Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #11 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:10-19:

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. And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. 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 these are the sons of Reuel Esau's son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife. And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau's wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.

I will stop reading there.  I wanted to read this further along today because we can see that from verses 10 through 14 God is telling us about Esau’s sons.  We have already looked at his son Eliphaz, the son of his wife Adah.  We will also look at Reuel, the son of Bashemath, and then we will look at Jeush, the son of Aholibamah.  These were the firstborn sons of each of those wives of Esau. 

Then when we get to verses 16 through 19, it is really the same account regarding the sons born to each of the wives of Esau, but the title of “duke” is added to each son, and we will discuss that title a little later.  But God is telling us the wives of Esau and their children, especially the firstborn sons of each of the wives.  Then He tells us of the royalty that developed from the line of Esau, the dukes.  Then following that, God begins to discuss the kings that were of Esau in the land of Edom

In our last study, we talked about Eliphaz, the son of Adah, Esau’s wife.  We saw that the name “Eliphaz” means “god of gold,” and we related that to idol worship, or worshipping gods other than the true God of the Bible.

Now we are going to take a closer look at Reuel, the son of Bashemath, and “Reuel” means “friend of God,” or “neighbor of God.”  In the name “Reuel,” we can hear the “el” sound at the end of his name, which is a name of God.  And this is the same name as Moses’ father-in-law in Exodus 2, where we read of Moses going to the land of Midian, and it says in Exodus 2:15-19:

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

Reuel is one of his names, but we also read that he was called “Jethro.”  He was of the land of Midian, and a priest of Midian, so it does not appear that he was related to Esau, or a descendant of Esau.  Midian can be traced back to Abraham in Genesis 25 when he took another wife after Sarah died.  We read in Genesis 25:1-3:

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan…

So Midian was a son of Abraham and Keturah, so it was that line that this priest of Midian would have come from, as we trace it back to Abraham through Keturah. 

Interestingly, if you remember, when Miriam was struck with leprosy, we read in Numbers 12 that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman.  It says in Numbers 12:1:

And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

Some commentators think that Moses married another woman in addition to Keturah, the daughter of Reuel (Jethro), the priest of Midian.  They say that she had died, and he married yet another woman, and that is why they are making that accusation.  According to the biblical account, he would have been married to Keturah 40 years earlier, so why would they wait until then to accuse him?  So that is pure speculation, and there is no other reference to another wife, so it was Keturah, and it was her father Reuel (Jethro) who had given counsel to Moses in the previous chapter, and Moses appointed seventy (men) to help him handle all the matters of the people.  His father-in-law had come, and he had seen all the people lined up to seek after Moses’ counsel from the beginning of the day to the end of the day.  Moses was occupied in this way, so Reuel gave him counsel to take elders of the people and set them over the smaller matters, and to bring only the bigger matters to Moses.  So the seventy men were appointed, and you can read about that in Numbers 11.  And this was done without consulting Miriam and Aaron, and they were, perhaps, jealous that Moses had taken the counsel of Reuel, Keturah’s father, and then in the next chapter, Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman.  So if the Ethiopian woman were Keturah, it would make sense regarding the timing because it appears they were not upset at the marriage (because he had been married to her for around 40 years), but they were troubled about her father and his influence on Moses, so they were, more than likely, just trying to strike out at that relationship, as it was offensive to them that they were not consulted about establishing the seventy elders to handle minor matters.

But again, that conclusion rests upon the idea that Keturah could be called “an Ethiopian,” but how can that be when we know she came from the land of Midian?   She was a Midianite, and her father was a priest of Midian.  The Midianites were not Ethiopians.  Or were they?  If we go back to Genesis 25 where we just read of Abraham and Keturah his wife, we find she is said to be a “concubine,” and we read that Keturah had sons, one of which was Midian, and she also had a son named Jokshan, and that son begat Sheba and Dedan.  If we go back to an earlier chapter in Genesis, we read in Genesis 10:6:

And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

The name “Cush” is the same word as “Ethiopia.”  You can look it up in the concordance, and you can see how we get both the English words “Cush” and “Ethiopia” out of the same Hebrew word.  I have no idea why, but it is.  The Cush are the Ethiopians, or the name Ethiopia comes from Cush.  (And Mizraim is another word for Egypt.  That is, the same word that is translated as “Egypt” is translated as “Mizraim.”)   So the son of Ham is Cush, or Ethiopia.  Then we read in  Genesis 10:7:

And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

So Sheba and Dedan were descendants of Cush, and we read in Genesis 25:3 of the descendants of Keturah: “And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan.”  This is a little speculation, but I think it is fairly sound to say that Keturah’s  lineage could be traced back to Cush, making her of the line of Cush, or of the line of the Ethiopians.  When she had this son, and then that son had children, some of the names found in her lineage are Sheba and Dedan.  Since Midian came from Keturah, and Keturah, in all likelihood, was of the line of Cush (Ethiopia), then the Midianites themselves would be linked to the Ethiopians.  Then it could properly be said that Keturah, the Midianite of the line of Cush, was an Ethiopian woman, if we trace it back.

Well, that really has nothing to do with our study here in Genesis 36, except that Reuel’s name means “friend of God,” or “neighbor of God,” and he was the firstborn son of Esau’s wife Bashemath.  The name “Bashemath” is Strong’s #1315, and it comes from #1314, which is translated as “smell,” or “spice,” or “sweet odour.”  If we go back to Genesis 26, we read 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:

Coming back to Genesis 36, let us read Genesis 36:2:

Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

And we can see we have a problem because it does not mention Bashemath here, although she is mentioned in verse 3, and we will get to that.  But in verse 2 these are the women that Esau married of the land of Canaan, one of which was “Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite.”  And going back to Genesis 26:34, there is no Adah mentioned.  There is Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and there is Bashemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.  So what we have here is two names for the same woman.  Adah and Bashemath are the same woman.  We can identify her as the same woman with two different names because we are told she is the daughter of “Elon the Hittite.”  It only applies to Adah and Bashemath.  So in Genesis 36 where we read of “Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite,” we could also read as, “Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.”

Is that the “Bashemath” in view in Genesis 36:10?  “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.”  Also, is she the “Bashemath” we read of in Genesis 36:13: “And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife.”  And the answer is, “No – that is a different woman.” 

You know, nobody ever said, “God wrote the Bible so it would be easy to understand.”  Well, actually, all kinds of people have said that erroneously, but the Bible is super-complicated, and even in a seemingly simple genealogy, you really have to study very carefully just to get it straight.  It is not that we are going to learn many deep things from this passage (but maybe we will), but just to properly figure out who is who, and to understand the genealogy properly, takes a lot of study, as well as a lot of praying to God that we might understand.

In other words, Esau married three wives, two of which were from the land of Canaan, and a third wife is mentioned in Genesis 36:3:

And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

This is a third wife.  That is not the same Bashemath from Genesis 26.  It is not Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.  In Genesis 26:34, it does not mention Ishmael, and it does not mention that she is the sister of Nebajoth, but in Genesis 36:3, we see both of those identifications.  This Bashemath is Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth.  So Esau married three women, and two of them went by the name of Bashemath, and the Bashemath from Canaan was also known as Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Now I hope we have that straightened out because we going to add an additional complication regarding Bashemath, Ishmael’s daughter, and sister of Nebajoth.  She also has another name, if we go back to Genesis 28:6-9:

When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;  And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

So this wife Mahalath was in addition to Judith and Bashemath that were mentioned in verse 26.  She was the Bashemath who was the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebajoth that is referred to in Genesis 36:3, but she is called Mahalath here.  The word “Mahalath” means “sick” or “weak,” and it is also the title in two of the Psalms, Psalm 53, which says, “To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.”  It is also the title of Psalm 88, which reads, “A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.”  (Since it is said to be “upon Mahalath,” it could be some kind of musical instrument, but I do not know.)

But again, this is Esau’s wife who is the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebajoth.  You see, the identification is made through the parent, just like it had said “Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite,” and we know she was the same person as “Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.”  It is the same father, but just different female names.  Likewise, with this Bashemath.  She was Ishmael’s daughter, and she was also known as Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael.  And for further confirmation, she was sister of Nebajoth in both verses, and that helps us a great deal in getting it straight.

And now we know, for the most part (although there are further complications in this passage), who the wives are, and we know the children that they had to Esau.