The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 249

Yer. 2i.-Now (literally, and, intimating of a son before his father. In tho land the close connection of the present ~ith the of his nativity. 'Ev -r-g y-g ,J__ ly,vv,)O,, preceding section) these are the generations (LXX. ). In Ur of the Che.ldees. Ur Kasdim -the commencement of a new subdi,ision (eh. xi. 81; xv. i; Neh. ix. 7). The Kasdim of the history (Keil), and neither the wind- -formerly believed to have been Shemites on ing-up of the foregoing genealogy(' Speaker's account of (1) Abram's settlement amona Commentary') nor the heading only of the them, (2) the preservation of the nam~ brief paragraph in vers. 2i--32 (Lange; 1:ide Kesed among his kindred (eh. xxii. 22), (3) eh. ii. 4)-of Tera.h. Not of Abram ; partly the close affinity to a Shemite tongue of the because mainly occupied with the career not language known to modern philolo~sts as of Abram's son, in which case "the genera- Chaldee, an Aramrean dialect dilfermg but tions of Abram" would have been appro- slightly from the Syriac (Heeren), and (4) priate, bnt of Abram himself, Terah's son; the supposed identity or intimate connection rrnd partly owing to the subsidiary design to of the Babylonians 1,ith the .Assyrians (Nie- indicate Nahor's connection, through Re- buhr)-are now, with greater probability, bekah, with the promiseJ. seed (cf. Quarry, and certainly '1ith closer adherence to Bib- p. 415). Terah begat Abram, "Father lical hi.story (eh. x. 8-12), regarded as having of Elc,ation," who is mentioned first not been a Hamite race (Rawlinson, Smith) ; an because he happened to be Terah's eldest son opinion which receives confirmation from (1) (Keil), which he was not (vide eh. :ri. 26), or the statement of Horuer('Ociy~s.,'i. 23, 24), because Moses was indifferent to the order in that the Ethiopians were diviclcc! and dwelt v,hich the sons of Terah were introduced at the ends of the earth, towartis the setting (Cal-rin), but because of his spiritual pre- and the rising sun, i. e., accordmg to Strabo, eminence as the head of the theocratic line on both sides of the Arabian Gulf; (2) tho (Wordsworth). Nahor, "Panting," not to primitive traditions (a) of the Greeks, who be confounded with his grandfather of the regarded Memnon, King of Ethiopia, as tho same name (ver. 25). B:a.ran, "Tarrying," fow1der of Susa (Herod., v, 54), 0.nd the son the eldest son of Terah (ver. 26), and, along of 'a Cissian· woman (Stmbo, xv. 3, § 2; (b) ,,ith Abram and N.nhor, reintroduced into of the Nilotic Ethiopians, ·who claimed him the narrative on account of his relationship as one of their monarchs; and .(c) of the to Lot and Milcah. That Terah had other Egyptians, who identifted him with their sous (Calvin) does not appear probable. And King Amunoph III., whose statue became B:a.ran begat Lot. tiiS ; of uncertain ety- known as the vocal l\Icmnon (vide Rawlin- mology, but may be = Cl~~, a concealed, i. e. obscure, low one, or perhaps a dark-coloured son's 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. i. p. 48); (3) the testimon;r of l\Ioses of Chorene (' History of .Armenia, i. 6), who connects in the ob.e (Fiirst). closest way Babylonia, Egypt, and Ethiopia Ver. 28. -And B:a.ran ·• died before his Proper, identifying Belue, King of Babylon, father. Literally, upon tlie face of his with Nimrod, and making him the son of father; lvw1rrnv roii 1ra-rpoc av-roii (LXX); llfizraim, or the grandson of Cush; and (4) while his father -was alive (MDI1ster, Luther, the monumental history of Babylonia, which Calvin, Rosenmiiller); perhaps also in his shows the language of tho earliest inscrip- father's presence (Keil, Lange), though the tions, according to Rawlinson " dilforing Jewish fable may be discarded that Terah, greatly from the later Babylonian,'' to havo 0.t this time an idolater, accused his sons been that of a Tur:mian peoplo (cf. 'Records to Nimrod, who cast them into a furnace of the Past,' vol. iii. p. 3). Tho term Ur for refusing to worship the fire-god, and has been explained to be identical with 'Ir, that Haran perished in the flames in bis a city (Rawlinson); the Zend Varc, a fo1-tress father's sight. The decease of Haran is the (Gesenius); U1·, the light country, i. e. tho lint recorded instance 9f the natural death land of the sun-rising (Fiirst); and even Ui·, CR. :u. 27-3~.] 'rH:m BOOK OF GENESIS. 175