Jaakan

Jaakan is a name preserved in the Edomite genealogies as a son of Ezer, also spelled Akan in two of the three places it appears in UPDV. The same name underlies Bene-jaakan ("sons of Jaakan"), a wilderness location encountered on Israel's journey.

Son of Ezer in the Horite Genealogy

Esau's lines in Genesis include the descendants of Seir the Horite. Among Ezer's sons, the listing reads: "These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan" (Gen 36:27). The same genealogy is recapitulated in Chronicles: "The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, and Zaavan, Akan. The sons of Dishan: Uz, and Aran" (1Ch 1:42). The third name in each list is the figure whose tribe gave its name to the wells in the wilderness.

Bene-jaakan, Stop on the Wilderness Itinerary

Deuteronomy revisits the journey from Sinai and names a stage on the route: "And the sons of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son served in the priest's office in his stead" (Deut 10:6). The phrase Beeroth Bene-jaakan, "wells of the sons of Jaakan," ties the wilderness stop back to the same Edomite line whose ancestor is Akan / Jaakan.