chief Magdiel, and chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of the Edomites.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 43. The same Edom is Esau. Moses seems particularly attentive to assert both titles for the same person, verse 8, and so forth The time of Esau’s death cannot be ascertained. There is reason to hope that he died penitent; though in the early part of his life, he gave way to his ferocious temper, and became a figure of the reprobate. He lived on terms of friendship with his brother, assisted him to bury his father, and so forth Calmet.—He was a hunter, indeed; which S. Jerom looks upon as a bad sign: “nunquam venatorem in bonam partem legi,” in Mic. 5. But this was also in his younger days. Bible.—I have hated Esau, Matthew 1 refers to his irreligious posterity, and to his being deprived of temporal advantages, attending the birth-right. Tirinus. Calmet.