1 Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.
2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;
3 And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.
4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel;
5 And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan.
6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.
7 For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.
8 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.
9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:
10 These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau.
11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.
12 And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife.
13 And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife.
14 And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.
15 These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz,
16 Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah.
17 And these are the sons of Reuel Esau's son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife.
18 And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau's wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.
19 These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.
20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
21 And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
22 And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan's sister was Timna.
23 And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24 And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
25 And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah.
26 And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran.
27 The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan.
28 The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran.
29 These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah,
30 Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir.
31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.
32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead.
34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead.
35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith.
36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead.
37 And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.
38 And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead.
39 And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
40 And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth,
41 Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon,
42 Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar,
43 Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.
1. A list of Esau’s wives, his sons, and grandsons is given.
Verses 1–8. This is the story of Esau. Although Esau was excluded from the covenant promises, God still blessed him with children, possessions, and land. Temporal reward does sometimes come through being related to men of the covenant like Abraham and Isaac. But there is more to the covenant than this. These temporal blessings should not be ignored, but they are not enough. Blood lines are important, but they do not guarantee eternal spiritual blessings. In one sense, the Edomites made up one nation proceeding from Abraham and Isaac and constituted a fulfillment of the Abrahamic blessings. Yet this was only a downpayment of what was to come. The motherlode blessings would come through Abraham’s Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, every tribe, nation, and tongue would find their place in the spiritual family of Abraham.
Actually, the spiritual blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham did visit the line of Esau at points throughout Old Testament history. Of the two spies who returned from the land with the good report, Caleb the Kennizite was one of them. Kenaz was one of Esau’s grandsons. It is also quite possible that Job and his friends were descendants of Esau, as Scripture places the land of Uz and Teman in the land of Edom (Job 1:1, 2:11; Lam. 4:21; Gen. 36:11).
All of this is in accord with God’s promises. He promised a blessing to a thousand generations to those who love Him and keep His commandments (Exod. 20:6). When the faith dies out in a family, very often it reappears within a generation or two. God remembers His covenant to a thousand generations! Sometimes unbelievers enjoy relative stability, wealth, peace, and strength of character in their communities. This is a result of what we call “common grace.” Every nation and person across this globe enjoys common grace because of their generational and geographical connections with true men of faith. When unbelievers prosper, it is usually a result of their relationship with believers. Matthew 5:25 tells us that God sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Even though Esau rejected the covenant, the mercy of God was still extended to him as long as he and his sons lived on the earth.
Esau’s children and grandchildren became kings and princes throughout the land of Edom, a mountainous area just southeast of the Dead Sea (also called the Salt Sea). God protected this land for Esau’s future generations, and did not direct the Israelites to confiscate it as they had done with other Canaanite lands. In the succeeding centuries, though, the Edomites refused to provide any aid to the children of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness. They proved to be an unfriendly and hostile neighbor to the people of God. As time progressed, the relationship between the two nations disintegrated, bringing God’s wrath down upon the persecutor of His people. The prophets committed entire chapters and books to preaching God’s judgment upon those wicked people (Is. 34; Jer. 49; Ezek. 35; Obadiah).
Verses 9–43. By divine inspiration, the biblical writers chose to include extended genealogies here and there throughout the Word. How are we to take these somewhat laborious readings? Before passing them off as boring and entirely irrelevant to our use, let us consider a few reasons why Moses would take the time to record these lists. At the most basic level, God wants us to know that children are a blessing. Children are not insignificant in God’s reality. When a million descendants come about as the progeny of a single man, this should be taken as an amazing legacy and a blessing from God. A man’s progeny is a true heritage of the Lord. Some families produce no posterity whatsoever, and others are blessed with millions. Consider two American preachers, for example. The generational legacy of Billy Sunday, the famed evangelist of the early 20th century America, completely disappeared. His last unbelieving grandson died, unmarried and childless, in the 1970s.
Then there is the great legacy of Jonathan Edwards, the powerful preacher and American theologian of the 18th century. Several hundred years after his death, Edith A. Winship tracked down 1,400 descendants of Edwards. She found that this man’s progeny included 13 college presidents, 65 professors, 100 lawyers and a dean of an outstanding law school, as well as 30 judges, 60 doctors and a dean of a medical school. Incredibly, Edwards’ descendants included 80 holders of public office including three United States senators, three mayors of large cities, three state governors, a vice president of the United States, and a controller of the United States Treasury. Members of the family had written 135 books and edited 18 journals and periodicals.
They entered the ministry in platoons and sent 100 missionaries overseas, as well as stocking many mission boards with lay trustees. They directed banks and insurance companies, and they owned coal mines, iron plants, and vast oil interests. Yet, this humble pastor, Jonathan Edwards, had been expelled from his own church of hardly 100 people and had spent the remaining years of his life working with the native American Indians. A man’s descendants are his legacy.
Can one man make a difference in this world if God blesses him with children and a vision for the generations that follow? Yes! When we look at America, we see the imprint of Jonathan Edwards on millions of people. You can learn a lot about yourself if you know something about your heritage, the men from whose loins you came—to use biblical terminology.
Every generation is a testimony to God’s faithfulness. If He will bring a covenant man like Caleb out of the line of Kenaz, then it makes sense to include Kenaz in the recorded history of the Edomites. Eventually, these written genealogies would include the names of more of God’s covenant people—a church roll, so to speak. Every one of these names are important, because they stand for the people and the families with whom God establishes His covenant.
A short and seemingly insignificant biographical statement is included in verse 24. It is just a little record concerning one household economy, and how God blessed the family of Anah. Throughout Scripture, we find that children worked for the family economy. (We see the same thing with Rebekah, Rachel, Joseph, David, John, and James in both the Old and New Testaments.) With the disintegration of the family in the modern nation states, it is hard for us to picture a family working together in a unified family economy. Nevertheless, we always find this pattern in a proper biblical society, where there are families producing a household income as families.
Consider the powerful influence of our godly founders upon this nation. There isn’t a nation on earth which has sent more Christian missionaries to foreign nations. No other nation is more charitable. America still contributes twice as much to charitable endeavors as a percentage of the GNI (Gross National Income) than any other nation on earth. There isn’t a nation which has provided as much economic and political freedom and wealth for as many people as America. This nation has more Christian schools, more Christian home schools, and more people who believe that God created man only 6000-10,000 years ago, than any other nation on earth. Does a heritage matter? Does it matter whether our grandfathers were loving God and keeping His commandments in 1765? Does it matter whether we are loving God and keeping His commandments in our day? Millions, if not billions, of people have enjoyed the godly heritage of the nation of the United States. Let us rejoice in the goodness of God, as He is gracious to us and causes the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.
1. What are the themes of Chapters 1 through 36?
2. What is common grace?
3. Why did God bless Esau?
4. Where was the land that was settled by the Edomites, with respect to the country of Israel?
5. What did the man Anah do for his father?
1. Has God blessed the nation of America because of its Christian roots? How has God blessed us? What kind of blessing might God bring to our land 150 years from now if our family walks in God’s ways and pursues His kingdom’s interests with all that is in us?
2. What kind of heritage has God given our family? What will our legacy look like in a hundred years from now?
3. Have you seen the faith die out in certain families? Have you seen it reappear in succeeding generations?