Genubath

Genubath (meaning: theft; robbery) was the son of Hadad the Edomite prince and the sister of Tahpenes, the queen of Egypt. Hadad had fled to Egypt as a child when Joab massacred the male population of Edom during David's campaign there, and Pharaoh gave him the sister of his own wife in marriage. When Genubath was born, Tahpenes weaned him in Pharaoh's house, and he was raised among Pharaoh's own children in the royal household (1 Kings 11:20).

Genubath's story is embedded in the account of the adversaries God raised against Solomon as a consequence of his apostasy. His father Hadad returned to Edom to trouble Solomon's kingdom. Genubath himself is not said to have participated in this opposition — he appears only in the genealogical note explaining his unusual upbringing at the Egyptian court. His Edomite-Egyptian background, royal connections, and his being raised with Pharaoh's children represent the complex geopolitical entanglements of the Solomonic era, in which Israel's neighbors maintained dynastic connections with the Egyptian court that could be activated against the Israelite monarchy.