Basemath (Hebrew: בָּשְׂמַת, Modern: Basmat, Tiberian: Bāsəmaṯ, "Sweet-smelling", Arabic: بسمة; "Sweet-smile"), in the Hebrew Bible, is the name of two different wives of Esau.
Because Basemath was a Canaanite, Esau’s marriage to Basemath (as well as to his second wife, Judith) ignored God's wishes that Abraham’s descendants keep themselves separate from the Canaanites in marriage.
Esau’s marriage to Basemath, therefore, brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.
[1] Esau is then said to have taken as his third wife a daughter of his uncle Ishmael, Mahalath.
In Genesis 36:2,3, on the other hand, Esau's three wives are differently named; his family is mentioned as composed of two Canaanite wives, Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah, and a third: Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter.