Genesis 12:2 | 43
11:20 g Lk 3:35 11:24 h Lk 3:34
11:26 i Lk 3:34 j Jos 24:2
11:27 k ver 31 ; Ge 12:4 ; 14:12 ; 19:1 ; 2Pe 2:7
11:28 l ver 31 ; Ge 15:7
11:29 m Ge 17:15 n Ge 22:20
11:30 o Ge 16:1 ; 18:11
11:31 p Ge 15:7 ; Ne 9:7 ; Ac 7:4 q Ge 10:19
12:1 r Ac 7:3 *; Heb 11:8
12:2 s Ge 15:5 ; 17:2 , 4 ; 18:18 ; 22:17 ; Dt 26:5 t Ge 24:1 , 35
14 When She lah had lived 30 years , he be came the fa ther of Eber . 15 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Eber , She lah lived 403 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
16 When Eber had lived 34 years , he be came the fa ther of Pe leg . 17 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Pe leg , Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
18 When Pe leg had lived 30 years , he be came the fa ther of Reu . 19 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Reu , Pe leg lived 209 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
20 When Reu had lived 32 years , he be came the fa ther of Se rug . g 21 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Se rug , Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
22 When Se rug had lived 30 years , he be came the fa ther of Na hor . 23 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Na hor , Se rug lived 200 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
24 When Na hor had lived 29 years , he be came the fa ther of Te rah . h 25 And af ter he be came the fa ther of Te rah , Na hor lived 119 years and had other sons and daugh ters .
26 Af ter Te rah had lived 70 years , he be came the fa ther of Abram , i Nahor j and Haran .
Abram ’ s Family 27 This is the ac count of Te rah ’ s fam ily line .
Te rah be came the fa ther of Abram , Na hor and Ha ran . And Ha ran be came the fa ther of Lot . k 28 While his fa ther Te rah was still alive , Ha ran died in Ur of the Chal de ans , l in the land of his birth . 29 Abram and Na hor both mar ried . The name of Abram ’ s wife was Sa rai , m and the name of Na hor ’ s wife was Mil kah ; n she was the daugh ter of Ha ran , the fa ther of both Mil kah and Is kah . 30 Now Sa rai was child less be cause she was not able to con ceive . o
31 Te rah took his son Abram , his grand son Lot son of Ha ran , and his daugh ter-in-law Sa rai , the wife of his son Abram , and to gether they set out from Ur of the Chal de ans p to go to Canaan . q
But when they came to Har ran , they set tled there . 32 Te rah lived 205 years , and he died in Har ran .
The Call of Abram
The Lord had said to Abram , “ Go from your coun try , your peo ple and your fa ther ’ s house hold to the land I will show you . r
12
a 2 Or be seen as blessed
2 “ I will make you into a great nation , s and I will bless you ; t
I will make your name great , and you will be a blessing . a
11:18 Reu . The name means “ friend ” or “ shepherd .” Cf . Reuel , “ friend of God ” ( Exod 2:18 ). 11:20 – 26 Serug . . . Nahor . . . Terah . Also place-names in the region of Harran in northern Mesopotamia . The homeland for Abram was in this region . Ur may have been a branch of the “ family business ” ( Josh 24:2 ). 11:27 — 25:18 The Family of Abraham . A new heading introduces the next major narrative section in Genesis . Almost every episode in 11:27 — 25:18 involves Abraham , who plays a very significant role in the outworking of God ’ s redemptive plan . 11:27 – 32 Abram ’ s Family . These verses provide background information essential for understanding the subsequent story : the death of Abram ’ s brother , Haran , the father of Lot ; the barrenness of Abram ’ s wife , Sarai ; the relocation of Terah ’ s family to northern Mesopotamia . 11:27 This is the account of . Marks the start of a new section in Genesis . The heading introduces Terah ’ s immediate family . Abram . God later renames him Abraham ( 17:5 ). 11:28 Ur of the Chaldeans . The remains of the ancient city of Ur , located at Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq , were excavated by Leonard Woolley from 1922 to 1934 . His investigations revealed the existence of a well-developed urban culture at the end of the third millennium and the start of the second millennium BC , around the time that Terah ’ s family lived there . To distinguish it from other cities with the same name , Ur is associated with the Chaldeans . The Kaldu people settled in southern Babylon about 1200 BC , giving their name to the region . The designation “ of the Chaldeans ” probably belongs to the period 1000 – 500 BC and is anachronistic , reflecting , like some other place-names in Genesis , geographic knowledge from a later time when the text of Genesis was updated . See Introduction to the Pentateuch , p . 9 . 11:29 Sarai . Later renamed Sarah ( 17:15 ). 11:30 childless . Sarai ’ s inability to have children is a major obstacle to the fulfillment of God ’ s promise that Abram will have many descendants and become a great nation ( 12:2 ). The same problem recurs with Rebekah ( 25:21 ) and Rachel ( 29:31 ). In each case , God enables a son to be born who becomes an important link in the unique family line traced throughout Genesis . 11:31 Terah ’ s family moves from southern to northern Mesopotamia . Harran . Located in Turkey at Eskiharran , the modern name meaning “ old Harran .” In Hebrew script the place-name Harran differs markedly from the name of Lot ’ s father ( Haran ). 11:32 205 years . Taking into account the numbers given in v . 26 and 12:4 , Terah would have been 145 years old when Abram left Harran . If Terah lived for 205 years , he would have died long after Abram ’ s departure for Canaan . Yet in Acts 7:4 Stephen states that Abram departed from Harran after Terah ’ s death .
Stephen ’ s remark corresponds with the text of the Samaritan Pentateuch , a very early version of Genesis through Deuteronomy , which claims that Terah died when he was 145 years old . The figure of 205 years may be due to a mistake by an early copyist .
12:1 – 9 The Call of Abram . Having set the scene in 11:27 – 32 , the account of Abram ’ s relationship with God begins with a significant agenda-setting speech that will influence both Abram ’ s immediate future and the longterm future of all humanity . 12:1 – 3 God ’ s invitation to Abram is a key passage in the book of Genesis . It places Abram at the heart of God ’ s plans to reverse all that has gone wrong since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden ( 3:22 – 24 ). Adam and Eve ’ s disobedience resulted in divine displeasure and curses ; Abram ’ s obedience will bring blessing . God ’ s call requires Abram to exercise tremendous faith . He must first abandon the security of family and country and then travel to a foreign land , confidently believing that God will give him both descendants and land , essential ingredients in order to become a “ great nation ” ( 12:2 ). At the time of his call , Abram and Sarai are childless ( 11:30 ). 12:2 name great . The promise that God will make Abram famous comes in the wake of the failed ambitions of the city-builders of Babel ( 11:4 – 8 ) and possibly has royal connotations