A CLAN-CHIEF — the head of a 'thousand' (eleph), the leadership title of Edom, repeated like a drumbeat through this chapter (aluf Teman, aluf Omar…). The KJV famously renders it 'DUKE' (from the Latin dux, by way of the Vulgate) — a medieval European coronet comically out of place in Bronze-Age Seir; the ASV and NIV read 'chief,' the NWT 'sheik,' and this translation 'chief.' The word sketches Edom's early shape — not one throne but a federation of clan-heads — and even the king-list that follows (36:31-39) is non-dynastic, each king from a different town. → first discussed at Gen 36:15