‘Now this is the family history of Esau, the same is Edom.'
Here again we have evidence of a colophon, a heading or final phrase that indicates content and ownership of a tablet. Esau was still the eldest son and head of the family and the family records would as such be his responsibility after the death of Isaac, Thus it may be that his name is now subscribed to the previous record to indicate ownership, although the actual recording would be made by a tribal member more suited to it. (Even if he did happily hand over the task to a tribal record keeper, or even to Jacob, the colophon would be in his name).
The fact that the later compiler had these covenant records available for putting together his narrative demonstrates how carefully they were preserved, some no doubt being read out at the family festivals as they renewed their covenant with Yahweh. It is significant that the last hint of a colophon and of covenant records occurs in Genesis 37:2. From then on we have a continual story. This is easily explained by the fact that that is basically the record of the life of Joseph, put together in Egypt as befitted such an important personage and written on papyrus. There were no longer then the limitations of clay and stone.
Alternately it may be a heading to define the content of the following genealogical history (compare ‘the same is Edom' in Genesis 36:19, and ‘this is Edom, the father of the Edomites' in Genesis 36:43). But Genesis 36:9 probably refers back to verse 8 and is therefore itself the colophon to that section. Thus we may have here the combination of a colophon and a heading, ‘this is the family history of Esau' as the closing colophon and ‘Esau, the same is Edom' as a heading. Either way they are evidence that we are dealing with written records.
If this latter be so then Genesis 37:1-2 a may be seen as originally ending the record we have just been looking at with chapter 36 being incorporated by the compiler in order to sum up the life of Esau after his mention in Genesis 35:29. The covenant record from Genesis 35:1 then ends with ‘this is the family history of Jacob' (Genesis 37:2 a). This may seem more satisfactory from a modern point of view, for we like everything to fit a pattern, but it may not accord with ancient practise.