Genesis,
chapter 36
Genesis
36:1 ¶ Now these are the generations of
Esau, who is Edom. 2 Esau took his wives
of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and
Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 And Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter, sister of
Nebajoth. 4 And Adah bare to Esau
Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; 5 And
Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which
were born unto him in the land of Canaan. 6
And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the
persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his
substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country
from the face of his brother Jacob. 7
For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the
land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.
8 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is
Edom.
This
passage is bracketed by two verses 1 and 8 which identify Esau with the region
known as Edom and Mount Seir. The passage also names his children by these
specific Canaanite women named. Judith is not mentioned here and may have died
in childbirth or in some other circumstance. We can say the same probably about
Bashemath, Adah’s sister. The duplication of women’s names should not cause
confusion. For instance, Mormon patriarch, Joseph Smith, had multiple wives named
Sarah.
34
¶ And Esau was forty years old when he
took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the
daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 Which
were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Esau
and Jacob are not able to live in the vicinity of each other with their wealth
and possessions any more than Abram and Lot were able to live together with
theirs. So, here is confirmation that Esau claimed what became Edom, something
we discussed earlier. Isaac’s sons are fabulously wealthy by that culture’s
standards, by what they considered as true wealth. Esau will merge his worship
with Canaan’s and be marginalized in God’s plan of reconciling mankind to
Himself.
Genesis
36:9 ¶ And these are the generations of
Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir: 10 These are the names of Esau’s sons; Eliphaz
the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau.
11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman,
Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 12
And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz
Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife. 13 And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and
Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife. 14 And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the
daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: and she bare to Esau
Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. 15 These
were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau;
duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16 Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek:
these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the
sons of Adah. 17 And these are the sons
of Reuel Esau’s son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these
are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of
Bashemath Esau’s wife. 18 And these are
the sons of Aholibamah Esau’s wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these
were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife.
19 These are the sons of Esau, who is
Edom, and these are their dukes.
Genesis
36:20 ¶ These are the sons of Seir the
Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
21 And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan:
these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
22 And the children of Lotan were Hori
and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. 23
And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal,
Shepho, and Onam. 24 And these are the
children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the
mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. 25 And the children of Anah were these; Dishon,
and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. 26
And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran,
and Cheran. 27 The children of Ezer are
these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. 28
The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. 29 These are the dukes that came of the Horites;
duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, 30 Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these
are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir.
Genesis
36:31 ¶ And these are the kings that
reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel. 32 And Bela the son of Beor
reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. 33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of
Bozrah reigned in his stead. 34 And
Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. 35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad,
who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of
his city was Avith. 36 And Hadad died,
and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. 37
And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.
38 And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son
of Achbor reigned in his stead. 39 And
Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name
of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred,
the daughter of Mezahab. 40 And these
are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families,
after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth,
41 Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke
Pinon, 42 Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke
Mibzar, 43 Duke Magdiel, duke Iram:
these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their
possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.
What
followed verse 8 was a brief history of the ancient kingdom of Edom, which
flowered and decayed before Israel ever had a king, from the Horites who first
possessed it through a few generations of Edomites. Edom, named after that red
soup, symbolizes Esau’s foolish bargain. We have this memory forever emblazoned
in the name of the Red Sea.
1Kings
9:26 And king Solomon made a navy of
ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the
land of Edom.
Add
this fact to the list of things that keep us from forgetting what God did in
the past. We drive on fossil fuels, the remnant of the fabulous biomass that
existed before the great Flood of Noah’s time. We are divided by ethnic,
linguistic, and racial groupings that remind us of the dispersion of mankind at
the Tower of Babel. We repeat in each generation the wicked sins of the flesh
and the mind that prove that we are spiritually bankrupt without Christ and
have no hope in ourselves. These things should remind us of what God has done
but we choose to be willfully ignorant.
Even
judgment against us escapes our feeble thought processes. A hundred years ago
the nations of Europe and the United States, who thought they were so righteous
and each special vessels of God, bashed themselves upon each other in a
terrible bloodbath called The Great War or World War One. God judged the
nations and finding them wanting judged them with a war and then a great plague
of disease that killed more people than the war itself. They did not see that
it was God’s judgment but only chose to blame the loser and punish thereby
setting up the next war and, indeed, a century of war and the extinguishing of
a hundred million lives and displacement of half that many again as refugees.
Yet, mankind is blind to it, a doddering idiot, stumbling about in the dark
unwilling to be enlightened.
So
it is, when we look at the Bible events we see evidence of them in our
landscape, our maps, our economic systems, our politics, and elsewhere. But,
alas, the stumbling idiot stumbles from one judgment to the next waving his
flags, singing his patriotic songs, worshipping his nation-states, as he
proudly steers a course for Armageddon.
This
curious verse for which we are given no explanation is worthy of note.
24 And these are the children of Zibeon; both
Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as
he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
Such
a seemingly unimportant detail but important enough to God to be included in
the short history of a people who provided little to history but a pathetic
example.
Genesis,
chapter 37
Genesis
37:1 ¶ And Jacob dwelt in the land
wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being
seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and
Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his
children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many
colours. 4 And when his brethren saw
that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and
could not speak peaceably unto him.
Having
just given a list of Jacob’s sons, then an interlude where Esau’s brief
genealogy is given, the narrative
returns to Jacob and focuses on Joseph, who, in many particulars is a type of
Christ. Joseph is his father’s favorite. Christ, as the Son of God, is the
Father’s beloved, as well. Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colors. Note that this is kind of clothing was
considered very valuable. This is reflected in Deborah’s victory song in Judges
5.
Judges
5:28 The mother of Sisera looked out at
a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming?
why tarry the wheels of his chariots? 29
Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,
30 Have they not sped? have they not
divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of
needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks
of them that take the spoil?
It
is the type of coat worn by King David’s daughter.
2Samuel
13:18 And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s
daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out,
and bolted the door after her.
I
have read reports that there have been Egyptian tomb paintings showing traders
from the area of Canaan wearing such clothing, probably made more valuable by
the costly work of dyeing the fabric.
Because
Joseph was his father’s favorite his brothers were envious. The Jewish
leadership were envious of Christ, as well, because of His influence on the
people.
Matthew
27:17 Therefore when they were gathered
together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you?
Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? 18
For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
Here
we see that Joseph’s brothers hated him, which I showed before meant to hold
him in contempt, to despise him. They are jealous of Jacob’s love for Joseph.
Joseph
gave his father a report of his brother’s bad behavior. As Matthew Henry’s
commentary says one of the reasons his brothers hated him was, “Because he
informed his father of their wickedness.”
Genesis
37:5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and
he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this
dream which I have dreamed: 7 For,
behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance
to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to
him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over
us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it
his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the
sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his
brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream
that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to
bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11
And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Joseph’s
two dreams indicate that he has been given knowledge that he will have supremacy
over his brothers and, indeed, even over his father, in a manner of speaking.
This adds fuel to the fire of his brothers’ envy against him. Jacob’s statement
about Joseph’s mother, who was Rachel who died giving birth to Benjamin, seems
to indicate that these dreams had been something he revealed some time
previously that had helped create the resentment that his brothers felt for
their father’s favorite. Matthew Henry noted that Joseph is more of a prophet
than a politician in that he blurts these things out. He is a very young man,
still a child by our standards today, though. But, while Jacob objected he
still pondered what the dream that was spoken that seemed to include him meant.
One
valuable note here of Bible definitions of words is the context of to reign over and to have dominion over in verse 8. To have dominion means to
reign over here as it means to have power over and authority over in other
places.
Psalm
8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
And
did not man have power and authority over life on earth?
Genesis
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Joseph’s
dreams will yet save a heathen nation from ruin and save his own people from
starvation, setting off events that will reverberate through all history.
Genesis 37:12 ¶
And his brethren went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy
brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And
he said to him, Here am I. 14 And he
said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and
well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale
of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field:
and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? 16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I
pray thee, where they feed their flocks. 17
And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us
go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
18 And when they saw him afar off, even
before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. 19 And they said one to another, Behold, this
dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore,
and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil
beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered
him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. 22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but
cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him;
that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
Here
goes Joseph on another reporting expedition for his father. No wonder his
brothers can’t stand him. Are they expecting another evil report?
Introduced
into the narrative is someone who enters the picture several times in the
Bible. He or she is a seemingly random person who accomplishes something
important or is used as an example. His or her existence makes one wonder about
the place of so-called “divine appointments” in our everyday lives denying our
very concepts of randomness, luck, and chance. I am referring to the references
to a certain man or a certain woman who do something
noteworthy but whose name isn’t given. As two examples;
Judges
9:53 And a certain woman cast a piece of
a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
1Kings
22:34 And a certain man drew a bow at a
venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness:
wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me
out of the host; for I am wounded.
A certain man found
Joseph wandering, unsure of where to find his brothers. This anonymous
individual lets Joseph know where to find them and exits the narrative.
Their
hatred of Joseph is so great, their envy is so murderous, that they conspire
against him as they see him approaching them. Jesus’ own brethren would not
receive Him and conspired against Him.
John
1:11 He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
He
spoke against the Jews’ practices of His time and they conspired against Him.
But, Joseph will yet save them all as we will see, as Christ came to save His
own people.
They
cynically and with blood in their hearts want to kill Joseph but Reuben, Jacob
and Leah’s firstborn, refuses them their wish to end Joseph’s life and blame it
on an animal. Here we see one of the definitions of evil as intending to do
violence.
Reuben’s
desire is to deliver Joseph, to return him to their father, Jacob. Reuben, who
had before this committed the grievous sin of having sex with his father’s
concubine, Bilhah, has a heart of mercy toward Joseph. This goes to show just
how complex and really normal these patriarchs were in that they were not two
dimensional but like us and all men were capable of evil and good. We do err
when we paint the Bible’s human characters as having only one side; when we
ignore Moses’ temper, Jeremiah’s doubts, or David’s sexual weakness. Only
Christ, who is God in the flesh, was without sin, and, pastors, that includes
Paul.
Genesis
37:23 ¶ And it came to pass, when Joseph
was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat
of many colours that was on him; 24 And
they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no
water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat
bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of
Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and
myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. 26
And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our
brother, and conceal his blood? 27 Come,
and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for
he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. 28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen;
and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the
Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. 29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and,
behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. 30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said,
The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
Joseph
is now cast into a dry pit and they took off his coat of many colors much like
Jesus’ garment was removed in Matthew 27:35 and John 19:23 although the
similarity is limited to the removal only. Notice the difference in the
nastiness of the dungeon Jeremiah will be thrown into in Jeremiah 38:6. It is
then Judah, without Reuben present, who suggests they sell their brother to the
Ishmaelite traders who are traveling to Egypt. This is done as an act of mercy
as Judah says that it would be better to do this than to kill him. The brothers
consent. This passage seems to indicate that the Midianites were also
Ishmaelities; Midianites through Abraham’s wife, Keturah;
Genesis
25:1 ¶ Then again Abraham took a wife,
and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bare
him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
…and
Ishmaelites through his concubine, Sarai’s handmaid, Hagar;
Genesis
16:15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and
Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
So,
we see how quickly the genealogies of the Ancient Near East became muddled.
Joseph’s
life was worth twenty pieces of silver to the traders. Jesus was betrayed for
thirty. To Reuben’s dismay, when he returned from wherever he had gone not
knowing about or approving the sale of Joseph, his brother was gone. Tearing
one’s clothing was a sign of grief in the Ancient Near East as evident in many
places throughout the Bible.
What
was Reuben going to do now?
Genesis
37:31 ¶ And they took Joseph’s coat, and
killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; 32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and
they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether
it be thy son’s coat or no. 33 And he
knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph
is without doubt rent in pieces. 34 And
Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his
son many days. 35 And all his sons and
all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and
he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his
father wept for him. 36 And the
Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and
captain of the guard.
Joseph’s
coat of many colors is now used to present false evidence that Joseph was
killed by a wild animal. As explained previously an evil beast would refer to an animal intent on violence. It would
have nothing to do with a supposed moral condition. Evil in this context has to do with an intention of malice and
violence, not sin.
The
lie worked and Jacob is grieving and like Job, those close to him seek to
comfort him to no avail. He states that he will go to his grave mourning for
Joseph, who is sold by the traders to an Egyptian officer.
If
we create in our minds a spiritual comparison to what happens to Joseph and
what happened to Jesus, understanding that types rarely hold up on deep
examination, we might muse that the Midianite traders taking Joseph out of the
pit are like angels transporting the souls of the dead to their destination.
Luke
16:22 And it came to pass, that the
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man
also died, and was buried; 23 And in
hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
And
we know that Jesus went to Hell, which Joseph’s destination, Egypt, is like in
type, not to suffer but to preach. (see Deuteronomy 4:20; 1Kings 8:51; and
Jeremiah 11:4 for Egypt as an iron
furnace.)
1Peter
3:18 ¶ For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime
were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were
saved by water.
Potiphar
is said to be captain of the guard. The
Hyksos were a group of Asiatic people who conquered Egypt in antiquity.[1] Some scholars call The
Hyksos the Shepherd Kings. I contend, as some scholars do, and we’ll have
Biblical evidence later in Exodus, that Joseph and his family came into Egypt
under their reign. The Hyksos are said to have ruled through Egyptian vassals who
would have worshipped the traditional gods of Egypt and, of course, longed for
an Egyptian revival, hating anyone who represented the shepherd economy of
Canaan, longing to reestablish authority over not only their own country but
Canaan as well. This will explain a couple of statements we will find later in
the Bible in other books.
Exodus
1:8 Now there arose up a new king over
Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
This
native Egyptian pharaoh of Exodus, like the rest of the Egyptians, would have
held the shepherds from the area of Canaan in great contempt and hatred. He, or
his dynasty, would have reestablished authority over Canaan and so, when the
Pharaoh and his army are destroyed in the Red Sea disaster Canaan’s cities
would have been without their protector. The Amarna Letters give us an
indication that the Canaanite cities were vassals of Egypt and were under great
threat around the time of the Exodus without Pharaoh’s army to protect them.[2]
Number
14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD,
neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their
defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
These
are just some ideas that will help you connect the dots, so to speak, in the
Bible. Apparently, God doesn’t regard them as all that important as He provides
no great explanation through Moses, but it is interesting to think about,
nonetheless.
Verse
35 shows us that either Dinah was not Jacob’s only daughter or daughters could
logically include daughters-in-law as in The
Ancient City De Coulanges talks about how ancient custom required a woman
to leave her family and join her husband’s family.
[1]
History World International, “The Hyksos,” http://history-world.org/hyksos.htm
(accessed 3.5.3017).
[2]
The History of Israel, “Amarna Letters,” http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/amarna-letters.html
(accessed 3.5.2017).
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