The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 476

2. nashemath,daugh- 2. Adah, daughter of mah to have been the fourth partner whom tcr of Elon the Hit- Elon the Hittite. Esau espoused. The Sa.maritim version tite. reads llfahe.Jath for Dashemath in the second 3. Mahalath, daugh- 3. Bashemath, Ish- list, which it regards as an error of trau- ter of Ishmael, sis- mael's daughter sis- scription (W. L. Alexander in Kitto's 'Cyclo- ter of Nebajoth. ter of N ebajoth.' pedia '); while others think that Adah has The two lists agree in saying (1) that Esau been written by inadvertence for Ba.shemath had three wives, (2) that one of them was (Inglis); but such conjectures are e.s unneces- the daughter of Elon the Hittite, (3) that sary a.s they are manifestly arbitrary. nnother of them was Ishmael's daughter the Vers. 4, 6. - And Ade.h bare to Ese.u sister of Nebajoth, and (4) that the X:arne Eliphaz ;-" The Strength of God" (Gese- of one of them was Bashernath. The dis- nius); afterwards the name of one of Job's crepancy between the two is greatest in friends (Job iL 11 ; iv. 1 ; xv. 1)- and respect of the first wife, who appears with :Bashemath bare Reuel ;-" The Friend of a different name and e. different parentage God" (Gesenius); the name of Moses' fe.ther- in the two lists; while with referenco to the in-law (Exod. iL 18)-and Aholibamah bare second and the third wives, it is only the 1eush,-"Collector" (Fi.irst, Lange); "whom difference of name that requires to be ac- God hastens" (Gesenius); afterwards the counted for. Now since the two lists belong name of a son of Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. to the so-called Elohistic document (Tuch, 19)-and J'e.alam,-"whorn God bides" Bicek, Stii.helin, Davidson, et alii), the (Gesenius) ; " Ascender of the Mountains " hn)othesis must be discarded "that the (Fiirst)-and Korah :-"Baldness" (Fiirst, Hebrew text, though contn.ining several i.w- Gesenius); the name of a family of Levites portant coincidences, endently embodies two and singers in the time of David to whom accounts irreconcilably different" (Kalisch)- ten of the psalms are ascribed-these are the a conclusion which can only be maintained sons of Ese.u, which were boru unto him in hy ascribing to the author the most absolute the land of Canaan-not necessarily imply- literary incompetence. Equally the conjec- ina that other sons were born to him in ture must be set aside that the two lists Edom, but rather intimating that all his refer to different persons, the second three family were born before he left the Holy being names of wives which Esau took 011 Land. the decease of the first. The solutions the.t Ver. 6.-And Ese.u took his wives, and appear most entitled to acceptance, though his sons, and his daughters, and e.11 the per- all are more or less conjectural, proceed upou sons (literally, souls) of his house, and hie the supposition that Esau had only three cattle (mikneh), and all his beasts (beh-e- wiYes, or at most four. 1. On the hypothesis mah), and all hie substance (literally, all hi,s that Esau had uot more than three wives, it acquisitions), which he had got in the le.nd is only needful to presume that each of them of Cane.an; and went into the country- had two names, a not unusual circumstance literally, into a land; not h: rijt yijc (LXX. ), in Oriental countries (Rosenmiiller, Haver- or in alteram regionem (Vulgate), but either nick)-one of them, probably that contained into the land, sc. of Seir (Keil), or, taking in the present list, bestowed on the occasion the next as a qualifying clause, into e. land of marriage ; and that A.nah, the father of apart (Murphy, Lange)-from the face of- .Aholibamah, was the same person with Beeri, or, on account of (Rosenmiiller, Ke.lisch)- or the Well-Man, who received that cognomen his brother J'acob. from the incident relared in ver. 24, viz., Ver. 7.-For their riohes were more than that he disco,ered certain hot springs while that they might dwell together; and the feeding his father's asses (Hengst;enberg, land wherein they were strangers-literallr., Eeil, Kurtz) -the peculiarity that in one of their wanderings (cf. eh. x.xviii. 4; xxxvii place (eh. :nvi 34) he is styled a Hittite, in l )-could not bear them because of their another (eh. xmL 2) a Hivite, and in e. cattle. This does not necessarily imply that third (eh. mvi 20) a Horire, being ex- Jacob was established in Canaan before Esau plained by the conjecture that the first was removed. Esau may have recognised tho the generic term for the race, the second the impossibility of two so rich and powerful ~pecific designation of the tribe, and the chieftn.ins as himself and his brother occupy- third the particular name for the inhabitants ing Canaan, e.nd may have retired Lefore of the district to which he belonged (Keil, Jacob actually took possession (Keil, Inglis). Lange,' Speaker•s Commentary'). 2. Another Ver. 8.-Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir solution gives to Esau four wives, by sup- (eh. xxxii. 3; Deut. ii. 6; Josh. xxiv. 4): posing Judith to have died without issue Esau is Edom (vide eh. xxv. 30). Tho (ll~urphy, Jacobus), or, in consequence of obvious continuation of this verse is to be bemg childless, though still living, to have found in eh. xxxvii. 1, so that vers. 9-40 been passed over in silence in the former are parenthetical in their character; bnt genealogical register (Quarry), and Aholiba.- whether originally written hy l\[oses, or OH. xxxv1. l~xxxvn. 1.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 421