1 Chronicles 1:54

Duke Magdiel, duke Iram. These are the dukes of Edom.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(54) These are the dukes (chiliarchs) of Edom.—Eleven names only are given, whereas there were twelve (or thirteen) chiliarchs of Edom (Genesis 36:15-19; see Note on 1Chronicles 1:35-37). A name may have fallen out of the ancient text from which the chronicler derived the list.

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 1:54. These are the dukes of Edom — Let us, in reading these genealogies, think of the multitudes that have gone through the world, have successively acted their parts in it, and retired into darkness. All these and all theirs had their day: many of them made a mighty noise in the world, until their day came to fall, and their place knew them no more. The paths of death are trodden paths. How soon are we to tread them!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28-54 The genealogy is from hence confined to the posterity of Abraham. Let us take occasion from reading these lists of names, to think of the multitudes that have gone through this world, have done their parts in it, and then quitted it. As one generation, even of sinful men, passes away, another comes. Ec 1:4; Nu 32:14, and will do so while the earth remains. Short is our passage through time into eternity. May we be distinguished as the Lord's people.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The slight differences favor the view, that the writer of Chronicles has here, as elsewhere, abridged from Genesis (see the marginal references).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

37. Reuel—a powerful branch of the great Aeneze tribe, the Rowalla Arabs.

Shammah—the great tribe Beni Shammar. In the same way, the names of the other kings and dukes are traced in the modern tribes of Arabia. But it is unnecessary to mention any more of these obscure nomads, except to notice that Jobab (1Ch 1:44), one of the kings of Edom, is considered to be Job, and that his seat was in the royal city of Dinahab (Ge 36:32; 1Ch 1:43), identified with O'Daeb, a well-known town in the center of Al Dahna, a great northern desert in the direction of Chaldea and the Euphrates [Forster].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom,.... Which had its name from Esau, who was so called, Genesis 25:30. From hence, to the end of the chapter, an account is given of the kings and dukes of Edom, in the same order as in Genesis 30:31.

Geneva Study Bible

Duke Magdiel, duke Iram. These are the dukes of Edom.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

1 Chronicles 1:54

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The princes of Edom. - The names correspond to those in Genesis 36:40-43, but the heading and the subscription in Genesis are quite different from those in the Chronicle. Here the heading is, "and the Allufim of Edom were," and the subscription, "these are the Allufim of Edom," from which it would be the natural conclusion that the eleven names given are proper names of the phylarchs. But the occurrence of two female names, Timna and Aholibamah, as also of names which are unquestionably those of races, e.g., Aliah, Pinon, Teman, and Mibzar, is irreconcilable with this interpretation. If we compare the heading and subscription of the register in Genesis, we find that the former speaks of the names "of the Allufim of Edom according to their habitations,

(Note: So it is given by the author, "nach ihren Wohnsitzen;" but this must be a mistake, for the word is משׁפּחותם equals their families, not משׁבתם, as it is in the subscription. - Tr.)

according to their places in their names," and the latter of "the Allufim of Edom according to their habitations in the land of their possession." It is there unambiguously declared that the names enumerated are not the names of persons, but the names of the dwelling-places of the Allufim, after whom they were wont to be named. We must therefore translate, "the Alluf of Timna, the Alluf of Aliah," etc., when of course the female names need not cause any surprise, as places can just as well receive their names from women as their possessors as from men. Nor is there any greater difficulty in this, that only eleven dwelling-places are mentioned, while, on the contrary, the thirteen sons and grandsons of Esau are called Allufim. For in the course of time the number of phylarchs might have decreased, or in the larger districts two phylarchs may have dwelt together. Since the author of the Chronicle has taken this register also from Genesis, as the identity of the names clearly shows he did, he might safely assume that the matter was already known from that book, and so might allow himself to abridge the heading without fearing any misunderstanding; seeing, too, that he does not enumerate אלּוּפי of Esau, but אדום אלּוּפי, and Edom had become the name of a country and a people.