Thus Esau dwelt in mount Seir; Esau is Edom.
Genesis 36:8 closes the account of Esau's move out of Canaan. It ends with one settled fact: he made his home in the hill country of Seir. The short note that Esau is Edom turns a family story into a national one. It also raises a question: what does a man gain by taking his portion outside the land of promise?
The second name in the verse has its own history. It goes back to a bowl of red stew, and then spreads to a people and a land.
Esau was given this name because he craved Jacob's red stew, since Edom means red (Gen. 25:30; Gen. 36:1, 8, 19). But the name is more often used for his tribe and the territory they held... It is a very mountainous district with high peaks and deep valleys, but also with very fertile plains. It had been called Mount Seir. Gen. 36:8.
That link pays off well beyond Genesis.
The chapter also shows clearly that Esau, Edom and Mount Seir are one and the same, when we find these names mentioned later in Scripture. Otherwise the many names here would mean little to us.
This move ended the shared life of the two brothers. The long list of names that follows has a purpose too.
Verse 6 tells us that he took his wives, family, and all his possessions, left the land of Canaan, and went away from his brother Jacob. The man "after the flesh" cannot live together with the one whom God has chosen... The long list of names is meant to press on us that God has taken full account of the flesh and all it does, and finds it empty.
Where a man settles shows what he values. Esau's choice turned away from what God had promised.
So Esau leaves the promise to him [Jacob], and goes to the place God hates — to his own portion.
The contrast is sharpened by the sentence that closes the whole section, once Esau's line has been listed.
Esau leaves Canaan for Seir, and his descendants soon live by their sword in this barren region — their names appear to show it... The section closes with one short verse that says a great deal to the ear that hears. It sets Jacob's portion against his brother's: "Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan."
Older translations read "the land in which his father was a stranger" — Jacob lived there as a stranger.
Esau's line rises fast, while the family of promise stays on the move.
This chapter has its own important place: it sketches the earthly lot of Esau. Indirectly it also teaches us something. It shows what is natural coming into power first, and what is spiritual coming later. The family of promise stay 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.
That success matched what Isaac had spoken over Esau.
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, well known to all. They not only became "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 territory Esau took had a history before him and a verdict after him.
The Horites lived there first, and after them the descendants of Esau, and it took the name EDOM... The word of the Lord announced to the prophet that Mount Seir would be desolate for ever. Ezek. 35:2-15.
God's quarrel with Edom goes back to the character of the man.
From the very beginning the Lord had a word, a dispute, with Edom, as He still has through His prophet: "Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." Esau had no regard for sacred things. He sold his interest in the Lord for a bowl of stew... He set his heart on the present life, and knew very well how to turn what it offered into his own enjoyment.
- Choice. Esau took his household out of Canaan, away from Jacob. The two brothers' lines never share a home again.
- Portion. Esau chose Seir instead of the promise. The section closes by setting his portion beside Jacob's, who still lived as a stranger in Canaan.
- Name. "Esau is Edom" ties the man, the nation and Mount Seir together. Later passages about Edom open up once you know that.
- Prosperity. Isaac's word to Esau came true fast: chiefs, then kings, before Israel had any king. Earthly greatness often runs ahead of the people of God.
- End. The mountains Esau settled are the ones the prophet later marks for lasting desolation. A portion taken outside the promise did not hold.
And these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom, in mount Seir.
This short line opens a fresh section of Genesis. It gives one man two identities — Esau is also Edom — and places him in Seir, outside the land of promise. Why does Scripture pause the chosen family's story to list his descendants?
Esau carries two names in this verse, and the second one came from an appetite. A reference work traces it back to the day he traded his birthright for a meal:
A name given to Esau because he craved Jacob's red stew, since Edom means red (Genesis 25:30; 36:1, 8, 19). But the name is more often given to his tribe and the land they held. This stretched from the land of Moab southward to the Gulf of Akaba, about 100 miles in length. The region is very mountainous, with high peaks and deep valleys, but it also has rich plains. It had been called Mount Seir (Genesis 36:8). Bozrah and Sela were its chief cities.
This chapter interrupts Jacob's story, and the order is not random. One writer sees the same pattern earlier in Genesis:
The section titled "The generations of Esau" runs from the first verse of Genesis 36 to the first verse of Genesis 37. As with Ishmael and Isaac, the rejected line comes first here, and only briefly, and its record does not follow the order of time. The chosen line comes second, and with it enough dates to let us follow the passing of the years. This points forward to a clear principle of God's ways: "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
Read on past this verse and the names pile up quickly — chiefs, then kings. That speed is itself the lesson:
But there is another genealogy (Genesis 36), and its place here is striking. The Edomite interrupts the course of God's dealings. We see at once how mature things already were here. It is always so — first the natural, afterwards the spiritual. Even then we find a rapid development of power in Esau's family. They were all great people, to be sure — duke this and duke that, to the end of the chapter. Kings, we are told, even reigned there before there were any in Israel. I have no doubt this stands as an important mark of how fast what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but it is more lasting.
The verse gives Esau's address: Seir, outside the land of promise. One writer weighs both what he left and where he went:
Esau now leaves the promise to Jacob, and goes to the place God hates — to his own portion.
Yet the move did not leave him poor. His father's words over him came true in full measure:
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 fully independent of Jacob. His descendants multiplied and became chiefs, and they were 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 come out ahead of the children of God.
A long roll of unfamiliar names can feel like wasted pages. One commentator says why the two lines live apart, and what the long record is for:
The man "after the flesh" cannot live alongside the one God has chosen... Esau's family shows the usual history of the flesh, always exalting itself. The long list of names is therefore meant to impress one fact on us. God has taken full account of the flesh and all its activities, and finds it only vanity.
The verse also works as a dictionary entry for the rest of the Bible. It locks three names together:
The chapter also shows plainly that Esau, Edom and Mount Seir stand for the same line and the same land. That helps us when we meet these names later in Scripture. Otherwise the many names here may mean little to us.
- Name: "Edom" means red, and it stuck to Esau from the day he craved a bowl of red stew — an appetite became a nation's name.
- Place: Seir was his own portion. He left the promise to Jacob and went to the place God hates.
- Speed: What is not of God shoots up fast. Edom had kings before Israel did. Growth according to God is slower, but it lasts.
- Order: The rejected line comes first, and briefly. The chosen line follows. God does away with the first to establish the second.
- Purpose: The long name-list is God's full account of the flesh, which He finds to be vanity — and a key to these three names later in Scripture.