The Uncovenanted Branch: The Line of Esau Text: Genesis 36:9-14
Introduction: History is Theology
In our modern, sentimental age, we are tempted to skim over passages like this one. We see a list of names, many of them difficult to pronounce, and our eyes glaze over. We want to get to the "good parts," the stories, the psalms, the pithy proverbs. But in doing this, we reveal a profound theological error. We are treating the Bible like a collection of inspirational quotes instead of what it is: the very Word of God, profitable from beginning to end. And what is this Word about? It is the history of God's dealings with mankind. It is the story of two seeds, two lines, two covenants, stretching from the Garden to the final judgment.
History is not a random series of events. History is theology lived out on the horizontal plane. And genealogies are the skeletal structure of that history. They show us how God's sovereign purposes unfold through the generations. They are the record of God's faithfulness to His promises and His warnings. To skip the genealogies is to skip the proof. It is to admire the edifice of redemption without any interest in the foundation.
In Genesis 36, the camera pans away from Jacob, the line of promise, and focuses for a chapter on his brother, Esau. This is not an unimportant detour. The Holy Spirit is deliberately showing us the outworking of the choice God made before the twins were even born, "the older shall serve the younger." This chapter is the formal record of the uncovenanted line. It is the story of the branch that was pruned off so that the main branch could flourish. Esau received a blessing, a worldly blessing of wealth and dominion, and we see the fruit of it here. But it was not the blessing. This is the genealogy of a great nation, Edom, but it is a nation outside the covenant of grace. It is a nation that will, in time, become a bitter enemy of God's people. And sown within this list of names is a particularly venomous seed, the seed of Amalek, whose history with Israel will be one of perpetual, bloody conflict. So pay attention. This is not a dry list; it is the muster roll for a future war.
The Text
These then are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Esau’s wife Adah, Reuel the son of Esau’s wife Basemath. The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho and Gatam and Kenaz. Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah. These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon: she bore to Esau, Jeush and Jalam and Korah.
(Genesis 36:9-14 LSB)
The Generations of the Profane (v. 9-10)
The text begins by establishing the subject. This is the history of Esau's line.
"These then are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Esau’s wife Adah, Reuel the son of Esau’s wife Basemath." (Genesis 36:9-10)
The word "generations" is the Hebrew toledoth. It is a key structuring word in Genesis. We have seen the generations of the heavens and the earth, of Adam, of Noah, of Shem, and of Abraham. Now we have the generations of Esau. This is a formal, historical record. The Holy Spirit is meticulous about details because history matters. God works in real time, with real people, in real places.
Notice the identification: "Esau the father of the Edomites." Esau is not just an individual; he is a federal head, the progenitor of a nation. This is how God builds the world, through families, clans, and nations. The individualism of our age is a rebellion against this created reality. Esau's identity is tied to his descendants, the Edomites, and his location, "the hill country of Seir." He has received the blessing his father Isaac gave him: a dwelling away from the fatness of the earth, a life by the sword (Gen. 27:39-40). God is faithful even to the blessings given to the reprobate line. God does not cheat anyone. Esau wanted the world, and God gave him a piece of it.
We are then introduced to his first sons through two of his wives, Adah and Basemath. These are the very Canaanite wives that had been a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:35). Esau's choice of wives was an early indicator of his profane heart. He did not value the covenant line or the separation from the pagan peoples of the land that was so crucial to his parents. He married for convenience or passion, not for covenantal faithfulness. And here, in this genealogy, we see the fruit of those unions. The choices of the father set the trajectory for the children.
The Poison Pill of Amalek (v. 11-12)
Within the line of Esau's firstborn, Eliphaz, a fateful name appears.
"The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho and Gatam and Kenaz. Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah." (Genesis 36:12)
Eliphaz has a number of sons who will become chieftains in Edom. Teman, for example, becomes so prominent that his name is often used to refer to Edom as a whole. One of Job's "comforters" was Eliphaz the Temanite, a descendant from this line. So wisdom and prominence existed in Edom. But the text slows down to give us a crucial detail. Eliphaz took a concubine named Timna, and she bore him a son: Amalek.
This is not incidental information. Whenever you see the name Amalek in the Scriptures, you should sit up straight. This is the birth of the Amalekites, the archetypal enemy of the people of God. The enmity promised in the Garden between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15) finds a particularly virulent expression in this line. The Amalekites are the first nation to attack Israel after the Exodus, preying on the weak and the stragglers (Ex. 17:8). Because of this treacherous act, God declares perpetual war with Amalek "from generation to generation" (Ex. 17:16). King Saul's downfall is sealed when he disobeys God's command to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15). Haman the Agagite, the villain in the book of Esther who tries to annihilate the Jews, was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites whom Saul spared.
And it all starts here, with an irregular union. Amalek is the son of a concubine, not a wife. There is a stigma attached from the beginning. He is a grandson of Esau, the man who despised his birthright, and his lineage is tainted. This is how sin works. A profane heart (Esau) leads to disobedient choices (marrying Canaanites), which leads to compromised family structures (concubinage), which produces a bitter fruit (Amalek), a people defined by their hatred for the people of God. This genealogy is a warning. Small compromises, repeated over generations, can breed monsters.
Cataloging the Branches (v. 13-14)
The list continues, methodically recording the other sons of Esau.
"These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon: she bore to Esau, Jeush and Jalam and Korah." (Genesis 36:13-14)
The sons of Reuel are listed, descendants through Basemath, who was Ishmael's daughter. Again, Esau has allied himself by marriage not with the line of promise through Isaac, but with the line that was cast out, Ishmael. He is consistently choosing the horizontal, worldly alliance over the vertical, covenantal one. He is building his kingdom with the bricks of this world.
Then we have the sons of his third wife, Oholibamah. These sons will also become chiefs in the land of Edom. The list is orderly, structured, and comprehensive. Why? Because the Bible takes history seriously. These were real men who founded real clans that formed a real nation. When God later gives commands to Israel about how to deal with Edom, He is not talking about a mythical people. He is talking about their cousins, the descendants of these very men. God's commands are rooted in history.
This detailed accounting serves another purpose. It demonstrates the fulfillment of God's word to the letter. God promised Esau would become a great nation, and here is the manifest evidence of that promise taking root. God is not a liar. He keeps His word to everyone, both to the vessels of mercy and to the vessels of wrath. Esau got exactly what he was promised. He got wealth, sons, and a kingdom. What he did not get was the covenant. He did not get the promise of the Seed who would crush the serpent's head. This entire chapter is a detailed record of what it looks like to be blessed by God in every way except the one that ultimately matters.
Conclusion: Two Family Trees
There are ultimately only two family trees in the world. One is the tree of Adam, which is the tree of sin and death. The other is the tree of Christ, which is the tree of life. The genealogy of Esau is a branch on that first tree. It is a story of earthly success, of national power, of worldly blessing. It is a strong, thick branch, full of dukes and kings. But it is a branch that is not connected to the life-giving trunk. It is a branch destined to be cut off and thrown into the fire.
The line of Jacob, by contrast, often looks weak and pathetic. It is full of tricksters, idolaters, and failures. It will soon find itself enslaved in Egypt. But it is the line God has chosen. It is the line through which the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come. All of God's covenant promises are "Yes" and "Amen" in Him.
This passage forces us to ask a fundamental question. Which family tree are we a part of? It is not a matter of physical descent. To be a true son of Abraham is to have the faith of Abraham (Gal. 3:7). By faith, we are cut out of the wild olive tree of Adam and grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Christ (Rom. 11:17-24). We are adopted into the family of God. Our names are not written in a dusty genealogy of Edomite kings, but rather they are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
And because we are in Christ's family, we must understand that we will have enemies. We will have our Amalekites. The seed of the serpent still hates the seed of the woman. The world, the flesh, and the devil will set themselves against us. But we must remember that the war against Amalek is God's war. The battle belongs to the Lord. Our task is to be faithful in our generation, to refuse the compromises of Esau, to value our birthright in Christ, and to raise up godly seed who will carry on the fight after we are gone. For the genealogy of Christ is not finished. He is still adding names to His family register, and He will continue to do so until He returns in glory.