Eliphaz

Family: Esau · Role: son of Esau · First appears: Jacob Pursued By Eliphaz And Esau

At Esau’s command, Eliphaz pursued Jacob with orders to kill him, but at the borders of Canaan he spared Jacob and took all his belongings. Esau was angry that his son had let Jacob live, then kept the silver and gold Eliphaz had taken. Later, when Esau marched against Jacob, he placed Eliphaz in command of a division of sixty warriors.

Eliphaz was raised under the eyes of his grandfather Isaac, learning a pious way of life, and became a disciple of Jacob, so he would not bear arms against him. He was endowed with the spirit of prophecy and is identified as the prophet Eliphaz, friend of Job. Drawing on the lives of the Patriarchs, he admonished Job in their disputes; God rebuked him for speaking harshly to Job and foretold that Obadiah, one of his descendants, would denounce the Edomites, his father’s house.

Timna, a princess rejected by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, became Eliphaz’s concubine and the mother of Amalek.