Iskah . 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 grandson Lot son of Ha ran , and his daugh terin-law Sa rai , the wife of his son Abram , and to geth er they set out from Ur of the Chal de ans p to go to Ca naan . q But when they came to Har ran , they set tled there .
32 Te rah lived 205 years , and he died in
Harran .
The Call of Abram
12
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
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
3 I will bless those who bless you ,
and whoever curses you I will curse ; u
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
12:3 u Ge 27:29 ; Ex 23:22 ; Nu 24:9
v Ge 18:18 ;
22:18 ; 26:4 ; Ac 3:25 ; Gal 3:8 * 12:4 w Ge 11:31 12:5 x Ge 14:14 ; 17:23 12:6 y Heb 11:9 z Ge 35:4 ;
Dt 11:30 a Ge 10:18
12:7 b Ge 17:1 ; 18:1 ; Ex 6:3 c Ge 13:15 , 17 ;
15:18 ; 17:8 ; Ps 105:9-11 d Ge 13:4
12:8 e Ge 13:3
Genesis 12:8 | 33
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you . v ” b
4 So Abram went , as the Lord had told
him ; and Lot went with him . Abram was sev en ty-five years old when he set out from Har ran . w 5 He took his wife Sa rai , his neph ew Lot , all the pos ses sions they had ac cu mu lat ed and the peo ple x they had acquired in Har ran , and they set out for the land of Ca naan , and they ar rived there .
6 Abram trav eled through the land y as
far as the site of the great tree of Mo reh z at She chem . At that time the Ca naan ites a were in the land . 7 The Lord ap peared to Abram b and said , “ To your off spring c I will give this land .” c So he built an al tar there to the Lord , d who had ap peared to him .
8 From there he went on to ward the hills
east of Beth el e and pitched his tent , with Beth el on the west and Ai on the east . There he built an al tar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord .
a 2 Or be seen as blessed b 3 Or earth / will use your name in blessings ( see 48:20 ) c 7 Or seed were nomadic raiders at some point in their history , but it does not help locate them geographically .
Suspicion arises concerning the identification of Abraham ’ s Ur as the famous city in the south because the move to Harran does not seem a logical one from there . The distance is at least 700 miles ( 1,125 kilometers ), and Harran is well off the beaten track for someone traveling to Canaan . If a town were 80 miles ( 125 kilometers ) out of the way ( especially traveling on foot ), it would hardly be considered on the way . This geographic problem leads some to consider alternatives , and the literature of the ancient Near East preserves numerous other town names with some similarity to Ur . However , since the only Chaldeans we know of are from the south , the designation “ of the Chaldeans ” in relationship to Ur must be considered a later explanation placed in the text to help readers who were no longer familiar with the location of the town . 11:30 Sarai . . . was not able to conceive . Barrenness was considered a judgment from God in the ancient world . Ancient peoples did not yet understand the physiology associated with fertilization . They viewed the woman as a receptacle for male seed . Rather than supplying an egg to be fertilized , the woman was seen simply as an incubator for the child . Therefore , if man provided the seed at the proper time ( they understood that timing was in relation to menstruation ) and nothing came of it , the woman was seen to be a faulty incubator . But this defect would not be seen as simply a physical problem , since no illness , symptom or condition was simply physical . Deity was responsible for creation in the womb , and deity was the one who opened the womb .
Sarai ’ s barrenness would have potentially resulted in a fragile marriage ( since failure to deliver children to the family was the most common cause of divorce ), in societal shame ( since her condition would appear to be the result of having angered a god so that she was therefore unable to fulfill her societal role ), and in an uncertainty for the afterlife ( since descendants were believed to sustain the deceased in the netherworld ). In Abraham and Sarai ’ s case , it also presented quite an obstacle to the covenant promise of having many descendants ( 12:2 ; 15:5 ). 12:1 – 3 God ’ s covenant with Abram targets the most essential elements of identity in the value system of the ancient Near East . Land was connected to one ’ s survival , livelihood and political identity . Family linked the past , present and future , offering one ’ s most basic sense of identity ( more so than self ). Inheritance fixed one ’ s place in the family and ensured that the generations past would be remembered in the present and future . When Abram gave up his place in his father ’ s household , he forfeited his security . He was putting his survival , his identity , his future and his security in the hands of the Lord . 12:1 Go from your country , your people and your father ’ s household . One reason God may ask Abram to leave these behind is because it is in these three connections that one related to deity . The gods one worshiped tended to be national or city gods (“ country ”), the clan god (“ people ”), or ancestral gods , i . e ., ancestors who have taken a place in the divine world (“ father ’ s household ”). As Yahweh severed the ties Abram would have had with other deities , he then filled the resulting void as the only God Abram would need . 12:2 great nation . This offer is unique in the ancient world . One can certainly find offers by deities to make someone king and to prosper their line — or even a promise that a particular individual would have many offspring . But the prospect that an individual would grow into a great nation is not broached in any other extant literature from the ancient world . 12:6 great tree of Moreh . No hint is given that trees themselves were worshiped , but notable trees became places where various sacred rituals were performed . The significance given to certain trees in the Biblical text suggests that they designated sacred space ( cf . 13:18 ; 35:4,8 ; Dt 11:30 ; Jdg 4:5 ; 6:11 ; 9:37 ). Note the eventual indictment of the Israelites that they set up sacred stones and Asherah poles “ under every spreading tree ” ( 2Ki 17:10 ). Moreh . The name given to the oak here has been interpreted as suggesting that oracular information was gained here ( Moreh means “ teacher ”). Of all of the divination procedures known from the ancient world , there is no suggestion of trees used as divinatory mechanisms ; thus , we conclude that the tree had significance as a locale rather than as a mechanism . 12:8 altar . Usually thought of as raised platforms used for offering sacrifices ; here , however , there is no mention of sacrifices . Furthermore , sacrifices usually take place in