The bullet points of Esau’s life were not great. God blessed him and his family, but the blessings were only material in nature. Long before, Isaac and Rebekah were concerned about Esau’s choice to intermarry with Canaanite women and that choice proved to be detrimental to his people. We can gather this by looking at the names of his descendants in this genealogy account. Many translate simply as animals. Baal-hanan would be a tribute to the false god Baal.
There are two different people groups that eventually settled in this area. The Horites settled in Seir and the Edomites settled in Edom. Both were considered a mountainous region while Edom was also part of the Transjordanian plateau. Eventually, Seir would become part of Edom and the names would be used interchangeably.
Another interesting aspect of this chapter is the mystery that surrounds Eliphaz. If you remember, Eliphaz was one of Job’s friends who tried to “comfort him” during his afflictions.
“Now one of the sons of Esau, verse ten, is Eliphaz. And one of Eliphaz’s sons in verse eleven is Teman. Now you remember in the book of Job, one of the comforters of Job was named Eliphaz, the Temanite. And so it is very possible that this Eliphaz that we have here, one of the sons of Esau was in actuality one of the comforters of Job. And so this probably dates for us the book of Job; which means that it is one of the oldest books in the Bible. For Genesis was written by Moses some five hundred years later. But the book of Job poetry was kept intact and it makes Job one of the oldest books in man’s literature. So the name of Eliphaz, whose son was Teman and in Job, Eliphaz the Temanite; it is very possible that here is the time of Job.”
Chuck Smith