Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:9-13:

And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir: These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife. And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife.

I will stop reading there.  Much of this chapter is similar to the passage we just read, and it is a long chapter.  There are 43 verses.  When we look through it, a lot of it is the genealogy of Esau’s wives and their sons.  That is what makes it difficult to work through because it is a genealogy without ages being given.  As we read Genesis 5, or Genesis 10 and 11, God gives a genealogy that lays out the biblical calendar of history.

But this is a genealogy of the “unsaved,” as Esau is the main figurehead of those that God does not love – those that God hates.  And the timeline of earth’s history does not follow the line of the unregenerate masses of the world, but it follows the line of the elect believers.  As a matter of fact, the history of the world (and the time allotted for the world to exist) has everything to do with God accomplishing His salvation program, up until the date of May 21, 2011, and then God began the end stage of Judgment Day, a final phase of just a few years to judge the inhabitants of the earth.  It was all based on His salvation, and He would not begin the final judgment until he had saved the last of the elect that was to become saved.

But we are going to see what we can learn here, and we will just follow the same method we always follow as we look up the words.  And names are words, so we will see if we can come to some understanding.  We are going to start with Genesis 36:10:

These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau…

The name “Adah” is found five times here in Genesis 36.  It said in Genesis 36:2:

Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite…

And it says in Genesis 36:4:

And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz…

Then it says in Genesis 36:12:

And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife.

Then it says in Genesis 36:15-16:

These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah.

And that is the last mention of Adah.  The name “Adah” is Strong’s #5711, and it is identical to Strong’s #5710 in every way – it has the same consonants and even the same vowel points.  So it is the same word, without question.  And this word is found translated mostly as “decketh.”  Let us go to Jeremiah 4:27:

For thus hath JEHOVAH said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

It says in Jeremiah 4:29-30:

The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

The Lord is speaking of His people – Judah and Jerusalem – and His judgment upon them.  And He uses the word “deckest” in verse 30.  His people are typified by a woman that deckest herself with ornaments of gold.

Let us also go to Ezekiel 23:40-41:

And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.

Let us go down to Ezekiel 23:43-44:

Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

Again, in verse 40 it said, “…and deckedst thyself with ornaments,” and it is speaking of lewd women involved in fornication, which would be spiritual idolatry.  That is how God is using it.

Another time we see this word is in Ezekiel 16:8-15:

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

Once again we see the word “decked,” and God is speaking of Israel, but keep in mind that Israel is a type and figure of the New Testament church, so He is referring to the “woman” that has an outward identification with Him, or the representation of His kingdom on earth, whether Old Testament Israel or the New Testament church.  And the “woman” is attired and decked with ornaments and all kinds of beautiful things.  She has great beauty, but she plays the harlot.  In the rest of this chapter, as well as Ezekiel 23, it goes on to describe the judgment against her.

This word is also used in Hosea in a similar way.  One time it is used of the elect, which is in Isaiah 61:10:

I will greatly rejoice in JEHOVAH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

In this verse it is the word “adorneth” which is the same Hebrew word translated as “decketh.”  But this verse is speaking of the true bride of Christ, the eternal church, or spiritual Israel.  So it is being used here in a positive way, whereas when it is applied to the external church, like national Israel, or like the outward corporate New Testament church, then, ultimately, they will fall away and go apostate, and they will become involved in spiritual fornication or spiritual harlotry.  So it becomes a negative sense.

So that is the way it would have to identify with Esau’s wife Adah.  He married her in the land of Canaan, and the land of Canaan would identify with the outward representation of God’s kingdom, so she has that type of identification. 

We do find this same word also translated as “ornaments.” if you noticed that ornaments were mentioned in several of the verses, like where it said, “decketh thyself with ornaments.”  We find this word used three times in Exodus 32.  No – I am sorry, it is not found there, but what we find there is the incident of the “golden calf” that Aaron made when Moses went up to the mount for forty days.  It says in Exodus 32:3-4:

And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Then it says in Exodus 32:7-9:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Moses did come down, and he saw the calf, and then there was the judgment of God, once again.  But when we come to the end of the chapter, Moses was interceding and pleading on behalf of the people, and it says in Exodus 32:34-35:

Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And JEHOVAH plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Then as we move into the next chapter, we read of the Angel in Exodus 33:2-6:

And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. For JEHOVAH had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

Here, the ornaments were put off, and there is obviously a connection between the ornaments and the golden calf they made which angered the Lord.  So they were commanded to not put on their ornaments, and they stripped them off themselves.  What exactly were the ornaments?  I do not think the Bible reveals that, but we can speculate that it could have been golden earrings, or something like that.  But whatever it was, the Lord would not allow them to wear them; they were to strip them off and put them away from them. 

So there is a connection with being “decked” with ornaments (and remember that “decketh” is the word for “Adah,” the name of the wife of Esau) and the “golden calf.”  It is just as we saw that relationship with Esau and the “golden calf.”  We looked at that in our last study in 2Chronicles, as it refers to Jeroboam, the king of the ten tribes of Israel in the North, and it said in 2Chronicles 11:15:

And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.

The word “devils” is the word that identifies with Seir.  It is the same consonants.  Also, it is translated as “goats” several times in Leviticus 16, relating to the sacrificial goats in the day of atonement.  And it was translated as “hairy” in regard to Esau himself.  There were two references to Esau being a hairy man in Genesis 27, and, again, that relates Esau to the “devils,” which typifies false worship, and to “Seir,” which represents the Law.  He was man of Seir, a man under the Law, and whose gospel would be one of attempting to keep the Law in relationship to becoming righteous with God. 

In 1Kings 12, we read a little bit more about the idol that Jeroboam had constructed.  It says in 1Kings 12:27-30:

If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of JEHOVAH at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

Jeroboam made two calves of gold, and he said, “Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”  It is almost identical to what was said by Aaron after he made the Israelites a molten calf, in Exodus 32:4:

… These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And it is repeated in Exodus 32:8:

These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

That was the line of thinking that Jeroboam’s counselors devised.  “Remember that when we came out of Egypt, there as a golden calf, and there was the statement, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,’ and the people were pleased.  It was only Moses who did not like it when he came down from the mountain, but all the people were dancing and having a good time, so that tells us that people like these kinds of gods.  So, King Jeroboam, make yourself two golden calves, and put one in Bethel and one in Dan, and say, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,’ and then make yourself feasts and priests.  Then you will have everything that Jerusalem has, and it will satisfy the people.  It will be easier for them, and they will not have to travel far because it is always a burden to do so.  And then we have a very convenient and easy gospel, and the people will love it.”

That was the idea.  By the way, in 1Kings 12, we read that they did make two calves of gold, and the word “gods” is a form of the word “el-o-heem',” Strong’s #430, so it does fit with it being their god.  Yet it is the same thing when we go back to Exodus 32:4:

… These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

The only difference was that they made a molten calf, and the word “calf” is singular here.  But the word “calves” used in 1Kings 12 is plural.  Why did they refer to it being their “gods” in Exodus 32:4?  There may be something else here that I am not seeing, and I will have to look further into it.  I was thinking that they were using the form of “el-o-heem'” because that was what had been referenced in Exodus, and that was the name of God that they were familiar with, as well as “JEHOVAH,” and other names.  But they did say, “These be thy gods,” so I would have to check that out before commenting further.

Going back to our verse, it says in Genesis 36:10

These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau…

It is the son of the woman whose name means “decketh,” as with ornaments.  He was born to Esau, a “hairy” man who identifies with “devils,” or false worship.  And Adah also identifies with a woman who is engaged in harlotry, spiritually.

And Adah bore him Eliphaz.  And what does the name “Eliphaz” mean?  It means “god of gold,” so it does fit in with the account of Jeroboam, and with the word “devils” that ties in with the name Esau, and with his mother “Adah,” as one is “decketh” with ornaments.  So we can see that the direction this line is going in is not a good direction; the line of Esau is not a line that leads to God, but it is a line that leads to false gods.