Mahalath was, according to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

, the third wife of

Esau Esau ''Ēsaû''; la, Hesau, Esau; ar, عِيسَوْ ''‘Īsaw''; meaning "hairy"Easton, M. ''Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', (, , 2006, p. 236 or "rough".Mandel, D. ''The Ultimate Who's Who in the Bible'', (.), 2007, p. 175 is the elder son o ...

, daughter of

Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

and sister of

Nebaioth Nebaioth ( ''Nəḇāyōṯ'') or Nebajoth is mentioned at least five times in the Hebrew Bible, according to which he was the firstborn son of Ishmael, and the name appears as the name of one of the wilderness tribes mentioned in the Book of Gen ...

. Esau took Mahalath from the house of Ishmael to be his wife, after seeing that

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite wives (as was the case of his first two wives, Basemath and Judith) displeased his father,

Isaac Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was ...

(). Esau sought this union with a non-Canaanite, in an effort to reconcile his relationship with his parents,Easton, M. ''Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', (, ), 2006, p.236Phillips, J. ''Exploring Genesis: an expository commentary'', (, ), 2001, p. 284 namely with his father

whose blessing he sought (). However, there is no record of his parents' approval for the union of Esau and Mahalath. She bore a son, Reuel, to Esau. () In , on the other hand, Esau's three wives are differently named; his family is mentioned as composed of two Canaanite wives, Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and

Aholibamah Aholibamah (Hebrew: ''ʾĀhŏlīḇāmā''; "My tabernacle of/is height/exaltation" or "Tent of the High Place"Phillips, J. ''Exploring Genesis: an expository commentary'', (, ), 2001, p. 284), is an eight-time referenced matriarch in the biblical ...

, and a third: Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter. Some scholars equate the three wives mentioned in Genesis 26 and 28 with those mentioned in Genesis 36, in the following way:Phillips, J. ''Exploring Genesis: an expository commentary'', (, ), 2001, p. 284 * Basemath () = Adah (), the daughter of Elon the Hittite; * Judith () =

(), also a Canaanite; * Mahalath () = Bashemath (), Esau's cousin and third wife, daughter of Ishmael

References

{{Authority control Book of Genesis people Women in the Hebrew Bible