C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Genesis 36:15-19

Gen 36:15-19

The Tribe-Princes Who Descended from Esau. - אלּוּפים was the distinguishing title of the Edomite and Horite phylarchs; and it is only incidentally that it is applied to Jewish heads of tribes in Zec 9:7, and Zec 12:5. It is probably derived from אלף or אלפים, equivalent to משׁפּחות, families (1Sa 10:19; Mic 5:2), - the heads of the families, i.e., of the principal divisions, of the tribe. The names of these Alluphim are not names of places, but of persons-of the three sons and ten grandsons of Esau mentioned in Gen 36:9-14; though Knobel would reverse the process and interpret the whole geographically. - In Gen 36:16 Korah has probably been copied by mistake from Gen 36:18, and should therefore be erased, as it really is in the Samar. Codex.