Before continuing with Jacob’s line, the narrator of Genesis recounts the subsequent history of Edomites for a number of generations. The writer likewise treats Ishmael’s descendants before moving back to the story of Isaac (Gen 25:12-18); God confirms his promise that nations will come from Abraham, and the narrator lavishly illustrates this with genealogies. Yet in both cases he quickly returns to the chosen line, and although Joseph is the primary hero in the next narrative, from here on the narrator will include genealogies for all the tribes (46:7-27).
Genesis also recounts where Esau settled, lists kings fom his line, and addresses the Horites, all apparently early traditions. Esau had already settled largely in the hill country of Seir (32:3; 33:14, 16). Now, however, he settles there exclusively (36:8), because God blessed both him and Jacob so fully that there was not room for both in the same place because their flocks and herds needed enough land to graze (36:6-7). Shepherds commonly moved their flocks based on season, but those of Jacob and Esau could not occupy the same location at the same time, so Esau preferred to stay close to his normal settlement. Jacob’s flocks would still have to move periodically to find the best grazing (see 37:12-17).
This arrangement probably recalls the arrangement that their grandfather Abram made with Lot in 13:8-9. Here Esau apparently chose where to go (36:6) as Lot had chosen on that earlier occasion (13:11). In both cases, God sovereignly left the promised land for the specially chosen line (for Abraham and for Jacob), reinforcing the narrative’s emphasis on this promise. The first audiences of these stories, waiting to possess the promised land, undoubtedly treasured these memories and passed them on to their descendants. They remind us again of God’s sovereignty and his ability to fulfill his promises, even when the outcome seems to depend on other people’s decisions.
Why would Genesis list rulers and clans from Edom (36:15-19, 32-43)? The narrator could not yet list kings over Israel (36:31; and if the narrator knew of any, it made little sense to narrate them so far ahead of the narrative’s chronology). God had promised kings to Abraham’s line (17:6, 16); the fulfilment of this promise regarding one descendant from Abraham’s line confirms that the more explicit divine promise of a royal line to Abraham’s other grandson (35:11), offered in the previous Genesis chapter, would also be fulfilled. Genesis includes genealogies of Abraham’s ancestors and key descendants (Ishmael and Isaac, and Isaac’s children Esau and Jacob), until reaching the line in which all the children (Israel’s twelve tribes) would be heirs of the promise.
Finally, we may ask why Genesis devotes space to address the Horites. Between the list of earliest Edomite clan leaders (36:15-19) and subsequent Edomite kings and clan leaders (36:32-39) appear Horite leaders (36:20-30); they had lived on this mountain long before Esau (14:6). One of Esau’s wives, Oholibamah, was a Horite princess, daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon (36:2, 14, 18, 20, 24-25, 29), helping to explain why Esau settled in Seir. Unlike Jacob, who did not intermarry with local inhabitants, Esau did, explaining why tradition preserved the list of Horites. Although Genesis does not explain the outcome, however, Deuteronomy later explains that Esau’s descendants ultimately possessed the Horites’ land (Deut 2:12, 22). (Zibeon the Horite was also a Hivite in 36:2; this seems to be a wider or perhaps overlapping category; cf. 10:17; 34:2; Exod 3:8, 17.)
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