Here we have the generations of Esau. Esau is not forgotten by the Lord. When God sent the children of Israel back into the land that was promised to them from the time of Abraham, He would not allow them to take any of the land of Esau. Esau was a man of the flesh, Jacob was a man of the spirit and was chosen as the one to inherit the promised land and also be the seed from which would come the salvation of the whole world. Still God did not abandon Esau. In later years though Esau rejoiced when Israel was being attacked. They became enemies of Israel and fought with them many times. In doing so, they lost their place and their nation.

Gen 36:1 Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.

Edom means red taken from the red pottage that caused Esau's birthright to be taken from him. The land in which Esau dwelled was at the foot of the Dead Sea. Among Edom is Petra which is the place some teach that Israel will be able to escape the armies of the anti-christ during the seven year tribulation period.

Gen 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;

This was a grief to Isaac and Rebecca for the daughters of Canaan was considered wicked. They worshipped other gods and the children of Israel was forbidden to marry into those people because of idolatry. The idolatry was very wicked because innocent children were sacrificed to these idols.
God always has a good reason for His commandments. Idols and images used for worship leads to receiving unclean and evil spirits. This will cause people to do evil to innocent children. False religion are also dangerous to the souls of men and women. The innocent suffer in all false religions or true religions that turn to apostasy. We need fresh spiritual renewal with God and be filled with God's spirit which is given to those who will believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is now no other way but through Jesus to be saved from sin and filled with the spirit of God. All other ways are false religions systems that bring no salvation. Even some Christian religions are not living as the scriptures teach us to live. If we trust in baptisms, rituals, ceremonies, sacraments to save, then we are not fully trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation. Jesus is the only way. He brings salvation. He died for our sins. We can't get rid of it by religious systems which cause us to depend upon man, man's rituals, man's ways to save.

John told us to keep ourselves from idols. We must stay away from the temptation to use images in our worship. God is not to become an image. Nothing can be substituted for the real God and worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.

Gen 36:3 And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

Esau married her to please His family. He knew his choice of a wife displeased his parents.

Gen 36:4 And Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bore Reuel;
Gen 36:5 And Aholibamah bore Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan.
Gen 36:6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.

Esau no doubt recognized that Jacob had inherited Canaan and he was to dwell elsewhere. This showed that he feared God and submitted to the will of God.

Gen 36:7 For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.
Gen 36:8 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

This land was previously occupied by a race of giants. There are some that teach that the giant races of Canaan were caused by the fallen angels of God taking the daughters of men for wives and these produced giants. This happened twice. Once before the flood and again after the flood. These angels were then bound so that they could no longer do this. The book of Jude speaks of this. The descendants that came from those unlawful unions were to be destroyed. God waited though until they were so evil, nothing could save them. How much of this is a true interpretation, I don't know but I often wondered why God told Israel not to even allow the women and children to live among these people and in other places they were to allow the women and children to live. It could be that the evil was in their seed and nothing could change them. Something to think about.

In saying that though, I must add that we now live in the day of mercy and grace where we are to preach the gospel to the whole world according to the instructions Jesus gave His disciples. We do not conquer lands by force and military might now. The followers of Jesus must not use cruelty and force but we are to preach the gospel of salvation to all who will hear.

We are not to judge some unworthy and think they cannot be saved. God would not allow Abraham to take over the land of Canaan when he lived. He waited until the iniquity was full before allowing the children of Israel to conquer the land of Canaan. God always prefers to save and not destroy.  We must have the attitude of love and compassion always wanted to see the salvation of souls brought to Jesus.  If they reject, God will judge, we are not supposed to harm one human being for religious reasons or use force to spread religion. 

This is a different time period where the only thing the believers in Jesus is to do is to preach the gospel. We are never to take over lands by force and kill the inhabitants. We can defend our families if another nation invades our nation but we are not to go in and use force to conquer nations. We are to preach the gospel.

When we came to the United States, we should have preached to the Indians instead of conquering them. It is my understanding that the Indians were friendly at first. I may be wrong about that but they needed the gospel.

Slavery was another mistake the early Americans made. Now we know better so we can remind ourselves that as believers in Jesus, we need to preach the gospel, not think we are superior or hate those of other countries.

Gen 36:9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:
Gen 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.
Gen 36:11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.
Gen 36:12 And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife.
Gen 36:13 And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife.
Gen 36:14 And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and she bore to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.
Gen 36:15 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,
Gen 36:16 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.
Gen 36:17 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.
Gen 36:18 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.
Gen 36:19 These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.
Gen 36:20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
Gen 36:21 And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
Gen 36:22 And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan's sister was Timna.
Gen 36:23 And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
Gen 36:24 And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
Gen 36:25 And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah.
Gen 36:26 And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Esh-ban, and Ithran, and Cheran.
Gen 36:27 The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan.
Gen 36:28 The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran.
Gen 36:29 These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah,
Gen 36:30 Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir.
Gen 36:31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.

God really preferred that Israel not have kings. Kings became oppressors in many nations. They ruled according to their own hearts and not always for the good of the people. It is better to have leaders who are accountable and do not have total authority. I think the presidential system in the United States is the best way. We have three branches of government to balance the other ones. Sometimes I think we allowed the judicial branch a little too much authority though. The founding fathers meant to all branches to be equal and balance out the authority each one had. It is a good system but it will only work if we maintain the fear of God. Democracy will not work if people forsake God. Democracy brings freedom but it also brings the freedom to do evil. Without the fear of God and moral restraints, Democracy will fail and God will allow a totalitarian government to take over. We need to judge ourselves as a nation so that we do not have to be judged by God.

Gen 36:32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
Gen 36:33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead.
Gen 36:34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead.
Gen 36:35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith.
Gen 36:36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead.
Gen 36:37 And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.
Gen 36:38 And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead.
Gen 36:39 And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
Gen 36:40 And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth,
Gen 36:41 Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon,
Gen 36:42 Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar,
Gen 36:43 Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.

It is strange that all the exalting of people is so vain. Calling people Dukes and making kings is a waste of time because when they die everyone is the same.

When I study the history of any nation it is so easy to see that those that fear the Lord excel and are not destroyed. Those that forsake the Lord are given time to repent but the rebellious and the evil ones are eventually destroyed. As far as I know Easu does not exist any longer. Some believe one grandson of Edom has descendents in Turkey. They could be scattered among other nations.

Genesis 37