(Aʹnah).

A son of Zibeon and the father of Esau’s wife Oholibamah. (Ge 36:2, 14, 18, 20, 24, 25; 1Ch 1:34, 40, 41) At Genesis 36:2 the Hebrew text reads “Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon.” The Syriac Peshitta, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Greek Septuagint here all read “son of Zibeon,” in agreement with Genesis 36:24, which shows Anah to be Zibeon’s son. Some modern translations follow this  rendering and say “son of Zibeon” in both verse 2 and verse 14. (RS, AT, JB) However, the Hebrew word for “daughter” here also allows for the broader meaning of granddaughter and may thus apply to Oholibamah rather than to Anah. Hence the New World Translation at Genesis 36:2 reads: “Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite.”

Some believe the name Anah applies to two persons, inasmuch as Anah is spoken of as a “Hivite” in verse 2 while the Anah of verses 20 and 29 is called a “Horite.” However, if the term “Horite” means simply a “cave dweller,” it could be used to describe the cave-dwelling habits of the Seirites rather than being used in a genealogical sense. The word “sons” in verse 20 thus appears to have the more general meaning of descendants. As M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia (1882, Vol. I, p. 212) states: “The intention of the genealogy plainly is not so much to give the lineal descent of the Seirites as to enumerate those descendants who, being heads of tribes, came into connection with the Edomites. It would thus appear that Anah, from whom Esau’s wife sprang, was the head of a tribe independent of his father, and ranking on an equality with that tribe.”