Genesis 36:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Isaac and Rebekah had been greatly distressed at the marriage of Esau to the two Canaanite women (Genesis 26:34-35) because they knew that these marriages destroyed the separation that God had commanded between the godly and the ungodly lines. Only by remaining separate from the culture surrounding them could the godly line be kept pure. But this chapter demonstrates that following these marriages with Canaanite women. The union between the Hittites and Esau’s branch of the family became stronger and stronger. No doubt Esau and his descendants were influenced greatly by this merging of their families and took on many of the wicked practices of these people. Abraham had been told many years before that the Canaanites were to be judged by God, but not before they were fully ripe for judgment. His descendants would go into Egypt and be afflicted four hundred years, ‘but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’ (Genesis 15:16). When Israel finally did come out of Egypt and back to Canaan, the Amorites would be destroyed as God judged them for their wicked practices (Exodus 23:23; Leviticus 18:24; Amos 2:9). Here is this long list of chiefs and kings belonging to the kingdom of Edom, but all we have is their bare names. Those individuals lie forgotten in death, reserved by God for the day of judgment. Psalm 2 addresses them with its fearful words: ‘The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, ³ Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. ⁴ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision … Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. ¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him’ (Psalm 2:10-12). Here then are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites, whom many the prophets warn will face the judgment of God (Amos 1; Obadiah 1; Jeremiah 49; Ezekiel 25).