Esau went to Ishmael, and took, in addition to the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
Parallel Translations
-
Esau went to Ishmael, and took, in addition to the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
-
Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
-
so Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives that he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Genesis 28:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 36:3 and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.
- Genesis 25:13-17 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations. These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his spirit and died, and was gathered to his people.
- Genesis 26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
- Genesis 36:13 These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the descendants of Basemath, Esau’s wife.
- Genesis 36:18 These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These are the chiefs who came of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, beside his wives.
Or, beside his wives.
Thinking hereby to have reconciled himself to his father, but all in vain: for he taketh not away the cause of the evil.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took…
Gen 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Ver. 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael.] Stulta haec fuit κακοζηλια, et hypocrisis , saith Pareus rightly. Apes will be imitating men: spiders have their webs, and wasps their honeycombs. Hypocrites will needs do something, that they may seem to be somebody: but, for want of an inward principle, they do nothing well: they amend one error with another, as Esau here; and as Herod prevents perjury by murder. Thus, while they shun the sands, they rush upon the rocks, and while they keep off the shallows, they fall into the whirlpool. {a} Sed nemo ira perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia, quin exitus pateat absque tertio , saith an ancient.
Read full note →
{a} Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim .
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Esau went unto Ishmael; either to his person, or…
1760
Esau went unto Ishmael; either to his person, or rather to his family, called Ishmael by their father’s name, as David is sometimes put for David’s posterity; for Ishmael seems to have been dead before this, from Gen 25:17, though that may possibly be a prolepsis, and then this may be Ishmael himself.
Read full note →
Mahalath, called also Bashemath, Gen 36:3. He thought by this means to ingratiate himself with his father, and so to get another and a better blessing; but he takes no care to reconcile himself to God, nor observes his hand in the business. Besides, he mends one fault by committing another, and taking a third wife when he had one too many before, and her too he unwisely fetcheth out of that stock which was begotten to bondage, and was utterly uncapable of the inheritance.
Nebajoth was Ishmael’s eldest son, Gen 25:13, who alone is here mentioned, either in the name of all the rest, whose sister she is by consequence supposed to be; or because peradventure she and Nebajoth were Ishmael’s children by the same mother, and the rest by another.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then went Esau unto Ishmael,.... Not to Ishmael in…
Then went Esau unto Ishmael,.... Not to Ishmael in person, for he was now dead, Gen 25:17, and had been dead as is reckoned about fourteen years before this, but to the house of Ishmael:
and took unto the wives which he had; the daughters of Heth, and who seem by this to be both alive at this time:
Read full note →
Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son; the same with Bashemath, Gen 36:3; as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, this person having two names, and is further described:
the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife; who was the eldest son of Ishmael, and, his father being dead, was the principal in the family; and this woman Esau took to wife was his sister by his mother's side, as the above Targum expresses, as well as by his father's; whereas he might have other sisters only by his father's side, he having had more wives than one. This Esau seems to have done in order to curry favour with his father, who was displeased with his other wives, and therefore takes one of his father's brother's daughters; but in this he acted an unwise part, on more accounts than one; partly as it was taking to wife the daughter of one that was cast out of his grandfather's house, and had been a persecutor of his father, and therefore not likely to be agreeable to him; and partly as being a daughter of the bondmaid's son: children born of her could not inherit the land promised to Abraham and Isaac.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael] Those who…
Verse 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael] Those who are apt to take every thing by the wrong handle, and who think it was utterly impossible for Esau to do any right action, have classed his taking a daughter of Ishmael among his crimes; whereas there is nothing more plain than that he did this with a sincere desire to obey and please his parents. Having heard the pious advice which Isaac gave to Jacob, he therefore went and took a wife from the family of his grandfather Abraham, as Jacob was desired to do out of the family of his maternal uncle Laban. Mahalath, whom he took to wife, stood in the same degree of relationship to Isaac his father as Rachel did to his mother Rebekah. Esau married his father's niece; Jacob married his mother's niece. It was therefore most obviously to please his parents that Esau took this additional wife. It is supposed that Ishmael must have been dead thirteen or fourteen years before this time, and that going to Ishmael signifies only going to the family of Ishmael. If we follow the common computation, and allow that Isaac was now about one hundred and thirty-six or one hundred and thirty-seven years of age, and Jacob seventy-seven, and as Ishmael died in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of his age, which according to the common computation was the one hundred and twenty-third of Isaac, then Ishmael must have been dead about fourteen years. But if we allow the ingenious reasoning of Mr. Skinner and Dr. Kennicott, that Jacob was at this time only fifty-seven years of age, and Isaac consequently only one hundred and seventeen, it will appear that Ishmael did not die till six years after this period; and hence with propriety it might be said, Esau went unto Ishmael, and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael to be his wife. See Clarke on Ge 26:34, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 28:9. Esau went unto Ishmael — That is,…
Gen 28:9. Esau went unto Ishmael — That is, the family of Ishmael, for Ishmael himself, no doubt, was dead before this time, (see Gen 25:17,) and took Mahalath to be his wife. It is probable that he thought by this means to ingratiate himself with his father, and so to get another and a better blessing. But, alas! he mends one fault by committing another, and taking a third wife, when he had one too many before.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain To Ismael’s family; for he had been dead fourteen…
To Ismael’s family; for he had been dead fourteen years. Esau asks no advice. It is doubtful whether he meant to appease or irritate his parents, (Menochius) by this marriage with the daughter of Ismael. She lived with her brother, the head of the Nabutheans, and is called Basemath, chap. xxxvi. 3. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael — That is,…
9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael — That is, unto the family of Ishmael, who, himself, had been dead many years. Gen_25:17. Nebajoth was Ishmael’s firstborn. Gen_25:13. Here we discern, again, in Esau’s action, the wild, impetuous child of nature. He already has two wives and they have borne him children; but noticing how Jacob is blessed, and commanded not to take a Canaanitish wife, he speeds away to marry Ishmael’s daughter.
“Esau is the representative of natural kindliness and honesty, but these qualities are joined to rudeness, and to a want of susceptibility for what is higher. He is void of all anticipation and longing. He is satisfied with what is visible; in short, he is a profane person. Heb_12:16. Such persons, even if grace reaches their hearts, which was not the case with Esau, are not adapted for heading a religious development.” — Hengstenberg.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. unto the wives] i.e. in addition to Judith…
9. unto the wives] i.e. in addition to Judith and Basemath (Gen_26:34).
Mahalath … the sister of Nebaioth] Nebaioth was the firstborn son of Ishmael (Gen_25:13). In Gen_36:3, the name of Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth, appears as Basemath. Here she is called Mahalath; while Basemath, in Gen_26:34, is the name of one of Esau’s Hittite wives.
Read full note →
Ishmael is mentioned in this verse as the uncle of Esau. The reference is personal, though it may also denote tribal kinship. According to P’s chronology, it would appear that Ishmael was at this time 114 years old, and lived for 23 years more. Cf. Gen_17:24-25, Gen_25:17; Gen_25:26, Gen_26:34.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Gen 36:3 is called Bashemath:
Mahalath
Gen 36:3 is called Bashemath:
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.