Genesis 36:31-39

THE KINGS OF EDOM, Genesis 36:31-39.

How a monarchy arose among the Edomites we are not told, but it is noticeable that of the eight kings here mentioned, not one is said to have succeeded to his father. It is, therefore, very plausibly supposed that they were chosen by the dukes, or phylarchs. The statement that these kings reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel has been suspected as an interpolation, introduced after kings reigned over the Israelites. This is not an unreasonable or improbable supposition. See Introd. to the Pentateuch, p. 22. Others have argued from it the late authorship of the Pentateuch. But neither of these suppositions are necessary. God had said to Abraham, “Kings shall come out of thee,” (Genesis 17:6,) and he repeated the promise to Jacob, (Genesis 35:11,) who, in his last words, prophesied of a sceptre to arise in Judah.

Genesis 49:10. Moses also assumed that kings would arise in Israel, (Deuteronomy 17:14; Deuteronomy 28:36;) and with such expectations it would have been very natural for him, in recording this list of Edomite kings, to introduce the remark that all these reigned before Israel had any king . The Edomite monarchy was a sudden upstart affair, as compared with the Israelitish .

Of none of these kings have we any certain trace elsewhere. Bozrah, in Genesis 36:33, is the same as that mentioned in Isaiah 34:6; Isaiah 53:1, and the land of Temani (Genesis 36:34) was probably so called after the son of Eliphaz . Genesis 36:11. Bozrah was probably at the site of the modern el-Busaireh, southeast of the Dead Sea .

In Genesis 36:35 the mention of Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, gives us a momentary glimpse of ancient wars among the peoples scattered south and east of the Dead Sea. As the death of all these kings except Hadar (Genesis 36:39) is formally recorded, it is naturally supposed that he was living at the time of this writer, and was, perhaps, the same king to whom Moses applied for permission to pass through the Edomite territory. Numbers 20:14.