The Book of Edom Genesis 36:1-43

Genesis chapter 36 is one of those passages that we skim through as we read through the book. In it we find a lot of names that are unfamiliar and somewhat hard to pronounce. It is not a chapter that lends itself to application and so it is tempting to blow right past it. However, we know that this is God’s word and he does nothing without purpose. And so we will press on through this passage with the hopes that God will teach us something about mankind and himself. I’ve kind of treated this chapter as if I was a tour guide pointing out interesting facts as we tour the lists of names and short phrases. There are several natural breaks in the passage, but I will limit us to four. First, we will look at a list of Esau’s wives in verses 1-8 followed by a list of Esau’s descendants in 9-19. Then comes a genealogy of Seir the Horite and we’ll think about why that is here in this chapter. Finally, we will read about the kings of Edom in verses 20-43.