, who preferred a bowl of stew to the birthright. He was the first to oppose Israel after their baptism "in the cloud and in the sea." These facts fix his character clearly. Besides these, we know that Saul lost the kingdom of Israel because he failed to destroy Amalek. Further, Haman is the last of the Amalekites we find any notice of in Scripture. He was hanged on a gallows because of his wicked attempt against the descendants of Israel.
The chief listed in this verse is not a dead end. Centuries later in Persia, Israel's enemy Haman traced his line back to Amalek.
Agag was the title of the kings of Amalek, probably a general title, like the title of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So Haman came from this royal race. Amalek, Haman's people, descended from Esau through Eliphaz: he was first a chief, and then became the people of Edom.
Scripture records their rank, then drops them.
Here, in Genesis, we have only a list of names to tell us that this chief and that king once lived. Their power was short-lived, their greatness faded, and they are quickly dismissed. "These are the generations of Esau."
If the names seem tedious, that may be part of their purpose.
Esau (Edom) prospers and grows great in material things. His sons become "dukes" before Jacob's family reach such honour — except for Joseph in Egypt. We must remember that Joseph did not exalt himself. Pharaoh exalted him. Esau's family, though, shows the common history of the flesh, which always exalts itself. So the long list of names is meant to impress one fact on us. God has taken full account of the flesh and all its activities, and has found it only vanity.
- Rise — What is natural gains power first. Esau's line holds rank while the family of promise are still wandering herdsmen.
- Rank — The "dukes" of this verse were tribal sheikhs. Edom's greatness later grew as far as kings.
- Amalek — The last name here became the type of the flesh. He struck Israel first in the wilderness, and Saul lost the kingdom for failing to destroy him.
- Haman — The same line appears again in Persia, and ends on a gallows. The flesh outlives its first generation.
- Vanity — God records every title the flesh wins, then lets the list end. He has taken full account of it and found it only vanity.
And these are the sons of Reuel Esau's son chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah these are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basmath Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:17 is one line in a long list of Esau's descendants. It names four sons of Reuel who held the rank of chief, then names their grandmother Basemath, one of Esau's wives. Why does God's book stop to record the titles of a family that had walked away from the promise?
Older English versions call these men "dukes." Commentators describe the office in plain terms: tribal leadership, not empire. One writer traces the stages of Edom's rise:
Genesis 36 gives us the rise and progress of their national greatness. First comes the line of their dukes, as they are called. In today's language these would probably be the sheiks of their tribes. Then later come the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.
The rank did not last. The same writer ties the change from chiefs to kings to Israel's years in the desert:
I suspect that Israel's time in the wilderness was about the point of change from Edom having simply dukes to having kings. In Exodus 15 we hear of the dukes of Edom being dismayed. But in Numbers 21 we read of the king of Edom, who would not let the children of Israel pass through his land.
Four chiefs from one grandson is rapid growth, and that speed is the point. While Esau's line was collecting titles, the family carrying God's promise had nothing to show:
It teaches us something indirectly: what is natural comes into power first, and what is spiritual comes afterwards. The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and inside it, and are even badly oppressed. Meanwhile the generations of Edom rise fast into importance, away from Canaan, in Mount Seir.
The placement of the whole chapter follows a pattern already used earlier in Genesis, and the difference in treatment is deliberate:
As with Ishmael and Isaac, so here again Scripture mentions the rejected line first, and only briefly. It does not follow the order of dates for that line. The chosen line comes second, and Scripture then gives us enough dates to follow the passing of the years. This foreshadows the fact stated so clearly as a principle of God's ways: "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
The verse ends by tracing these chiefs back to Basemath. Compare this chapter with the earlier accounts of Esau's marriages and the names do not match. Commentators explain it like this:
One of the wives of Esau, the daughter of Ishmael and the mother of Reuel (Genesis 36:3-4). In the earlier narrative, Genesis 26:34 and Genesis 28:9, the names of Esau's wives differ from those given in Genesis 36:2-3. The women may have had two names, or another name may have been given them at marriage.
God does not ignore this family. He counts it — and the counting is itself the verdict:
Here, in Genesis, we have only a list of names to tell us that this chief and that king once lived. Their power was short-lived, their greatness soon gone, and they are briefly dismissed. "These are the generations of Esau." But when the Holy Spirit speaks of the "generations of Jacob," He has only one Man in view, and ten chapters follow, giving the history that pictures Him.
The chiefs of Reuel stand at the head of a nation, and its later record never changes:
Trace the history of Edom through the Bible and you always find the same features. You see them in the refusal to let Israel pass through the desert, in Doeg, and in the Herods. In every case it is the profane and coarse worldly element, together with opposition to God. Mount Seir is the stronghold of the flesh, the fortress of godless man. But Edom would be pulled down from his high nest (see Obadiah), and in the end driven from his perch and brought low. And so all proud thoughts and grand strongholds of the flesh will be laid in the dust!
- Titles first. Reuel's four sons hold the rank of tribal chief while the family of promise still wanders with its flocks. What is natural comes into power first; what is spiritual comes after.
- Order teaches. Scripture puts the rejected line first and keeps it brief, then sets it aside. God does away with the first to establish the second.
- Counted, not honoured. God records every chief by name, and the record is its own verdict: power soon over, greatness soon gone.
- Brought low. The same worldly, godless spirit runs through Edom's whole later story, and Mount Seir, the stronghold of the flesh, is pulled down in the end.
- One name instead of many. Esau's line needs a long roll of chiefs. Jacob's generations narrow to one Man, and ten chapters tell His story. The line of faith ends in a person, not a list.
-- And these are the sons of Oholibamah Esau's wife chief Jeush, chief Jaalam, chief Korah; these are the chiefs of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:18 ends the list of Esau's chiefs. Three sons of his wife Oholibamah — Jeush, Jalam, and Korah — each hold a title of rank. Why does Scripture stop to record the honours of a family outside the line of promise? And what were those honours worth? (Older translations read "dukes" where the ESV reads "chiefs".)
The verse names Oholibamah twice, and each time ties her to her father. A Bible dictionary traces her line back one more step:
One of the wives of Esau: she was the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite. She bore to Esau "duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah."
Esau's wives came from those nations. One writer links his marriages to the land he chose to live in:
After the record of Esau's descendants we notice that he married wives who were Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites — bitter enemies of God's people. We see, too, that he lived in Mount Seir, a land later cursed. The curse would stay on it even in the days of the coming thousand-year kingdom, when the desert will blossom like the rose. It is a picture of the flesh, which cannot be improved even under the very best influence.
What did the title mean? One writer compares these chiefs to tribal leaders:
Genesis 36 gives us the rise and progress of their national greatness. First comes the line of their dukes, as they are called. In modern language these would probably be the sheiks of their tribes. Then later come the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel... They had dukes and even kings flourishing among them when the children of Israel as a whole were obscure and unsettled.
Esau's line threw up chiefs early. One writer draws a settled principle from that speed:
We see at once what remarkable maturity there was here. It is always so — first that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual. Even then we find a rapid development of power in the family of Esau. I have no doubt that this is given to us as an important mark of how quickly what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
The contrast is with what the chosen family looked like at the very same moment:
The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and inside it, and are even badly oppressed. Meanwhile the generations of Edom rise quickly into importance, away from Canaan, in Mount Seir.
If Edom's greatness was passing, why keep the names at all? One writer sets Esau's rise beside Joseph's:
Esau (Edom) prospers and grows great in material things. His sons become "dukes" before Jacob's family reach such honour (except for Joseph in Egypt). Remember that Joseph did not exalt himself; Pharaoh exalted him. But 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.
The chapter sits between the end of Jacob's story and the start of Joseph's. Writers treat that position as part of the message:
At first reading, this account of Esau's descendants might look like a disconnected fragment. It could just as well have stood a few chapters earlier, or a few later, as where it now stands. But you cannot move a chapter or a word without spoiling the perfection of God's word. There is divine wisdom in placing it just where it is.
The same writer finds a larger pattern in where these names fall:
Jacob, at several points in his career, illustrates the history of the nation. Then comes Joseph, who in his turn foreshadowed the Messiah. So, just as the kings and dukes of Edom appear between this picture in Jacob and the appearance of Joseph, the Gentile appears in rule and power before the Lord Jesus is presented to the Jew... Here, in Genesis, we have only a list of names to tell us that this duke and that king once lived. Their power was short-lived, their greatness soon faded, and they are quickly dismissed.
- First — God's order never changes: what is natural comes first, what is spiritual comes after. Edom's chiefs arrive first.
- Fast — what is not of God "shoots up" quickly; growth according to God is slower but lasts longer.
- Foreign — Oholibamah came from a Hivite family. Esau married into the enemies of God's people.
- Filed — God keeps the long roll of titles on record. He takes full account of the flesh, and finds it only vanity.
- Fleeting — the chiefs' power was short-lived and their greatness soon faded. Placed before Joseph's story, the chapter shows the world taking its honours first, and God's purpose coming after.
These are the sons of Esau, and these their chiefs he is Edom.
This verse closes the list of Esau's sons and their chiefs with one line: this family, with all its titles, is Edom. Why does the Bible pause to record a rejected family at all? And why does that family gain rank and power so fast while the chosen line still wanders with its flocks?
The verse gives Esau a second name, and that name carries a story. He earned it in a moment of appetite:
This name was given to Esau because he craved Jacob's red stew. Edom means red. But the name is more usually given to his tribe and the land they held. It had been called Mount Seir.
So the closing words are not a neutral label. One writer reads the name as the man's character coming into the open:
In despising his birthright, Esau shows himself to be profane. Jacob values it, but seeks it in crooked ways. Esau now appears openly as Edom — that is, Adam, only a little changed on the surface, and not in heart.
Older translations call these men "dukes." One writer puts the title in terms we know:
Genesis 36 gives us the rise and progress of their national greatness. First comes the line of their dukes, as they are called. In modern language these would probably answer to the sheikhs of their tribes. Then later come the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.
Set the chiefs of Edom beside the family God had chosen, and the contrast is sharp:
Indirectly it is instructive, since it shows what is natural coming into power first, and what is spiritual coming afterwards. The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and within it, and are even badly 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.
Another writer draws the everyday lesson from the same timing:
The children of Esau had "dukes" in plenty. This gives us an early example of something we find often in Scripture and in our own experience. The man who loves the world and ignores God gets ahead in the world, further than the man who fears God.
A long list of unfamiliar names can look like filler. Commentators read it as deliberate:
Esau prospers and grows great in material ways. His sons become "dukes" before Jacob's family reach such honour — except for Joseph in Egypt. Remember that Joseph did not exalt himself; Pharaoh exalted him. But 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 it does, and finds it only vanity.
One writer looks at the whole scene and names what it shows:
Scripture insists that Esau is Edom, that he is the father of the Edomites. His sons are dukes, and before Israel had a king they had kings. Look at the pride and pomp of dukes and kings, the alliances with God's enemies, and the whole scene with no mark of God on it. We cannot help recognising the line of the flesh, and we see a picture of the headship of Adam.
The order of the two family lines carries a lesson of its own:
It was so with Ishmael and Isaac, and it is so again here. Scripture mentions the rejected line first, but briefly, and does not follow its dates. The chosen line comes second, and then we get enough dates to follow the passing of the years. This foreshadows a principle of God's ways, stated clearly elsewhere: "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
The chapter's position in Genesis is no accident either:
At first reading, this account of Esau's family might seem like a disconnected fragment. It could just as well sit a few chapters earlier or later than where it now stands. But no chapter and no word can be moved without spoiling the perfection of God's word. There is divine wisdom in placing it just where it is.
- Name. Edom means red — the name Esau earned over a bowl of stew. The verse seals his whole family under it.
- Rank. The "dukes" are tribal chiefs — sheikhs, in today's terms. Edom had them, and later kings, before Israel had either.
- Order. First the natural, then the spiritual: Esau's line climbs fast while the family of promise still wanders as shepherds.
- Purpose. The long list of names is God taking full account of the flesh and all it does, and finding it only vanity.
- Result. The flesh gets the titles first; then God does away with the first to establish the second, and the chosen line carries the promise.