And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead.
Genesis 36:33 belongs to the record of Esau and of the nations that sprang from him. It stands within the genealogy that traces his descendants and their kings after the history of Jacob's family has been carried through the death of Isaac. That placement sets the succession of Bela by Jobab inside the larger Edomite account rather than inside the story of Israel.
The verse comes ten or eleven years after Jacob's blessing at Peniel. By that time Jacob had met Esau and had come in peace to Shechem, Shechem had been destroyed, and Jacob's household had experienced revival when they put away their idols and God renewed His promises to Jacob. After those events had come the death of Rachel and the birth of Benjamin, the sin of Reuben, the reckoning of the sons of Israel, and then the death of Isaac. At this point in the narrative Isaac died at 180 years old, when Jacob was about 109, Joseph was 17, and Benjamin was a small child two to four years old.
Genesis 36:33 belongs to the record of Esau and of the nations that sprang from him. It stands within the genealogy that traces his descendants and their kings after the history of Jacob's family has been carried through the death of Isaac. That placement sets the succession of Bela by Jobab inside the larger Edomite account rather than inside the story of Israel.
The verse comes ten or eleven years after Jacob's blessing at Peniel. By that time Jacob had met Esau and had come in peace to Shechem, Shechem had been destroyed, and Jacob's household had experienced revival when they put away their idols and God renewed His promises to Jacob. After those events had come the death of Rachel and the birth of Benjamin, the sin of Reuben, the reckoning of the sons of Israel, and then the death of Isaac. At this point in the narrative Isaac died at 180 years old, when Jacob was about 109, Joseph was 17, and Benjamin was a small child two to four years old.