Genesis 36:20-21 - Exposition

These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land. The primitive inhabitants of Idumea were Horites ( vide Genesis 14:6 ), of whom the ancestor, Seir ("Rugged"), either gave his name to, or took his name from, the district in which he lived. Though ultimately driven out by the Edomites ( Deuteronomy 2:12 ), they were probably only gradually dispossessed, and not until a portion of them had coalesced with their conquerors, as Esau himself had a Horite wife, Aholibamah, and his son Eliphaz a Horite concubine of the name of Thuna. They were, as the name Horite, from chor, a hole or cavern, imports a race of troglodytes or cavemen, who dwelt in the sandstone and limestone eaves with which the land of Edom abounds. The cave palaces, temples, and tombs that have been excavated in Mount Seir are still astonishing in their grandeur. Lotan ,—"Wrapping up" (Gesenius)— and Shobal ,—"Flowing" (Gesenius)— and Zibeon, and Anah (this Anah was the uncle of the Anah mentioned in Genesis 36:25 ), and Dishan ,—"Gazelle" (Gesenius, Furst)— and Eser ,—"Treasure" (Gesenius)—and Dishan :—same as Dishon (Gesenius, Furst); "Threshing" (Murphy)— these are the dukes of, the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.