Context No. 3240 of 4322 · Genesis
Context · Reflection
Genesis 36:20-30: in context
20These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 21Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs who came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 22The children of Lotan were Hori and Heman. Lotan’s sister was Timna. 23These are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24These are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he fed the donkeys of Zibeon his father. 25These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah. 26These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. 27These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. 28These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran. 29These are the chiefs who came of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah, 30chief Dishon, chief Ezer, and chief Dishan. These are the chiefs who came of the Horites, according to their chiefs in the land of Seir.
This is a genealogy of the Horites, the earlier inhabitants of Seir, listing their families and their chiefs, recorded in Scripture alongside the line of Esau. It is a list of a people not part of Israel at all.
It is easy to skip past, but it quietly reminds us that God's knowledge and record reach beyond his covenant people. The nations, their families and their chiefs, are known and noted; no people is beneath God's notice. And even a small human detail is preserved forever, that Anah found the hot springs in the wilderness while tending his father's donkeys, an ordinary moment in an ordinary life, remembered in Scripture. God's care and knowledge extend to all peoples, and even to the small discoveries of unremarkable lives. The God of Israel is also the God who knows every nation and every name.
Do I remember that God knows and notices every people and every ordinary life, not only those within the circle of the familiar?
Sources
- Genesis 36:20: "These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land."
- Acts 17:26: "He made from one blood every nation of men... having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings."
- Psalm 22:28: "For the kingdom is the LORD's. He is the ruler over the nations."