So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)
Open map →Where a brother stops being a brother and becomes a countryGenesis 36:8 · 1 place plottedGenesis 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?
Two names, one man
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.
Morrish Bible DictionaryEsau 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.
F. B. HoleThe 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.
A parting that was final
This move ended the shared life of the two brothers. The long list of names that follows has a purpose too.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 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.
Esau's own portion
Where a man settles shows what he values. Esau's choice turned away from what God had promised.
J. N. DarbySo 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.
Numerical Bible NotesEsau 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.
The natural line rises first
Esau's line rises fast, while the family of promise stays on the move.
William KellyThis 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.
Prosperity that fulfils a father's word
That success matched what Isaac had spoken over Esau.
F. B. HoleEsau 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.
Where Seir ends
The territory Esau took had a history before him and a verdict after him.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
J. G. BellettFrom 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.
Summary
- 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.