For Teaching

Genesis 36: What the Passage Says

98 claims across 43 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Genesis 36 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is the family record of Esau, also called Edom. It names his Canaanite and Ishmaelite wives and the sons born to him in Canaan, then tells how he took his household, livestock, and property and went to a land away from his brother Jacob, since their wealth was too great for them to live together, and settled in Mount Seir. It then lists the chiefs descended from Esau, the sons and chiefs of Seir the Horite who lived in that land, the kings who reigned in Edom before any king reigned over Israel, and a closing list of Edom's chiefs by their settlements.

Claim by Claim

36:1
- These are the generations of Esau.
- Esau is Edom.
36:2
- Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan.
- One wife was Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
- One wife was Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah.
- Anah is identified in relation to Zibeon the Hivite by the phrase 'daughter of Zibeon', which may attach to Aholibamah or to Anah.
36:3
- One wife was Bashemath, the daughter of Ishmael.
- Bashemath was the sister of Nebajoth.
36:4
- Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau.
- Bashemath bore Reuel.
36:5
- Aholibamah bore Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah.
- These were the sons of Esau.
- These sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.
36:6
- Esau took his wives, his sons, and his daughters.
- Esau took all the persons of his household.
- Esau took his livestock and all his animals.
- Esau took all the property he had acquired in the land of Canaan.
- Esau went to a land away from the presence of his brother Jacob.
36:7
- Their possessions were too great for them to dwell together.
- The land where they were living as sojourners could not support them.
- The land could not support them because of their livestock.
36:8
- Esau dwelt in the hill country of Seir.
- Esau is Edom.
36:9
- These are the generations of Esau.
- Esau is the father of the Edomites.
- This account is set in the hill country of Seir.
36:10
- These are the names of Esau's sons.
- Eliphaz was the son of Adah, the wife of Esau.
- Reuel was the son of Bashemath, the wife of Esau.
36:11
- The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.
36:12
- Timna was a concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son.
- Timna bore Amalek to Eliphaz.
- These were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.
36:13
- These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
- These were the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.
36:14
- These were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife.
- Aholibamah bore to Esau Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah.
36:15
- These were the chiefs of the sons of Esau.
- Eliphaz was the firstborn son of Esau.
- The sons of Eliphaz included chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, and chief Kenaz.
36:16
- Chief Korah, chief Gatam, and chief Amalek are also listed.
- These are the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom.
- These were the sons of Adah.
36:17
- These are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah.
- These are the chiefs descended from Reuel in the land of Edom.
- These are the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.
36:18
- These are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife: chief Jeush, chief Jaalam, chief Korah.
- These were the chiefs descended from Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.
36:19
- These are the sons of Esau.
- These are their chiefs.
- Esau is Edom.
36:20
- These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, and Anah.
36:21
- Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan are also sons of Seir.
- These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir, in the land of Edom.
36:22
- The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam.
- Lotan's sister was Timna.
36:23
- These are the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
36:24
- These are the sons of Zibeon: Ajah and Anah.
- This is the Anah who found something in the wilderness whose identity the text leaves obscure, understood either as mules or as hot springs.
- Anah made this discovery while pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.
36:25
- These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Aholibamah.
- Aholibamah was the daughter of Anah.
36:26
- These are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.
36:27
- These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
36:28
- These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
36:29
- These are the chiefs of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah.
36:30
- Chief Dishon, chief Ezer, and chief Dishan are also listed.
- These are the chiefs of the Horites, according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.
36:31
- These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom.
- They reigned before any king reigned over the children of Israel.
36:32
- Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom.
- The name of Bela's city was Dinhabah.
36:33
- Bela died.
- Jobab the son of Zerah, of Bozrah, reigned in his place.
36:34
- Jobab died.
- Husham, of the land of the Temanites, reigned in his place.
36:35
- Husham died.
- Hadad the son of Bedad reigned in his place.
- Hadad struck Midian in the field of Moab.
- The name of Hadad's city was Avith.
36:36
- Hadad died.
- Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.
36:37
- Samlah died.
- Saul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his place.
36:38
- Saul died.
- Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.
36:39
- Baalhanan the son of Achbor died.
- Hadar reigned in his place.
- The name of Hadar's city was Pau.
- Hadar's wife's name was Mehetabel.
- Mehetabel was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
36:40
- These are the names of the chiefs descended from Esau, according to their families, their places, and their names.
- The list includes chief Timnah, chief Alvah, and chief Jetheth.
36:41
- The list includes chief Aholibamah, chief Elah, and chief Pinon.
36:42
- The list includes chief Kenaz, chief Teman, and chief Mibzar.
36:43
- The list includes chief Magdiel and chief Iram.
- These are the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land of their possession.
- Esau is the father of the Edomites.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

36:1: "These are the generations of" is a recurring heading in Genesis; it introduces not a birth story but a list of what came from someone, descendants, and sometimes the peoples they founded. Edom is a second name for Esau (it means "red," tied in Genesis 25 to the red stew he traded his birthright for), and it is also the name of the nation and the territory his descendants held, south and east of the Dead Sea. The chapter uses the name for the man, the people, and the land, sometimes in the same sentence.
36:2: The Hittites and Hivites were peoples living in Canaan before Israel settled there. "Daughters of Canaan" simply means local Canaanite women, as opposed to relatives from the family's ancestral homeland in Mesopotamia, where Isaac and Jacob both found wives. The names of Esau's wives here differ from those given in Genesis 26:34 and 28:9 (Judith, Basemath, Mahalath); ancient readers already noticed this, and no explanation in the text resolves it. "Anah the daughter of Zibeon" is also unclear in the Hebrew: the same word can mean daughter or granddaughter, and verses 24-25 make Anah a man, Zibeon's son, whose daughter was Aholibamah.
36:3: Ishmael was Abraham's son by Hagar, so this wife was Esau's first cousin. Nebajoth was Ishmael's eldest son; naming him marks the family as a leading one.
36:4: "Bare" is the old spelling of "bore." It simply means she gave birth to him.
36:6: The same problem and the same solution as Abram and Lot in Genesis 13: too many animals for one stretch of grazing land, so the families separate. Esau moving out is what leaves Canaan to Jacob.
36:7: The problem is grazing land, not money: herds large enough to need more pasture than one district can supply. "Strangers" in the King James English means resident foreigners, people living in a land they do not own, with no ancestral claim to its fields and wells.
36:8: Seir is the rugged highland country running south from the Dead Sea, on the east side of the Arabah valley. It was already inhabited (see verse 20), and "mount Seir" means the whole hill region, not a single peak.
36:9: The people of Edom came from Esau. The people of Israel came from his brother Jacob. So the two nations were cousins.
36:11: Teman is both a person here and a region of Edom, and its people had a reputation for wisdom; Jeremiah later asks whether wisdom has vanished from Teman. Job's friend Eliphaz is called "the Temanite", which ties that character to this branch of the family.
36:12: A concubine was a secondary wife: a recognized, permanent partner of lower legal standing than a full wife, whose children were counted in the family though often with weaker inheritance rights. Amalek is named because his descendants, the Amalekites, appear repeatedly later as raiders and enemies of Israel; the note here explains where they came from.
36:15: The King James "duke" does not mean a European nobleman. It renders a Hebrew word (allup) for the head of a clan or a thousand-strong division, and the translators reached for the Latin-derived dux, "leader." "Chief" is the plain sense. Many of these names double as the names of districts, so the list is partly a map of Edomite territory.
36:20: The Horites were the earlier inhabitants of Seir, displaced or absorbed by Esau's descendants. The name has traditionally been linked to a Hebrew word for "hole" or "cave," hence the old idea that they were cave dwellers, but the connection is uncertain. Their family list is included here because the two peoples intermarried, as verses 22 and 25 show.
36:22: This is almost certainly the same Timna who appears in verse 12 as a concubine in Esau's family, a Horite woman joined to the incoming Edomite line.
36:24: The King James "mules" is a guess. The Hebrew word yemim occurs nowhere else in the Bible and its meaning is unknown; ancient and modern translators have proposed hot springs, water, or a breed of animal. "Asses" is simply the older English word for donkeys, the ordinary pack and herd animal of the region.
36:25: This Aholibamah is the woman Esau married in verse 2, which is why the Horite list is given: Esau's line and Seir's line joined by marriage.
36:31: Kingship came late to Israel, Saul, the first Israelite king, is centuries after this in the biblical timeline. The remark is a chronological comparison, noting that Edom had an organized monarchy before its neighbor did. Note also that in the list that follows no son succeeds his father; each king comes from a different city, which suggests rulers chosen rather than inheriting.
36:33: Bozrah was a major fortified town of Edom, mentioned often by the later prophets as standing for the whole nation.
36:34: Teman was a district in the south of Edom, proverbial in the Hebrew Bible for wisdom; Job's friend Eliphaz is called a Temanite.
36:35: Midian and Moab were neighboring peoples east and south-east of Canaan. "Smote... in the field of Moab" means defeated in battle on Moabite territory, a border war between neighbors, recorded here to date the reign.
36:37: "The river" without further description normally means the Euphrates, far to the north-east, though some take it to refer to a local watercourse instead. This Saul is unrelated to the later Israelite king of the same name.
36:39: Many Hebrew manuscripts and the parallel list in 1 Chronicles 1:50 read "Hadad" here rather than "Hadar"; the two letters are easily confused in Hebrew script. The wife's ancestry is unusually detailed for such a list, and the reason is not stated.
36:40: This second list overlaps only partly with the one in verses 15-19, and the phrase "after their places, by their names" signals why: these entries are territorial as much as personal. Timnah, Elah, Pinon and others are known as districts or settlements, so the list reads as the divisions of Edom named after the clans holding them.

Read Genesis 36