Genesis 11:17
Ver. 17. And Eber lived, after he begat Peleg, four hundred and thirty] years,.... All the years of his life were four hundred and sixty four: and he begat sons and daughters; one of which is elsewhere mentioned, whose name is Joktan, Ge 10:25 according to the above Jewish writer {e}, he died in the seventy ninth year of Jacob.{e} R. Gedaliah, Shalshalet, fol. 1. 2. Genesis 11:18Ver. 18. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu. Or Ragau, as he is called in the Septuagint version, the letter e being pronounced as a "G", as in Gaza and Gomorrah: he is supposed to give name to a large plain called Ragau, near Assyria, about Tigris and Euphrates,"Even in those days king Nabuchodonosor made war with king Arphaxad in the great plain, which is the plain in the borders of Ragau.'' (Judith 1:5)and to Ragis in Media,"In that day Tobit remembered the money which he had committed to Gabael in Rages of Media,'' (Tobit 4:1)where Strabo {f} makes mention of a city of the same name.{f} Geograph. l. 11. p. 354. Genesis 11:19Ver. 19. And Peleg lived, after he begat Reu, two hundred and nine years,.... In all two hundred and thirty nine, little more than half the age of his father:and begat sons and daughters; but not named the Arabic writers {g} say he begat Melchizedek the priest, and that he died in the month Elul, A. M. 3126; and a Jewish writer {h} says he died in the forty eighth year of Abraham.{g} Elmacinus apud Hottinger. p. 269. {h} R. Gedaliah, ut supra. (Shalshalet, fol. 1. 2.) Genesis 11:20Ver. 20. And Reu lived thirty two years, and begat Serug. He is thought to give name to a city called Sarug, which, according to the Arabic geographer {i}, was near Charrae, or Haran, in Chaldea; and another Arabic writer {j} speaks of a city called to this day "Sarug", which he places in Mesopotamia.{i} Apud Bochart. Phaleg. l. 2. c. 14. col. 95. {j} Comment. ad Tab. Ilchanic apud Hyde, Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 2. 57. Genesis 11:21Ver. 21. And Reu lived, after he begat Sarug, two hundred and seven years,.... So that the whole of his life was two hundred and thirty nine years, the exact age of his father: in his days various kingdoms arose; according to the Arabic writer {k}, in the one hundred and thirtieth year of his life began Nimrod to reign at Babylon, the first king that reigned on earth: and according to the Jewish writers {l}, in his days began the kingdom of Egypt, which continued to the times of Octavian; and the kingdom of the Bohemians, the metropolis of which was Prague, and the kingdom of the Amazons, which continued to the times of Alexander: in his time also, the Arabic writers {m} say, idolatry prevailed, the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and other things; and images of men and women were made by the Babylonians and Egyptians, and worshipped by them:and he begat sons and daughters of whom no account is given; according to a Jewish writer {n}, he died in the seventy fifth year of Abraham.{k} Elmacinus, p. 29. apud Hottinger. p. 270. {l} Juchasin, fol. 135. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 76. 1. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 3. 2. {m} Elmacinus, p. 20. Patricides, p. 14. apud Hottinger. p. 275, 276. {n} R. Gedaliah, Shalshalet, fol. 2. 1. Genesis 11:22Ver. 22. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor. The grandfather of Abraham, one of the same name was Abraham's brother, Ge 11:26. Genesis 11:23Ver. 23. And Serug lived, after he begat Nahor, two hundred years,.... The years of his life were two hundred and thirty:and he begat sons and daughters; nowhere else mentioned: he died, according to the above Jewish writer {o}, in the one hundredth year of Abraham, and in his days, according to the eastern writers {p}, idolatry began, and the kingdom of Damascus was set up {q}; and Samirus, king of the Chaldeans, invented weights and measures, weaving silk, and the art of dying {s}.{o} R. Gedaliah, Shalshalet. fol. 2. 1. {p} Apud Hyde, ut supra. (Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 2. 57.) {q} Juchasin, fol. 135. 2. {s} Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 18. Genesis 11:24Ver. 24. And Nahor lived twenty nine years, and begat Terah. The father of Abraham, and the first of the patriarchs of this line of Shem that fell off from the true religion to idolatry. Genesis 11:25Ver. 25. And Nahor lived, after he begat Terah, one hundred and ninteen years,.... In all one hundred and forty eight years; so sensibly did the lives of the patriarchs decrease: in the days of Nahor, the Arabic writers {t} say, was a great earthquake, which had never been observed before; idolaters increasing and offering their children to demons, God raised a tempest like a deluge, which broke their images and destroyed their temples in Arabia, and covered them in heaps of sand, which remained to the days of those writers, as they affirm: in his days it is also said Spain, Portugal, and Arragon were founded {u}:and begat sons and daughters; of whom no other account is given: he died, as a Jewish chronologer says {w}, in the one hundred and tenth year of Abraham.{t} Patricides, p. 15. Elmacinus, p. 30. apud Hottinger. p. 279, 280. {u} Juchasin, fol. 135. 2. {w} R. Gedaliah, ut supra. (fol. 2. 1.) Genesis 11:26Ver. 26. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Haran; nay, it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the one hundred and thirtieth year of his father's life, for Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, Ge 11:32 and Abram was but seventy five years of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, Ge 12:4 and that was as soon as his father died there; and so that if seventy five are taken out two hundred and five, there will remain one hundred and thirty, in which year and not before Abram must be born: the wife of Terah, of whom Abram was born, according to the Jewish writers {x}, her name was Chamtelaah, the daughter of Carnebo, or as others {y} call her, Amthalai; but by the Arabic writers {z} she is called Juna: the Jews say {a} Terah was the first that found out the way of coining money, and that in his days men began to worship images, and that he was the chief of their priests, but afterwards repented; and that he was an idolater appears from Jos 24:2.{x} Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 2. 1. & Bathra in ib. {y} Pirke Eliezer, c. 26. {z} Elmacinus, p. 31. Patricides, p. 17. apud Hottinger. p. 281. {a} Shalshalet, fol. 76. 1. Genesis 11:27Ver. 27. Now these are the generations of Terah,.... Or the genealogy of his posterity, which is a very short one; for it only gives an account of his three sons as before,Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran: and of three grand children, Lot, Milcah, and Iscah, the children of Haran; and chiefly for the sake of Abram it is given, and indeed the above genealogy of Shem, which ends with him; and of whom and whose posterity the remaining part of this book of Genesis treats:and Haran begat Lot: of whom we have some further account in Ge 13:1. Genesis 11:28Ver. 28. And Haran died before his father Terah,.... In his father's presence, before his face, in his life time, as Jarchi; he seeing him, as Aben Ezra: it does not so much respect the time of his death, that it was before his father, though that is true, as the place where he died, his father being present there at the time this was;in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees; Ur, which Ben Melech renders a valley, was the place of his birth, as it was of Abram's; it was in Mesopotamia, that part of it next to Assyria being called the land of the Chaldeans; hence these are spoken of as the same by Stephen, Ac 7:2 mention is made by Pliny {b}, of a place in those parts called Ura, which seems to be the same with this: Eupolemus {c} says,"that Abram was born at Camarine, a city of Babylon, some call Urie, and is interpreted a city of the Chaldeans;''now Camarine is from rmk, "Camar", to heat or burn, and Ur signifies fire, so that both words are of the same signification: Josephus {d} says, that Haran died among the Chaldeans, in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, where, he adds, his grave is shown to this day: the Jews {e} have a fable concerning the death of Haran; they say that Terah was not only an idolater, but a maker and seller of images; and that one day going abroad, he left his son Abraham in the shop to sell them, who, during his father's absence, broke them all to pieces, except one; upon which, when Terah returned and found what was done, he had him before Nimrod, who ordered him to be cast into a burning furnace, and he should see whether the God he worshipped would come and save him; and while he was in it, they asked his brother Haran in whom he believed? he answered, if Abraham overcomes, he would believe in his God, but if not, in Nimrod; wherefore they cast him into the furnace, and he was burnt; and with respect to this it is said, "and Haran died before the face of Terah his father"; but Abraham came out safe before the eyes of them all.{b} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 24. {c} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 17. p. 418. {d} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5. {e} Shalshalet, fol. 2. 1, 2. Jarchi in loc. Genesis 11:29Ver. 29. And Abram and Nahor took them wives,.... Very probably after the death of their elder brother Haran, whose daughters they married, at least one of them did, and some think both;the name of Abraham's wife was Sarai: it is not said whose daughter she was, unless she is the same with Iscah, the daughter of Haran, and so had two names, Iscah her name before marriage, Sarai after it, Abram calling her "my mistress", as "Sarai" signifies, as she called him my lord: so the Targum of Jonathan, Iscah, this is Sarai; in like manner Jarchi, Baal Hatturim, and other Jewish writers {f}, take them to be the same; but according to Ge 20:12 Sarai should be the daughter of Terah, the father of Abraham, by another woman; and so the Arabic writers {g} say,"the mother of Abraham died, whose name was Juna; and Terah married another wife, whose name was Lahazib; she bore him Sarah, whom Abraham afterwards married:''[and] the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah: so that Nahor married his brother's daughter, which sort of marriage was then allowed of, as formerly that of own brothers and sisters, but afterwards was strictly forbidden in the Levitical law: this account is given of Nahor's wife, as Aben Ezra observes, to show the pedigree of Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah: some think, as before observed, that Abram married the other daughter of his brother Haran, Iscah, and that she is the same with Sarai; and indeed, without supposing that, it is difficult to conceive for what reason this should be observed, that Haran, the father of Milcah, was also the father of Iscah; and if Sarai is not Iscah, no account is given by Moses of her descent, which may seem strange; and it can hardly be thought he would omit it, when it must be so agreeable to his people to know from whom they descended, both by the father's and mother's side.{f} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 38. fol. 33. 3. 4. {g} Ut supra, (Elmacinus, p. 31. Patricides, p. 17.) apud Hottinger. p. 281. Genesis 11:30Ver. 30. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. Aben Ezra observes, there are some that say that Abraham was impotent, and not Sarai barren; the very reverse of the Scriptures; but as he rightly adds, his son Ishmael and his sons by Keturah show the contrary, see Ge 15:2. Genesis 11:31Ver. 31. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife,.... Many words are made use of in describing Lot and Sarai, and yet still we are left pretty much in the dark who Sarai was; for, as Aben Ezra observes, if she was the sister of Abram and daughter of Terah, the Scripture would have said, Terah took Abram his son and Sarai his daughter, and wife of Abram; and if she was the sister of Lot, it would have said, and Sarai the daughter of his son, as it does of Lot:and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; that is, as Jarchi interprets it, Terah and Abram went forth with Lot and Sarai, or "with them" may mean with Nahor and Milcah: for Josephus {h} says, that all went into Charan of Mesopotamia, the whole family of Terah; and the Arabic historian {i} is express for it,"Terah went out from Chorasan, and with him Abram, Nahor, Lot, his children, and their wives, and he went to Charan, where he dwelt:''and it is certain, if Nahor and his wife did not set out with them, they followed them afterwards, for Haran was the city of Nahor, where his family in later times dwelt, see Ge 14:10 what moved Terah to depart from Ur of the Chaldees seems to be the call of God to Abram, which, though after related, was previous to this; and he acquainting his father Terah with it, he listened to it, being now convinced of his idolatry and converted from it, and readily obeyed the divine will; and being the father of Abram, is represented as the head of the family, as he was, and their leader in this transaction; who encouraged their departure from the idolatrous country in which they were, and set out with them to seek another, where they might more freely and safely worship the true God. Though Josephus {j} represents it in this light, that Terah hating the country of Chaldea, because of the mourning of Haran, he and all his went out from thence:and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there; which Josephus {k} calls Charan of Mesopotamia, and yet Stephen speaks of Abraham being in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charan; but then Mesopotamia is to be taken both in a more general and a more limited sense; in general, it took in Mesopotamia and Chaldea, and in the eastern part of it was Ur of the Chaldees, and when Abram came from thence to Haran, he came into Mesopotamia, strictly so called. Stephen calls it Charran it is by Herodian {l} called karrai, by Ptolemy {m} Carrae, by Pliny {n} Carra, a city famous in Lucan {o} for the slaughter of Crassus, by whom it is called an Assyrian city. Benjamin of Tudela {p} speaks of it as in being in his time, and as two days journey from the entrance into the land of Shinar or Mesopotamia; and says, that in that place where was the house of Abraham, there is no building on it, but the Ishmaelites (the Mahometans) honour the place, and come thither to pray. Rauwolff, who was in this town A. D. 1575, calls it Orpha; his account of it is this {q}, that it is a costly city, with a castle situated on the hill very pleasantly; that the town is very pleasant, pretty big, with fortifications well provided; and that some say it was anciently called Haran and Charras: a later traveller {r} says, who also calls it Orpha,"the air of this city is very healthful, and the country fruitful; that it is built four square, the west part standing on the side of a rocky mountain, and the east part tendeth into a spacious valley, replenished with vineyards, orchards, and gardens: the walls are very strong, furnished with great store of artillery, and contain in circuit three English miles, and, for the gallantness of its sight, it was once reckoned the metropolitical seat of Mesopotamia.''What detained Terah and his family here, when they intended to go further, is not said. Aben Ezra suggests, that the agreeableness of the place to Terah caused him to continue there; but it is very probable he was seized with a disease which obliged them to stay here, and of which he died.{h} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5.) {i} Elmacinus, p. 31. apud Hottinger. p. 282. {j} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5.) {k} Ibid. {l} Hist. l. 4. sect. 24. {m} Geograph. l. 5. c. 18. {n} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 24. {o} -----------Miserando funere Crassus, Assyrias latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas. Lucan. Pharsal. l. 1. v. 105. {p} Itinerarium, p. 60. {q} Travels, par. 2. ch. 10. sect. 176. by Ray. {r} Cartwright's Preacher's Travels, p. 14, 15. Genesis 11:32Ver. 32. And the days of Terah were two hundred years,.... His days are summed up as none of the rest are in this genealogy, that it might be observed; his death being the time of Abram's leaving Chaldea and coming into the land of Canaan, given to him and his seed for an inheritance; see Ac 7:4and Terah died in Haran: the Arabic historian {s} says, he died in Haran in the month Elul, in the year of his age two hundred and sixty five; but he gives him sixty years too many: a Jewish chronologer {t} says he died in the thirty fifth year of Isaac. Perhaps he gave the name to this place, where he dwelt a while, in memory of his son Haran, which before might be called by another name, Padanaram, as it seems to be called even after this; see Ge 24:10.{s} Elmaaciuns, ut supra. (p. 31. apud Hottinger. p. 282.) {t} R. Gedaliah, Shalshalet, fol. 2. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.