Wives of Esau

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In Book of Genesis we see two different lists of Esau's wives. [1] Basemath's name is mentioned twice.

According to Bible, first two wives were Canaanites and so not good to God. To make the story clear, some Biblical scholars believed that Esau changed names of two wives to the Hebrew to pacify his parents:

Genesis 26:34–35 describes Esau's marriage at the age of forty to two Canaanite women: Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. This arrangement grieved his parents. [2] Upon seeing that his brother was blessed and that their father rejected Esau's union to Canaanites, Esau went to the house of his uncle Ishmael and married his cousin, [3] Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth. Esau's family is again revisited in Genesis 36, this passage names two Canaanite wives; Adhah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and a third: Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth. Some scholars equate the three wives mentioned in Genesis 26 and 28 with those in Genesis 36. [4] [5] Casting his lot with the Ishmaelites, he was able to drive the Horites out of Mount Seir to settle in that region. According to some views, Esau is considered to be the progenitor not only of the Edomites but of the Kenizzites and the Amalekites as well. [6] [7]

Reuven Chaim Klein summarizes how the various Medieval Jewish commentators broadly provide four interpretations to address the inconsistency between the accounts of Esau's wives in Genesis 26 and Genesis 36: [8]

In Midrash and Aggadah we found more context and background of the lives of Esau's wives. [9]

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References

  1. ↑ Phillips, J. Exploring Genesis: an expository commentary, ( ISBN   978-0-8254-3488-4), 2001, p. 284
  2. ↑ Genesis 26:34–35
  3. ↑ Mandel. Ultimate Who's Who, p. 176
  4. ↑ Phillips. Exploring Genesis, p. 284
  5. ↑ Jamieson-Fausset-Brown. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
  6. ↑ "Caleb" . Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Amalekites" . Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Klein, Reuven Chaim (2014). "the Wives of Esau" (PDF). Jewish Bible Quarterly. 42 (4): 211–220.
  9. ↑ "Esau, Wives of: Midrash and Aggadah". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
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