The Descendants and Chieftains of Seir the Horite (Genesis 36:20-30).
Seir the Horite was leader of the tribe of Horites who dwelt in Seir, which was presumably named after him. His sons were their chieftains and the daughter of one of them had a daughter who became the wife of Esau. Thus Esau was connected with this powerful family. This explains his ready access to Seir and why he spent some considerable time there, while still helping his father Isaac in tribal affairs. (His connection with Ishmael was also important).
‘These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, and Dishon and Ezar and Dishan. These are the chieftains that came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom'
We are now given the genealogy and status of the family of Seir the Horite. One of them is Zibeon, father of Anah whose daughter married Esau (Genesis 36:2). It is a very interesting fact that this genealogy is recorded in 1 Chronicles 1:38-42 even though they were not directly related to the patriarchs. They were somehow looked on as ‘family'.
‘And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam, and Lotan's sister was Timna.'
The children of the eldest son are mentioned first. The mention of his sister Timna may suggest that among the Horites women had a more prominent place than usual.
‘And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, Shepho and Onam.'
These are the children of the second son.
‘And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.'
The historical reference to the finding of an important water source is again typical of ancient genealogies.
But there is here a slight puzzle. Anah has the same name as Anah the daughter of Zibeon (Genesis 36:1). We note that the word ‘children' is now being used and not ‘sons' and had it not been for the masculine verbs in this verse we might have thought that this was Anah the daughter. Indeed we must ask whether this is not the case in spite of the verbal use. Perhaps in Seir among the Horites certain women were treated as men and spoken of accordingly.
In the Hebrew of Genesis 36:2 Anah is the daughter of Zibeon. However the Samaritan Pentateuch, the LXX and the Syriac all read ‘son' (thus RSV). But that is the easier reading and the reason for the change is obvious. It is to remove a problem. This would equate him with Beeri the Hittite and ‘beer' does mean ‘well' so that Beeri may have been a name given to him on the discovery of these important springs. The idea is attractive but fails to take into account how the then very difficult rendering ‘daughter' ever got into the text. Thus it would seem to us that a better solution lies in seeing the Horites as giving women a special prominence not accorded elsewhere.
Alternately it may be a coincidence of names. If Anah the daughter was given the same name as Anah the son, and Anah the uncle (Genesis 36:20) it is not inconceivable that Anah's daughter might take the same name on marriage as Anah the uncle originally gave to his daughter. Its strangeness or its religious meaning may have appealed to her.
‘And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah.'
The parallel verses show that these are the descendants of Seir's fourth son Anah not of the Anah in the previous verse. Anah was clearly a popular name among the Horites.
‘And these are the children of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran.'
These are the children of Dishon, Seir's fifth son, not of Anah's son Dishon. Repetition of names was clearly popular with the Horites, as elsewhere.
‘These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan.
These are the children of Seir's sixth son.
‘These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.'
These are the children of Seir's seventh son.
‘These are the chieftains that came of the Horites: Chief Lotan, Chief Shobal, Chief Zibeon, Chief Anah, Chief Dishon, Chief Ezer, Chief Dishan. These are the chieftains who came of the Horites according to their chieftains in the land of Seir.'
This confirms Genesis 36:21. Repetition was common in narratives in the Ancient Near East. Possibly the fact that chieftainship stops with the sons suggests that authority then passed over to Esau and his descendants, but it may simply arise from the fact that the tablet was written before the chieftainship could be passed on.
Thus in these tablets we are given a full picture of the leadership of the confederate tribes in Edom over two generations. Esau was clearly proud of his sons' achievements and of his extended family.