Komentarz do Rodzaju 36:20

ישבי הארץ THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND — i.e. who had been its inhabitants before Esau came there. Our Rabbis explained (Shabbat 85b) that they are called יושבי הארץ because they were experts in making the land habitable (by skillful cultivation) saying: this entire rood of ground is suitable for planting olives, that entire rood for vines — because they tasted the soil and so discovered what was suitable for planting in it.

THESE ARE THE SONS OF SE’IR ‘HACHORI’ (THE HORITE). Hachori was the name of a man who was the father of an ancient nation which was called by his name, just as the Amorite and the Perizzite, as it is said, When He destroyed the Horites from before them.²⁸¹Deuteronomy 2:22. And he was called Se’ir because of the name of the land which was Se’ir — a name derived from Esau who was a hairy man²⁸²Above, 27:11. — from the day Esau came there. The name Edom likewise stemmed from Esau. However, Scripture seems to distinguish between “Se’ir” and “Edom” for it says, These are the sons of Se’ir the Horite who were the inhabitants of the land from the first, not the sons of Se’ir the Edomite who came there. With the help of G-d, I will yet explain the genealogy of the Horite in the book of Mishneh Torah.²⁸³Deuteronomy 2:10.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Scripture mentions this in order to delineate the genealogy of Se’ir and Esau since Israel was to be commanded, concerning the sons of Esau, [not to abhor them or take their land].”²⁸⁴Ibid., 23:8; 2:5. And Rashi wrote: “It would have been unnecessary to write the genealogy of the Horites had it not been that Scripture wishes to mention Timna, thereby showing the esteem in which Abraham was held.”

יושבי הארץ, originally, before Esau’s time. The clan of Esau inherited their land as mentioned in Deuteronomy 2,12 וישבו תחתם, “they settled in their place. (replaced them)”

אלה בני שעיר החורי, the reason the Torah lists the outstanding people of that region is to show that Esau overpowered them in spite of their prowess. Obviously, this must have been G’d’s will, as the Torah testifies in Deuteronomy 2,22 כאשר עשה לבני עשו היושבים בשעיר, “as He did on behalf of the sons of Esau who are now living in Seir.”

אלה בני שעיר החודי, These are the sons of Se-ir the Chorite, etc. The reason the Torah writes this whole detailed chapter is only to tell us how generously G'd endowed the wicked Esau on account of the merit of his father and grandfather. Our sages in Shabbat 85 also explain this in the following words of Rabbi Acha bar Yaakov: "The word Chori means that 'freed' the Chorim [the former inhabitants of Se-ir] of their possessions. In other words, the Torah speaks of G'd handing over their lands to the sons of Esau. We have an interesting statement in Sanhedrin 99 saying that Timna who was prince Lotan's sister, the most highly placed woman in that land, became the concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau because all her efforts to intermarry with either Abraham, Isaac or Jacob were to no avail. Rather than remain a princess in her own right she chose to become a slave in the house of Esau. When her attempt to belong to the Jewish people became frustrated she became the maternal grandmother of Amalek instead.

אלה בני שעיר החרי ישבי הארץ, who used to dwell in that land before the sons of Esau and their offspring came to live there. This story has as its objective that the whole earth and all that is in it belongs to the one and only G’d Who has created it, and Who therefore may allocate it to whoever He wishes. He may deprive one nation of its homeland and give it to another. In this situation G’d expelled the nation which had lived in the region known as Mont Seir and allowed Esau and his clan to displace them. According to Bereshit Rabbah, or to Shabbat 85 and quoted by Rashi, the word חרי is derived from ריח, smell, fragrance. The people described as having lived in that land were such expert farmers that they could determine merely by their sense of small which piece of land was best suited to grow different crops.

אלה בני שעיר החרי, “These are the sons of Seir, the Chori.” Rashi writes that the genealogy of all the people following was recorded here only in order to demonstrate the outstanding reputation of Avraham, which had caused Timna to make every conceivable effort to become related to him by marriage to him or one of his family members. Ibn Ezra writes that the reason for this chapter having been written is to separate the genealogy of Esau from that of the local inhabitants, the Chori. The Israelites received instructions from G’d concerning the descendants of Esau, but these were not applicable to the descendants of the Chori. Nachmanides explains that the Chori was the name of a founder of a nation which had been named after their founder-father. The nation was also called Seir, on account of the region inhabited by that nation. This latter name became associated with Esau and his descendants. The land of the Chori, which had first been inhabited by members of that tribe, was taken over by Esau and his sons. Our verse shows that the name Seir for the region concerned predated the arrival of Esau in that region. It is related to the arrival there for the first time by Esau, whom we have known from birth as איש שעיר, “a hairy man.” The name “Edom” also is traced back to Esau. The Torah makes a distinction between the inhabitants of the land Seir traced to Chori, and those traced to Esau. The difficulty with Nachmanides’ explanation is that we do find already in Genesis 14,6 a reference to “Chori in their mountains of Seir.” The chapter in question describes a situation prevailing at least 100 years before Esau was born. Ibn Ezra understands the word חרי as in חרי יהודה, “outstanding men of Yehudah.” (compare Jeremiah 27,20; Nechemyah 6,17)

'אלה בני שעיר וגו, “these were the sons of Seir, etc.” We do not know Seir’s ancestry. The Torah mentions his offspring merely in order to distinguish them from Esau’s offspring, seeing that the Torah (Deuteronomy 2,12) discusses them in connection with the nations whom the Israelites under Moses and Joshua are not to attack or harass.

יושבי הארץ, “the inhabitants of the land;” originally that land had belonged to them as we know from Deuteronomy 2,12: ובני עשו יירשום וישבו תחתם, “an the descendants of Esau disinherited them and settled there in their place.

וצבעון וענה, “and Tzivon and Anah;” this was the same Tzivon who had slept with his mother as a result of which Anah had been born. Subsequently, he slept with his daughterinlaw, the wife of Anah, as a result of which he produced Oholivamah, Esau’s wife.