What Does Genesis 36:33 Mean?

Bela died, and Jobab son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place. The second Edomite king comes from Bozrah, the most mentioned Edomite city in the Hebrew prophets. Isaiah 34:6 and 63:1-6 use Bozrah as the site of divine judgment on Edom; Jeremiah 49:13 and Amos 1:12 cite it as Edom's chief city. The appearance of Bozrah this early in the Edomite king list confirms its antiquity as a settlement and its centrality to Edomite political identity from the beginning of the nation's monarchic period.

The name Jobab occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible: in Genesis 10:29 as a descendant of Shem through Joktan; in 1 Chronicles 8:9 and 8:18 as Benjaminite names. The Edomite Jobab son of Zerah is distinct from all of these. Zerah's name appears in both the Edomite genealogy (v.13 as a son of Reuel) and in Judah's family (Genesis 38:30), where Zerah is one of Judah's twins. Whether the royal Jobab son of Zerah is descended from Reuel's son Zerah is not stated.

The formula "reigned in his place" (vayimlok tachtav) appears for each king in the list and carries the same sense as later Israelite regnal formulas. In Kings and Chronicles, each new king "reigned in his place" upon his predecessor's death. The Edom list uses the identical formula, suggesting either that Edomite royal succession was recorded in the same formulaic tradition or that the Genesis text has organized the Edomite material using the same literary conventions later applied to the Israelite monarchy.