Zibeon

Zib'eon (Heb. Tsibon', צבעוֹן , dyed [Gesen.] or robber [Fürst]; Sept.' Σεβεγών; Vulg. Sebeon), the father of Anah, whose daughter Aholibamah was Esau's wife (Ge 36:2). B.C. ante 1963. Although called a Hivite, he is probably the same as Zibeon the son of Seir the Horite (ver. 20, 24, 29; 1 Chronicles 1, 38, 40), the latter signifying "cave-dweller" and the former being the name of his tribe, for we know nothing of the race of the Troglodytes; or perhaps הִחַוַּי (the Hivite) is a mis-transcription for הִחֹרַי (the Horite). SEE ESAU.

Another difficulty connected with this Zibeon is that Anah in Ge 36:2 is called his daughter, and in ver. 24 his son; but this difficulty appears to be easily explained by supposing that בת refers to Aholibamah, and not to the name next preceding it. The Samaritan, it should be observed, has בן. An allusion is made to some unrecorded fact in the history of the Horites in the passage "This [was that] Anah that found the mules in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father" (ver. 24). The word rendered "mules" (q.v.) in the A.V. is the Heb. יֵמַים, yemim, perhaps the Emim, or giants, as in the reading of the Samuel הָאֵימַים, and so also Onkelos and Pseudo-Jonathan; Gesenius prefers "hot-springs," following the Vulg. rendering. Zibeon was also one of the dukes or phylarchs of the Horites (ver. 29). For the identification with Beeri, father of Judith the Hittite (26, 34), SEE BEERI, and also SEE ANATH.