Poole on 1 Chronicles 1:34-37: The Sons of Esau

Verse 34:[1] And (Gen. 21:2, 3) Abraham begat Isaac. (Gen. 25:25, 26) The sons of Isaac; Esau and Israel.

Verse 35:[2] The sons of (Gen. 36:9, 10) Esau; Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.

Verse 36:[3] The sons of Eliphaz; Teman, and Omar, Zephi (or, Zepho, Gen. 36:11[4]), and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.

[Timna, Amalek] Timna and Amalek (Munster, Malvenda, Montanus,[5] Septuagint, Tigurinus,[6] Pagnine[7]). This appears to disturb the sense (Mariana). Timna is not the name of a man, but of the concubine of Eliphaz by whom he begat Amalek (Malvenda). And so this passage is defective by the fault of a copyist, and is thus to be supplied out of Genesis, and Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, and bare to Eliphaz Amalek (Cappel’s Sacred Criticism). [Just as the Arabic has it here.] Some maintain that it is an ellipsis; and the son of Timna, namely, Amalek (Junius[8] and Tremellius,[9] Piscator), out of Genesis 36:12 (Piscator). [Thus the latter ו/and is put for namely, or for that is, as has been previously observed more than once.] Similarly Diodati[10] and the French version. He wrote (says Kimchi[11]) וְתִמְנָע, and Timna, briefly, concisely, and abruptly (as he did in verse 17 and elsewhere in these genealogies); nor was it needful that he review all things with precision, since that was already done in the Law. It ought to have been abbreviated yet more, and to have been written, AND GATAM, KENAZ, AND AMALEK: but, because Amalek was the son of a concubine, and so was not equal to the other sons, he inserts the name of his mother as if by parenthesis. Rabbi Salomon[12] thinks the same (Buxtorf’s Vindication 2:2:427). Of Timna, Amalek, supplying, Eliphaz begat (Mariana). Of Timna, Amalek; here Timna is in the genitive case (certain interpreters in Lapide, Tirinus). But this Timna here is another woman, or another man, from that Timna in Genesis 36; for this Timna is the daughter, or son, of that one (Lapide, similarly Chizkuni[13] in Buxtorf).

Timna: there is another Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz, Genesis 36:12, but this was one of his sons, though called by the same name; there being some names common both to men and women in the Hebrew and in other languages.

Verse 37:[14] The sons of Reuel; Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

[1] Hebrew: וַיּ֥וֹלֶד אַבְרָהָ֖ם אֶת־יִצְחָ֑ק ס בְּנֵ֣י יִצְחָ֔ק עֵשָׂ֖ו וְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ [2] Hebrew: בְּנֵ֖י עֵשָׂ֑ו אֱלִיפַ֛ז רְעוּאֵ֥ל וִיע֖וּשׁ וְיַעְלָ֥ם וְקֹֽרַח׃ [3] Hebrew: בְּנֵ֖י אֱלִיפָ֑ז תֵּימָ֤ן וְאוֹמָר֙ צְפִ֣י וְגַעְתָּ֔ם קְנַ֖ז וְתִמְנָ֥ע וַעֲמָלֵֽק׃ [4] Genesis 36:11: “And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho (צְפוֹ), and Gatam, and Kenaz.” [5] Benedict Arias Montanus (1527-1598) was a Spanish Benedictine monk. He attended the Council of Trent, and he was heavily involved in the production of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible. Montanus also commented on a number of Biblical books. [6] Leo Jud (1482-1542) was a co-laborer of Ulrich Zwingli during the time of the Swiss Reformation. His translation work might be his most important contribution to the reformation of Zurich. He labored with other divines to produce a vernacular version for the Swiss people, and he produced a Latin version of the Old Testament, usually known as “Tigurinus”, which would be translated, “of Zurich”. [7] Pagnine (1466-1541) was an Italian Dominican. He was gifted as a Hebraist, exegete, and preacher. He was commissioned by Pope Leo X to produce a new Latin translation of the Scripture. [8] Francis Junius (1545-1602) was a Huguenot divine of great learning. He suffered the varied fortunes of his people; but he had the opportunity to study in Geneva, and he was eventually appointed Professor of Divinity at Leiden (1592). Junius’ De Vera Theologia was massively important in the development of the Dogmatic structure of Reformed Scholasticism. He also labored with Tremellius in the production of their famous Latin Version of the Old Testament. [9] John Immanuel Tremellius (1510-1580) converted from Judaism to Christianity and quickly embraced the principles of the Reformation. He taught Hebrew at Strasburg (1541) and at Cambridge (succeeding Paul Fagius in 1549), and served as Professor of Old Testament at Heidelberg (1561). [10] The Annotationes in Biblia were published by Giovanni Diodati (1576-1649), a Swiss Protestant and delegate to the Synod of Dordt. He published his annotations in Italian in 1607, and they were translated into English in 1648. [11] David Kimchi (c. 1160-1235) was a famous Spanish Rabbi. He wrote a commentary on the entire Old Testament and a Hebrew grammar, as a result of which he has long been respected for his profound scholarship. [12] The details of the life of Rabbi Salomon Jarchi (Solomon Jarchi ben Isaac) have been obscured by the mists of time. It is relatively safe to associate him with the eleventh century. He commented on the whole of the Hebrew Bible, and the principal value of his commentary is its preservation of traditional Jewish interpretation. He also authored the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud. [13] Precious little is known about the French commentator, Rabbi Chizkiyah ben Manoach Chizkuni. However, his commentary on the Torah, written around the year 1250, survives. Chizkuni reveals his commitments both to the interpretive tradition of the rabbis and to the literal meaning of the text. [14] Hebrew: בְּנֵ֖י רְעוּאֵ֑ל נַ֥חַת זֶ֖רַח שַׁמָּ֥ה וּמִזָּֽה׃