Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 36:40

"And these are the names of the chiefs that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth," — Genesis 36:40 (ASV)

According to their families, after their places. —The final list of the dukes is said, both here and in Genesis 36:43, to be territorial. This means not that the persons mentioned were not real men, but rather that Edom eventually settled into eleven “thousands” named after these chieftains. Similarly, in Canaan, the names of Jacob’s sons also became those of territorial divisions. However, two of these divisions were given to Joseph and his sons, while no district was named after Levi.

What is remarkable here is the vast amount of change. No Horite duke gives his name to any of these divisions of the land of Edom. Omitting Korah from Genesis 36:16, there were originally thirteen of these tribal princes. Each had his own territory but no central government, similar to how the children of Israel dwelt for centuries in Canaan, with each tribe living independently in its own district and with nothing to bind them together except their religion.

In Genesis 36:40-43, we find eleven tribes, of which only two (Teman and Kenaz) retain the names of Esau’s sons; of the rest, we know nothing. We may, however, safely conclude that these nine persons who gave their names to districts of Edom were all men who rose to power during troubled times, when king after king seized the crown only to be displaced by someone else. Probably many such men arose, but these were the ones who consolidated their power sufficiently to leave their names behind them.

Amid this anarchy, the two districts of Teman and Kenaz alone remained unbroken and continued to be ruled by princes of the same family. The word “family” in Hebrew has a meaning different from the one it has for us, as it signifies one of the larger divisions of a tribe. The subdivisions of this tribal division are called “fathers’ houses,” which in turn are subdivided into households (see Numbers 1:2 and elsewhere). In Genesis 36:43, the word “habitations” would be better rendered settlements.