Genesis 36:33

The world that has turned away from God sets itself up in power, while the heirs of the promise are still poor pilgrims on the earth. This last point is a distinct part of what God has revealed.

The Edomite line interrupts the course of God's dealings. We see at once how fully developed it already was. It is always so — first the natural, then the spiritual. Even then we find power growing fast in the family of Esau… I have no doubt this is given to us for an important reason. It marks how quickly what is not of God shoots up. Growth according to God is slower, but then it is more permanent.

Edom had kings before Israel had any; that is all that is said. The point worth recording was that Edom had kings while Israel still had none. Edom was a settled nation under steady rule before God's people Israel were. In the chapter before, God had promised that kings would come from Jacob. Yet the natural went first in apparent strength: God's people must wait His time.

Suppose this passage came from a time after Saul or David's line began to reign. The wording would then have been different — not "any" king or "a" king, but "the king" or "the kings."

The kings of Edom are listed next… Violence marks this whole race, because not a single one of these kings has his own son as his successor.

As one faction won out over another, different cities produced different kings. In the end, it seems, their royal authority was cut back, and dukes followed them. We still see this change in the form of authority in our own day. It shows a typical feature — we might say a flaw — of human power: its instability. Man is unable to retain supreme and sole power in himself.

Bozrah was the royal city of Edom, and the prophets pronounced judgments on it… Christ is pictured coming from there with garments stained red, after treading the winepress of His wrath on the nations (Gentiles). Isa. 63:1-4: compare Isa. 34.

God lets the world show itself first, and its power — or rather its lack of power. Then comes His purpose, with its firm foundation… The Edomite kings are gone, but God's King remains forever. Edom gets this special mention because of their great hatred of Israel. They were one of the most relentless of all the nations around them (Num. 20:14-21). It showed itself long years later, when the Edomites rejoiced at the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Psalm 137). For this very reason God remembers them for judgment (Obadiah 10).

Most place the land of Uz (chapter 1:1) east of the river Jordan, toward the border of Arabia, in the land of Edom (compare Lam. 4:21) or nearby. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) Job is even identified with Jobab, the second king of the Edomites (Gen. 36:33).