These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
These are the sons of Seir the Horite. Seir, with a colony of Horites from Lebanon, settled in the mountains south of Canaan a generation before the time of Abraham, and in their new possessions continued that mode of life to which they had been accustomed in their original settlement-namely, that of dwelling in caves on account of the intense heat (Jeremiah 49:7-22). Hence, they were called х Choriym (H2752)] (in our version, Horites) Troglodytes; and doubtless they were the excavators of those wonderful rock-habitations which abound in the ravines and the soft limestone cliffs around Petra, (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2: pp. 423, 4; Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible' 1:, p. 311, etc.) "The Horim dwelt in Seir formerly" (Deuteronomy 2:12), until, as has been already mentioned, they were exterminated or absorbed by the Edomites.
The names of those sons of Seir who became heads of tribes are registered here, as the ducal descendants of Esau were in the earlier part of the chapter; and their form of government was precisely the same as that which was at first adopted in Edom-that of alluphim or shiekhs-exercising an independent authority over distinct tribes.
Verse 24. This was that Anah that found the mules ... Since he is mentioned in this list, it is evident that he must have been at the head of a tribe distinct from that of his father Zibeon; and his being in so high a position might be one reason for Esau allying himself with his family by marriage. But Anah is honoured with a special notice on account of a circumstance which in early life had made him famous, and obtained for him the popular appellation of Beeri, the man of springs (see the note at Genesis 26:34). х hayeemim (H3222)]. The meaning put upon this word in our version is universally abandoned. The Samaritan text has: 'found' or 'fell upon, the Emims,' giants. But the translation which, since the days of Jerome, has been most widely supported, is, "this was that Anah that found" - i:e, discovered, the hot springs,' namely, of Callirrhoe (in Wady Zerka Mƒin, north-east of the Dead Sea, or those in Wady el-Ahsy, south-east of the Dead Sea). [The Septuagint does not translate the word, hos heure ton Iamein, thus retaining the original.]