Commento su Genesi 36:40

ואלה שמות אלופי עשו AND THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS OF ESAU — [… AFTER THEIR PLACES ACCORDING TO THEIR NAMES] they were called by the names of their districts after Hadad died and the royal dignity had ceased so far as they were concerned. The former names mentioned above (v. 15ff.), are the names given them at their birth. This, too, (the first statement made here) is expressly set forth in Chronicles (2:51) “And Hadad (Hadar) died, and the chiefs of Edom were: the chief of Timna etc.” (We must therefore translate here: “the chieftain of Timna etc.”)

AND THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS THAT CAME TO ESAU. At first³¹²Verses 15-19 here. Scripture enumerated Esau’s grandsons who were chieftains in that generation, and afterwards some of his descendants succeeded in attaining sovereignty. After that their kingdom ceased, and the Edomites once again appointed these chieftains as their head. And so it is said in the book of Chronicles:³¹³I, 1:51. And Hadad died. And the chiefs of Edom were: the chief of Timna. So did Rashi explain it here in his commentary on this verse.
And that which Scripture says here, according to their families, after their places, by their names, [and in Verse 43], after their habitations in the land of their possessions means that among the previous chiefs, [mentioned above in Verses 15-19], all the brothers who were the chiefs dwelled in one city, ruling one people, or their position was analogous to the princes of the tribes and the heads of families [in Israel]. But these latter ones were chiefs according to their families, meaning that each one was chief of all the families of Esau’s descendants, and in all of their dwelling places, for in that generation he alone was called “chief,” no other person being so called in all the land they possessed. Thus they were as kings in their countries, but they were not enthroned, and the glory of royalty was not bestowed upon them.
In the opinion of many commentators³¹⁴See Rashi on Verse 31. In his opinion, before there reigned any king (Verse 31) refers to Saul, king of Israel. Moses who wrote the Torah could therefore know it only by prophecy. this section was written as a prophecy. But this is not correct. Why should prophecy mention these kings, and until what point in time was Scripture to enumerate them and stop? Rather the correct interpretation is that all these ruled before the Torah was given in the days of Moses. Now we may say that they all ruled in one time, and then the explanation of after their places would be that each one ruled in his place, or else their rule lasted but a short time, as Scripture says, But the years of the wicked shall be shortened.³¹⁵Proverbs 10:27.

ואלה שמות אלופי עשא למשפחותם למקומותם, among the “Alufim” listed in the verses following there are several who had been mentioned earlier simply as sons of Esau. We must assume that these sons eventually rose in rank to become “Alufim.” We already mentioned that the title “Aluf” essentially means that the people so described were mayors of cities, which is most likely the reason why the Torah adds the word למקומותם, “in their respective locations.” Proof of the correctness of what I surmise may be the fact that in Chronicles all the details provided by the Torah here in this chapter are repeated verbatim. However, the first list of the “Alufim” of the sons of Esau (36,15-19) are not mentioned there at all.

ואלה, now the Torah mentions eight Alufim who were in positions of leadership after the kingdom of Edom had ceased to exist as such. There were eleven such Alufim.

ואלה שמות אלופי עשו, the significance of the additional words למקומותם בשמותם may be that they were not distinguished enough to be recorded by their individual names, but only in association with the location where they practiced their authority.

ואלה שמות אלופי עשב, “and these are the names of he headmen of Esau.” First the alufim among the sons of Esau who were such in that generation are mentioned. From positions as headmen, the success of these people in war led to them or their sons becoming Kings, and in due course their pre-eminence ebbed again so that they were simply ראשים. Compare Chronicles I 1,43 -54) 36,43 בארץ אחוזתם, “in the land of their ancestral inheritance.”

Called by the names of their states... I.e., when the verse says, “According to their places, by their names,” it means they are named after their places. And lest we object that the chiefs of Eisov were listed before, and furthermore, other [chiefs] are also listed there, Rashi goes on to say: “The previous chiefs... are their family names.” The proof that the ones listed here are named after their provinces is that Magdiel is Rome [as Rashi says on v. 43]. For it says in Midrash Rabbah: “[The day that Lotianos became Caesar in Rome,] R. Ami was shown in a dream that today, Magdiel became king.” But from the other ones, such as Chief Kenaz, etc., [there is no proof.] It could be family names, since they were called by these same names even before. And Chief Oholivomoh and Chief Timna seem more likely to be family names, since we saw before that these are names of people. And nothing forces us to say that the others are names of provinces, either. Therefore Rashi brings a proof from Magdiel, which is the name of a place—and so they all are named after their provinces, because Magdiel serves as an example for the others. (R. Meir Stern)

ואלה שמות אלופי עשו למשפחותם למקומותם, “the following are the names alufim (clans) of Esau, according to their names and locations.” These latter ones were the principal descendants to be counted separately in each city that they dwelled; this is why here the Torah adds the word: למקומותם, “according to the localities they lived in.” The Torah also adds the word: אחוזתם, “their ancestral homes,” in verse 43. Proof of the importance of the ones listed here is the fact that the previous ones have not been listed in Chronicles I 1,51 54 at all.

The heads mentioned earlier were all brothers, the alufim all residing in the same town, and ruling over a single nation, or they were heads of a tribe each. The ones mentioned here were heads of the combined families of Esau, their authority extending over all the towns inhabited by Esau’s offspring. They were comparable to kings in their authority.

אלוף תמנע. Ibn Ezra believes that the “Timna” mentioned here was a man. It is not unusual to find men or women having the same names. Oholivamah was one such example. It is also possible that seeing the word aluf at this point is superfluous, we must understand the verse as follows: the headman of the family of Timna who had been a concubine of Eliphaz produced several alufim, their names being Alvah, and Yetet. Similarly, the family of Oholivama, wife of Esau, produced alufim known as Eylah, and Pinon.