Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir
Before he is said to be in the land of Seir, ( Genesis 32:3
) ; now to dwell in a mount of that name; from which driving the
Horites, he seized upon and dwelt in it; it had not its name from
his own rough, shaggy hair, as Josephus says F18, much
less from the satyrs, and hairy demons that frequented it, as R.
Abraham Seba F19, but rather from Seir the Horite
who inhabited the land, ( Genesis
36:20 ) ; unless he had his name from the mountain which
might be so called, from its being rough and rugged like shaggy
hair, and being covered with bushes and brambles which carried
such a resemblance; and so it stands opposed to Mount Halak near
it, ( Joshua
11:17 ) , which signifies the bald or smooth mountain, being
destitute of shrubs The Targum of Jonathan calls this mountain
Mount Gabla, and one part of the land of Edom, or Idumea, was
called Gobolites, as Josephus F20 relates, perhaps the same
with Gebal, ( Psalms 83:7 ) ; hither
Esau went and took up his residence, after things were amicably
adjusted between him and his brother Jacob; the Jews say {u},
that Isaac left, all he had to his two sons, and that after they
had buried him, Esau said to Jacob, let us divide what our father
has left us into two parts, and I will choose because I am the
firstborn; so Jacob divided it into two parts; all that his
father had left he made one part, and the land of Israel the
other part, and Esau took what his father left, see ( Genesis 36:6
) ; and the land of Israel and the cave of Machpelah he delivered
to Jacob, and they drew up everlasting writings between them. Now
this or something like it being the case, and those the
circumstances of fixings, thus, and by that means, so it came to
pass, that Esau dwelt in Seir; and Jacob remained secure and
quiet in the land of Canaan; Esau [is] Edom,
so called from the red pottage he had of Jacob, which is repeated
to fix the odium of that transaction upon him, as well as for the
sake of what follows, showing the reason why his posterity were
called Edomites.