Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #10 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:10-13:

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.  In our last study, we began to look at Eliphaz.  He is mentioned in verse 10, and he is also mentioned a total of seven times here in Genesis 36.  He is also mentioned two times in 1Chronicles 1, which follows much of this same account.  Let us turn there.  It says in 1Chronicles 1:35-36:

The sons of Esau; Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. The sons of Eliphaz; Teman, and Omar, Zephi, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.

So we do have this additional chronology of Esau’s sons in 1Chronicles 1, as well as in Genesis 36.  Curiously, another “Eliphaz ” is mentioned six times in the book of Job, and this Eliphaz is one of Job’s three friends.  It says in Job 2:11-13:

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

This Eliphaz was a Temanite, and he is one of these three men.  Going back to Genesis 36, notice that it says in verse 11: “And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman…”  That is where the Temanites originated, and Teman is a place that is used often to represent Edom, or the Edomites.  For example, let us go to Jeremiah 49:7:

Concerning Edom, thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

Also, it says in Jeremiah 49:20:

Therefore hear the counsel of JEHOVAH, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman…

So there is a very clear relationship between Edom and Teman.

Also, we read in Ezekiel 25:12-14:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

So the wrath of God against Edom falls also upon Teman.

Or we can go to Amos 1:11-12:

Thus saith JEHOVAH; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

And Bozrah would be another synonym for Edom.  These are major cities or areas in Edom, and they would be fully identified with Edom, just as Jerusalem identifies with Judah.  It is the way God speaks in His Word, the Bible.

Let us also go to Obadiah, which has much to say about Edom.  It says in Obadiah 1:1:

The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH concerning Edom…

Then we read in Obadiah 1:8-9:

Shall I not in that day, saith JEHOVAH, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

There is no distinguishing of Teman from Edom or Esau.  They are all referring to the same thing, pointing spiritually to the ungodly, the unsaved nation.

Let us look at one more verse, in Habakkuk 3:3:

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

What does it mean that God came from Teman and mount Paran?  Remember when we looked at Deuteronomy 33:2:

And he said, JEHOVAH came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

Here, we see Seir, Paran, and Sinai, which links Seir with Sinai, which signifies the Law of God.  But in Habakkuk, instead of mentioning Seir, it is Canaan, and that is because Seir and Canaan are both identified with Edom and the Law, or those under the covenant of the Law, like Esau. 

So when we read in Job 2:11 concerning this friend Eliphaz, it tells us that this man Eliphaz was an Edomite.  He was a descendant of Esau, and he was of the land of Teman.  And Teman was a son of Eliphaz.  Why is he called Eliphaz the Temanite?  It must be because he was a later generation.  When we look at what the Bible tells us regarding the marriage of Esau with Adah, she would have been one of the wives he took of the land of Canaan when he was 40 years old.  When we read back in Genesis 26, we do not read the name Adah there, but she must have been one of the women.  It says in Genesis 26:34:

And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

He was 40 when he married, and Adah was said to be the daughter of Elon the Hittite in Genesis 36:2.  You know, God just complicates the Bible with layer upon layer of complication in order to hide truth, but we can be almost certain because these are the wives he married in Canaan, and a reference was made to the wives he married in Canaan in Genesis 36, which means that Esau married Adah in the year 1967 B. C. when he was forty. 

We are not told exactly when Adah would have born her child Eliphaz, but it could have been the next year, which would have been the year 1966 B. C., or it could have been later.  We do not know for sure, but we can speculate a little bit, and maybe we can get a general idea of the time when Eliphaz the Temanite came to visit his friend Job in the book of Job.  We can know that since Esau married Adah, and they had a child Eliphaz this was not the same Eliphaz of the book of Job because one would not call the father by the name of the son – that is not possible.  So it must be that Adah bore Eliphaz, and then we read in Genesis 36:11:

And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman…

So it was after this son Teman was born that the land of Teman, or the city of Teman, got its name.  He moved to that area, and he took a wife and had children, so maybe it was one of Teman’s sons that was Eliphaz the Temanite, because his father was Teman, or maybe it was a grandson who was Eliphaz the Temanite.  And then by the time we come to the book of Job, that Eliphaz was an aged man because there was a young man Elihu, another of Job’s friends, who was waiting until the elder friends had spoken first. 

I do not think we can get specific, but certainly these three friends would have been 60, 70, or 80 years old, so that implies some passage of time.  So that means that the book of Job could not possibly have taken place earlier than 1967 B. C. because there was no land of Edom, or land of Teman, so there could not be a man called “Eliphaz the Temanite” that existed, nor would he have existed for probably at least sixty years from that point.  Again, Eliphaz the son of Esau had to have grown up, and let us say he married at age 20, and he had a son named Teman, and then that son grew up and let us say he was 20 when he had a son, and with three generations it would have already been at least 40 years (and probably much more) from 1967 B. C.  Then let us say that this third son is that man named “Eliphaz” mentioned in Job, whose father was Teman, and whose grandfather was Eliphaz the son of Esau, and Esau was the great-great grandfather.  And that man must have lived several decades to become at least 60 years of age.  So I think that this changes the idea of when the book of Job took place, perhaps, in 1860 or 1875B. C., at the earliest.  We do not have any additional information about the dating of the book of Job.  There has been speculation that Job existed before Abraham, and that is not possible.  He was also not before Isaac.  It could have happened at the time Jacob was a very old man of 130 as he was going into Egypt, or maybe even after Jacob died.  It could have happened somewhere in that range.  We do not have a definite date, but now we know some things regarding why the book of Job could not possibly have taken place before 1967 B. C., and, more likely, not for 60 to 100 years after that.

Anyway, we read of Eliphaz in Job 4:1:

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

And in that chapter, he went on to rebuke Job.  Also, it says in Job 15:1:

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

And it also said in Job 22:1:

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

And, finally, he is mentioned twice in Job 42:7-9:

And it was so, that after JEHOVAH had spoken these words unto Job, JEHOVAH said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as JEHOVAH commanded them: JEHOVAH also accepted Job.

One additional thing we can know that is similar to what we have been seeing regarding Esau, and with Adah, and with Eliphaz (“god of gold”) is false worship, a covenant of works, or those that are under the Law.  Spiritually, we have known for some time that the three friends of Job are types and figures of Israel.  And that is not a far stretch, even though Eliphaz the Temanite is an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, and Esau was born into a godly household.  His parents were Isaac and Rebekah, and his grandfather was Abraham.  He was in the line of the godly, but he was not accepted by God, and he did not receive the blessing, just like those that identify with national Israel, physically; they identify with the Law of God, and yet they have no true relationship as being part of spiritual Israel because they were not born again.  And that is why the three men  distorted Job’s words.   They misunderstood and misapplied Job’s words.  They got it all wrong, just like the Jews that listened to the Lord Jesus Christ but could not grab hold of the truths of the Word of God.