These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; he is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he pastured the donkeys of Zibeon his father.
Genesis 36 is a register of Esau's family, and this line stops to record one small find in the desert. Two questions follow: what did Anah find, and why does a chapter of names from the rejected branch of Isaac's family belong in Scripture?
The word behind "hot springs"
Older English Bibles said Anah found "mules." That was a mistake, and translators have long disagreed about the Hebrew word behind it:
The Bible TreasuryIn Genesis 36:24, "mules" should read "hot springs," as the Latin Vulgate has it. See Fuerst's Lexicon. The Greek Septuagint leaves the word untranslated. It occurs nowhere else.
Another note traces how the mistake spread:
The Bible TreasuryAnah found "hot springs" in the wilderness, not "mules." The Vulgate translated the word correctly from early days. Wycliffe's English Bible and the Wycliffite version followed it, and so did the Douay Bible. The Septuagint lost the sense and turned the word into a proper name that means nothing. Later, the Talmud misled Jews with the fables it loved to tell about "mules," some of them filthy, as in this case.
Who Anah was
Anah is not one of Esau's sons. He comes from the older people of the region, the Horites, listed a few verses earlier:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThey descended from Seir and were the first people of Mount Seir. The children of Esau destroyed them. People think they lived in caves, as their name suggests. The sandstone rocks of Mount Seir are full of homes cut into the rock, and traces of the same appear all through the region of Edom.
Anah appears in the list of their leaders:
William KellyThe sons of Seir the Horite, the cave-dweller who lived in the land, also set themselves up as great men. Verses 29 and 30 sum them up: "These are the chiefs of the Horites: the chiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan."
Why the chapter stands here
Esau's section of Genesis comes just before Jacob's. That order carries a lesson:
F. B. HoleThe section called "The generations of Esau" begins at the first verse of Genesis 36 and runs to the first verse of Genesis 37. It was so with Ishmael and Isaac, and so again here. The rejected line comes first and gets only a few words, with no timeline to follow. The chosen line comes second… This pictures in advance a principle of God's ways, stated so clearly in the words: "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
Quick growth and slow growth
Esau's family rose to power early. Commentators read that as a lesson about pace:
William KellyIt is always so — first comes what is natural, and afterwards what is spiritual. Even then we find power growing fast in the family of Esau. They were all great people, to be sure — chief this and chief that, to the end of the chapter. Kings even reigned there, we are told, before Israel had any. I have no doubt this is given us to mark how fast what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but it is more lasting.
There is a reason God preserved so long a list:
L. M. GrantThe long list of names is there to impress on us that God has taken full account of the flesh and all it does, and finds it only vanity.
A use for the hot springs
One writer draws from Anah's hot springs a lesson about how we serve others:
Truth & TestimonyThe Shepherd of Psalm 23 leads His sheep beside still waters and into green pastures. Yet we see the sheep of His pasture treated at times like donkeys and brought to hot springs. Hot, bubbling presentations do not suit Christians… Let us learn to impart refreshment to those for whom Christ died — wherever they may be found.
Summary
- Found — Anah found hot springs, not mules. The word occurs only here, and the Latin Vulgate got it right while others guessed.
- Family — he was a Horite, a cave-dweller of Mount Seir, from the people whose land Esau's sons took over.
- First — Scripture records the rejected line first and briefly, then sets it aside to establish the chosen line.
- Fast — Esau's house had chiefs and kings before Israel had any. What is not of God shoots up fast; God's growth is slower and lasts.
- Filed — God keeps the whole record of the flesh, down to one man's find in the desert, and His verdict on it is vanity.