Genesis 36:2-3 - Exposition

Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan ;— i.e. who were of the daughters of Canaan (vide Genesis 26:34 )— Adah —"Ornament," "Beauty" (Gesenius); the name also of one of Lamech's wives (cf. Genesis 4:19 )— the daughter of Elon —"Oak" (Gesenius)— the Hittite, and Aholibamah —"Tent of the High Place" (Gesenius)— the daughter of Anah —"Answering" (Gesenius)— the daughter — i.e. the grand-daughter, though, after the LXX . and the Samaritan, some read the son, as in Genesis 36:24 (Gesenius, Kalisch, Furst, et alii ) — of Zibeon —"Colored" (Gesenius); "Wild," "Robber" (Furst)— the Hivite ; and Bashemath —"Sweet-smelling" (Gesenius)— Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth —"High Place" (Gesenius). The difference between this account and that previously given ( Genesis 26:34 ; Genesis 28:9 ) will appear at a glance by setting the two lists of wives in parallel columns:—

1. Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite.

1. Aholibamah, daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite.

2. Bashemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite.

2. Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite.

3. Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, sister of Nebajoth.

3. Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

The two lists agree in saying

The discrepancy between the two is greatest in respect of the first wife, who appears with a different name and a different parentage in the two lists; while with reference to the second and the third wives, it is only the difference of name that requires to be accounted for. Now since the two lists belong to the so-called Elohistic document (Tuch, Bleak, Stahelin, Davidson, et alii ), the hypothesis must be discarded "that the Hebrew text, though containing several important coincidences, evidently embodies two accounts irreconcilably different" (Kalisch)—a conclusion which can only be maintained by ascribing to the author the most absolute literary incompetence. Equally the conjecture must be set aside that the two lists refer to different persons, the second three being names of wives which Esau took on the decease of the first. The solutions that appear most entitled to acceptance, though all are more or less conjectural, proceed upon the supposition that Esau had only three wives, or at most four.

1. On the hypothesis that Esau had not more than three wives, it is only needful to presume that each of them had two names, a not unusual circumstance in Oriental countries (Rosenmüller, Havernick)—one of them, probably that contained in the present list, bestowed on the occasion of marriage; and that Anah, the father of Aholibamah, was the same person with Beeri, or the Well-Man, who received that cognomen from the incident related in verse 24, viz; that he discovered certain hot springs while feeding his father's asses (Hengstenberg, Keil, Kurtz)—the peculiarity that in one place ( Genesis 26:34 ) he is styled a Hittite, in another ( Genesis 36:2 ) a Hivite, and in a third ( Genesis 36:20 ) a Horite, being explained by the conjecture that the first was the generic term for the race, the second the specific designation of the tribe, and the third the particular name for the inhabitants of the district to which he belonged (Keil, Lange, 'Speaker's Commentary).

2. Another solution gives to Esau four wives, by supposing Judith to have died without issue (Murphy, Jacobus), or, in consequence of being childless, though still living, to have been passed over in silence in the former genealogical register (Quarry), and Aholibamah to have been the fourth partner whom Esau espoused. The Samaritan version reads Mahalath for Bashemath in the second list, which it regards as an error of transcription ( W . L . Alexander in Kitto's ' Cyclopedia'); while others think that Adah has been written by inadvertence for Bashemath (Inglis)'; but such conjectures are as unnecessary as they are manifestly arbitrary.