Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 36:20/אבן עזרא על בראשית ל״ו:כ׳
אשעיר. לא ידענו יחוסו, והזכירם הכתוב להפריש יחוסי שעיר ועשו כי ישראל יצוו על בני עשו
1SEIR. We do not know his pedigree. Scripture lists the children of Seir to inform us that they were of a different lineage from the children of Esau. The Bible notes this because Israel was prohibited from contending with the children of Esau.16
בהחורי, כמו חורי יהודה (ירמי' כז, כ) וטעמו גדולה ויתכן להיות מגזרת "ואורנים חורי" (ישעי, יט ט) שהוא לובן וכן אמר התרגום, ונמשלו הסגנים בלובן בעבור שאין בעינים כמוהו והוא כאור והפך זה "בל יתיצב לפני חשוכים" (משלי כב כט):
2THE HORITE. Chori (Horite) means nobles. It is similar to chore (nobles) in the nobles (chore) of Judah (Jer. 27:20).17 (ha-chori) should be translated: These are the sons of Seir the noble (the chief). It is possible that chori (Horites) comes from the same root as chorai in And they that weave cotton (chorai) (Is. 19:9), in which chorai means white stuff. Onkelos similarly renders white by chivvar.18 to mean nobles. Nobles are called chorim (the white ones) because they are metaphorically speaking, like the color white,19 a color which resembles light.20 In contrast to chorim, mean men are called chashukkim (dark ones), as we read in He shall not stand before mean men (chashukkim) (Prov. 22:29).21 is the antithesis of kings. Chashukkim comes from the word choshekh (black or dark). We thus see that white is a symbol of nobility, and black of poverty (Cherez) or of non-nobility, of meanness (Weiser).