The Descendants of Esau

He was fulfilled through works. From Leah, six children were born to him: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; from Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin; from the handmaid Rachel, called Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali; and from the handmaid of Leah, named Zilpah, Gad and Asher. The Syrian race was established from Esau, who were also called Edomites, before being called Edomite from Esau, because the red one desired the lentil from him; for the Hebrews call the red one 'Edom'. Later they were renamed Syrians, after a certain Syrius held dominion over their nation.

Esau took three Canaanite women for marriage: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Elivam, the daughter of Enan the Hebrew; and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Neboth. From Adah he begat Eliphaz; from Basemath, Raguel; and from Elivam, Jehud, Ieglom, and Core. Having made these families in the land of the Canaanites, he fled to Mount Seir, because his brother Jacob could not return from Mesopotamia to dwell with him due to the multitude of things they possessed. Having made children there also, he named him Edom after his own name.

Genuine children also came to his sons: to Eliphaz five, namely Teman, Hummar, Zophar, Gomoth, and Kenex, in whom there was also illegitimacy, as Amalek was born to him from a concubine named Timna; and to Raguel, four children were also born, namely Namin, Zares, Some, and Rose; and Edom had eleven: Thamma, Gola, Jothom, Ailibiman, Ielas, Phinon, Kenux, Teman, Mazari, Maediel, and Zephon.

To Seir the Horite, who had inhabited the land, five sons were born: Shobal, Zebegun, Anadison, Asher, and Reson; and to Lot, two, Chorrei and Eman. And Timna was the sister of Lot, who bore Amalek to Eliphaz. Shobal, the son of Seir, made five children: Odomnan, Nachath, Gebuel, Soph, and Omman; and Osebegun two, Aidei and Ainan, who found Amin in the desert grazing the livestock of his father Zebegun. Ainan begat the daughter of Dishon and Elibam; and Dishon begat Amadan, Asvan, Gethran, and Harran.

Asher, the fourth son of Sheer, begat four children: Balam, Zukam, Iukam, and Ukam; and the fifth son of Sheer was Oresh, the son of Ossar. Before kings reigned in Israel, these kings reigned in Edom: Balak, son of Beor, whose city was named Debaba; after him Jobab, son of Zarrha the Essite; after him Azom, the Temanite; after him Adad, son of Barad, who cut down Midian in the field, and whose city was named Gethem; after him Samalak, the Mesekkite; after him Saul, the one from Rabbah by the river; and after him Balaenon, son of Abhochur, having a wife named Methebel, daughter of Matrad, son of Mezooph, all of whom were forty years of age.

The sons of Jacob, hating Joseph their brother with envy, gave him to the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28). And they themselves went to Egypt to Potiphar, the chief cook of Pharaoh (Genesis 37:36). And in this time Judah went to some Irani, an Odollamite; and having seen there a Canaanite woman named Shavan, he takes her for a wife and bears four children from her: Er, Onan, Shelem, and Perez. And Judah takes for his firstborn son Er a wife named Tamar; and because of much wickedness in his ways, Er dies in childhood, God having killed him (Genesis 38:7). And Judah permits his second son Onan to lie with Tamar, so that the seed might rise up for his brother. And Onan, knowing that the offspring of the children was not his, while he was about to lie with the woman, poured out his semen on the ground (Genesis 38:9); and being embittered at this by God, he died immediately.

And Judah commands Tamar to sit in the houses of her father as a widow, until Shelem grows up. When he had become a man, he feared to join him to Tamar, inquiring lest this one also should perish. She, being grieved at this, repaid Judah in this way: when he had gone out to the sheepfold, having heard this, she put off her widow's garment and put on costly clothing, and sat by the gates of the city Ainann; whom Judah, passing by from there, saw, and was enticed by her as a prostitute; for she had covered her face so as not to be recognized, and promising to send her a kid, he deemed it worthy to mingle with her.