and Basmath Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.
Genesis 36:3 names a third wife of Esau. Her name here is not the name the earlier account gave her, and that small difference — with the reason Esau chose her — opens up what this list is doing in the middle of Jacob's story.
The earlier account of this marriage gives the bride a different name. One reference work sees nothing strange in that:
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 someone may have given them another name at their marriage. It seems likely that Basemath, daughter of Ishmael, is the same person as Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael.
Others read the switch as deliberate, carrying a verdict on the marriage itself:
Later, in the genealogy of Esau, the Spirit of God says that Esau took Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, as a wife. Historians say the writer of Genesis made a mistake in mixing the names. We suggest the revised name had deliberate significance. In God's eyes there was no difference between Ishmael's daughter and the daughter of Canaan. So the record gives her a name of Canaan. She was a sorrow by name, and no less a sorrow in nature and practice, to his parents and to God.
Commentators differ on whether this is simply a second name or a verdict on the marriage.
The verse names her brother as well as her father. Nebaioth led an Ishmaelite line that Scripture follows into the future:
Eldest son of Ishmael and one of the chiefs of the Ishmaelites. Isaiah 60:7 names the rams of Nebaioth, with the flocks of Kedar his brother, as serving the prosperity of Israel in the future day of blessing.
Esau already had two Canaanite wives. When he saw that these marriages displeased his father, he added a wife from Ishmael's family. The motive was appearance, not faith:
Scripture tells us in Genesis 28:6-9 how Esau copied his brother as far as appearance went, because his Canaanite wives displeased his father. But God was not in his thoughts, and his imitation fell far short. Besides his Hittite wives he took a daughter of Ishmael as wife — the child of the slave woman, cast out from Abraham's house. There was no faith, only a natural and useless effort after better ways.
The numbers alone gave him away:
He seems to have thought his parents would be happier if he added another wife, as long as she had some link to Abraham! So he took the daughter of Ishmael, the son of the slave woman. This is of course the foolish reasoning of the flesh. He knew his father had only one wife. How could a son with three wives please him?
The verse records the company Esau chose, and a man's company tells you what he is:
It is a sign of the times that so little is thought of the character of a man's associations. In truth, nothing gives us our character so much. To say of Enoch, or of Noah, that "he walked with God" describes the man fully in the fewest words. If a man freely joins himself to God's enemies, can he truly want a walk like that?
The list of Esau's descendants breaks into the story of Jacob and Joseph. Its place there is no accident:
At first reading, this account of Esau's descendants might seem like a stray fragment. Someone could just as well have placed it a few chapters earlier, or a few later, than 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.
Set here, the chapter shows how fast the natural line rises:
The Edomite interrupts the course of God's dealings. We see at once what remarkable maturity there was here. It is always so — first the natural, then the spiritual. Even then we find a rapid development of power in the family of Esau. They were all great people, to be sure — chief after chief, right to the end of the chapter. Kings reigned among them before Israel had any king at all. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.
- Named — Basemath is Ishmael's daughter and Nebaioth's sister. The earlier account calls her Mahalath: a second name, or a renaming that shows the marriage for what it was.
- Chosen — Esau picked her to look obedient after his first two marriages grieved his parents. He copied Jacob's outward path without Jacob's faith.
- Exposed — a third wife could never please a father with one. The fix was the reasoning of the flesh, and a man's company tells you what he is.
- Multiplied — from these wives came chiefs and kings, a line rising fast into power, while growth on God's timing went slower.
- Placed — the chapter sits just where it belongs: the natural comes first and grows fast, the spiritual comes after and lasts.
And Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz; and Basmath bore Reuel.
Genesis 36 turns from Jacob to the line of Esau, and verse 4 names his first two sons: Eliphaz by Adah, Reuel by Basemath. Two questions come up here: why do these wives have other names earlier in Genesis, and why does Scripture record a family it has already set aside?
Genesis names Esau's wives earlier too, and the names do not match. Commentators explain the gap in more than one way:
One of the wives of Esau, the daughter of Ishmael and the mother of Reuel. Gen. 36:3-4. In the earlier account, Gen. 26:34; Gen. 28:9, the names of Esau's wives differ from those given in Gen. 36:2-3. The women may have had two names, or they may have received another name at their marriage. It seems likely that Bashemath, daughter of Elon, is the same as ADAH, daughter of Elon. And Bashemath, daughter of Ishmael, is likely the same as MAHALATH, daughter of Ishmael.
Who the mothers were matters. Their peoples were enemies of God's people, and the land Esau settled in lay under a curse:
After the record of Esau's generations, we notice that he married wives who were Canaanites, Hittites and Hivites. They were bitter enemies of God's people. We see, too, that he lived in Mount Seir. That land was cursed later, and the curse would remain even in the millennial days to come, when the wilderness will blossom like the rose. It is an illustration of the flesh, which, under the very best influence, cannot be improved.
Eliphaz stands at the head of a line that rose fast. Jacob's family went the other way:
Still, it teaches us something. What is natural comes into power first, and what is spiritual comes after. The family of promise remain shepherds and herdsmen. They wander here and there, outside the land and within it, and are even severely oppressed. Meanwhile the generations of Edom rise fast into importance, away from Canaan, in Mount Seir. The descendants of Edom soon claim the rank of chiefs: "These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau."
One son of Eliphaz became a lasting enemy of Israel:
Edom became the treacherous enemy of the people of Israel. Read Obadiah, verses 8-16. From the concubine of Eliphaz was born Amalek, one of the terrible enemies of Israel, with whom there was to be continual warfare (Exodus 17:8-14).
The same line reached much further. Haman came from it:
Agag was the title of the kings of Amalek, probably a general title, as Pharaoh was for the king of Egypt. (1 Sam. 15:9, 32; Num. 24:7) So Haman came from this royal line. Amalek, the people of Haman, descended from Esau through Eliphaz: he was first a chief, and then became the people of Edom. (Gen. 36:12, 16)
Esau did well in earthly things. One writer ties that to Isaac's blessing, and to a wider pattern:
The chapter shows us that Esau prospered in earthly things, so his father's blessing came true for him (27:39-40). He held his own territory and became quite independent of Jacob. His descendants multiplied and became chiefs and men of note. They became not only "chiefs" 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 come first, ahead of the children of God.
- Names. Esau's wives appear under other names in Genesis 26 and 28. They may have had two names each, or new names at marriage. Commentators call the match likely, not certain.
- Mothers. Esau's wives came from the peoples of the land, and Mount Seir lay under a curse. His line began in ties with God's enemies.
- Firstborn. Eliphaz, Adah's son, heads a line that rises fast into chiefs. Jacob's family stays a wandering household of shepherds.
- Reach. Out of Eliphaz came Amalek, Israel's continual enemy from Exodus 17 on. Haman came from the same line.
- Result. Esau prospered, just as Isaac had said he would. Worldly greatness still comes first; God's people wait.