Genesis study & commentary

Genesis 36:1-5

We've seen Jacob, conniving, deceitful, fleshly Jacob, transformed into Israel across a 30 year time span, he was a work of God.  And now we see Esau.  Is he to be considered evil?  No, not at all.  He was a son of Isaac.  What's the difference between Jacob and Esau?  We don't near as much about Esau's life.  What we do know of it is no a life filled with wickedness.  He was a man that lived for today; concerned with this moment.  This leant him to despising his birthright, for it did nothing for him in those early days.  He was strong, spontaneous, able to get things done.  He was the kind of person you wanted on your side, a business partner, sharing a foxhole, or just a neighbor,

Alexander Whyte, a nineteenth-century Scottish preacher, described him like this:

Esau was full of the manliest interests and occupations and pursuits. He was a very proverb of courage and endurance and success in the chase. He was the ruggedest, the brawniest, and the shaggiest of all the rugged, brawny, and shaggy creatures of the field and of the forest, among whom he lived and died. Esau had an eye like an eagle. His ear never slept. His foot took the firmest hold of the ground. And his hand was always full both of skill, and strength, and success. Esau's arrow never missed its mark. He was the pride of all the encampment as he came home at night with his traps, and his snares, and his bows, and his arrows, and laden to the earth with venison for his father's supper. Burned black with the sun; beaten hard and dry with the wind; a prince of men; a prime favourite both with men, and women, and children, and with a good word and a good gift from the field for them all.^[1]

The genealogy of Esau begins with him taking wives from the daughters of Canaan. 

• Adah, the daughter of a Hittite
• Oholibamah, daughter of Anah
• Basemath, daughter of a Ishmael. 

Genesis 36:6-8

Esau wanted to get away from his brother Jacob.  The two of them had so much the land couldn't support both of their clans together.  Esau went to Seir. 

Genesis 36:9-12
Some Edomites of the land are shown in the line as if adopted into the blood lines by Esau.  The lineage is a study in itself and debated among scholars. 

Teman shows up in Obadiah, Habakuk and Ezekiel as a geographical area.

The name Amalek blends into this list without notice.  But the Amalekites will be bitter enemies of the Israelites.

Genesis 36:13-19

This is an interesting interruption in the genealogy to name the chiefs among the descendants, which were the sons of Esau and identical to previous list with addition of Korah.    

Genesis 36:20-39
This is another interesting insertion.  We went from family to the indigenous sons.  These were the kings who reigned in Edom before there were kings in Israel.

Some speculate that the Jobab of verse 34 might actually be Job.  There is no way to know for sure.

Genesis 36:40-43
It's so easy to buzz through a chapter like this.  We might think 'It's genealogy, so what?'  But every word of the bible is there for a reason.  Maybe we all have a lot to learn before God can really bring a chapter like this to us so we can truly appreciate it.  Every name was a real person who walked this earth.  Their name is recorded in the bible by the Holy Spirit as part of the canon of Scripture.  Each of these people is significant in that way.  They had feelings, worried and fretted about the future, they warred and made peace.  They lived and died and were part of the history that God puts before us in scripture.  That makes it important.

©2019 Doug Ford