Rabbi Aivu said: Before a king reigned in Israel, [but once there was a king in Israel],3Addition to the text based on Matnot Kehuna, Nezer HaKodesh, Etz Yosef. “[There was no king] in Edom; an official was king” (I Kings 22:48)4Officials from Judah were installed as governors of Edom (see II Samuel 8:14). – “These are the kings [who reigned in the land of Edom before the reign of a king for the children of Israel].”
Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina [said]: When this one crowns kings, this one appoints judges.5When Edom had kings, Israel had judges but no kings. When this one appoints chieftains, this one appoints princes.6When Nebuchadnezzar conquered the region, neither Edom nor Israel had kings; Edom had chieftains and Israel had princes, a lower status than chieftains (Etz Yosef). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: This one crowned eight and that one crowned eight.7There were eight kings of Edom before there was a king in Israel, and eight kings of Israel during whose reigns there was no king in Edom.
This one crowned eight: Bela, Yovav, Ḥusham, Hadad, Samla, Shaul, Baal Ḥanan, Hadar. And that one crowned eight: Shaul, Ish Boshet, David, Solomon, Reḥavam, Aviya, Asa, Yehoshafat. Nebuchadnezzar came and mingled these with those, and abrogated these and those, [as it is stated:] “Who rendered the world like a wilderness and destroyed its cities” (Isaiah 14:17). Evil8Evil Merodakh, king of Babylon. came and accorded greatness to Yehoyakhin.9Yehoyakhin had been king of Judah; see II Kings 25:27–30. Aḥashverosh came and accorded greatness to Haman.10Haman, like Edom, was a descendant of Esau.