Lotan

Lotan (meaning covering or enveloping) was the eldest son of Seir the Horite, one of the original inhabitants of Edom before the descendants of Esau dispossessed them (Gen. 36:20, 29; 1 Chr. 1:38–39). Seir the Horite gave his name to the land of Edom (also called Mount Seir), and his sons formed the aristocratic clans of the pre-Edomite Horites. Lotan is listed as the ancestor of two sub-clans in the Horite clan lists: Hori and Hemam (Gen. 36:22), or Hori and Homam (1 Chr. 1:39), the variant suggesting scribal confusion between similar Hebrew letters.

Lotan's sister was Timna (Gen. 36:22), who became the concubine of Eliphaz the son of Esau and the mother of Amalek—thus connecting the Horite and Edomite lineages through her. The Horites are known from extrabiblical sources as the Hurrians, a significant people group in the ancient Near East during the second millennium B.C., though their exact relationship to the Hurrians of Mesopotamia and Syria is debated by scholars.