father of the Edomites] Or, of Edom, that is, of that race or off-spring which hath its Originall from Esaus loines: for all the descendents beare the name of their principall progenitor, though many degrees distant from him, because that virtually they were contained in him, else they could not have been derived from him; so the Jews many hundred years after Jacobs decease are called Israel, or the children of Israel; whereby we are directed from the condition of the one, to look both forward and backward to the condition of the other, and to observe how Gods promises, or threats given out with reference to their mutuall relations, are made good upon them in succeeding ages: and withall the name of Edom (being given Esau by occasion of his parting with his birthright for a messe of red pottage, for which he is condemned as a profane person, and thrice repeated in this Chapter as an addition to the name of Esau) is to be taken as a brand of perpetuall reproch upon him; as Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat with this addition, which made Israel to sinne, 1 Kings 16:26. &Chap 22. vers. 25. 2 Kings 3:3. and elsewhere.