fire, 'rith epM!al reference to the legendary though receiving apparent sanction from furn!lco already referred to (Talmudists). ver. 31, this opinion "is not supported hy Whether n district (LXX., Lange, Kalisch) any solid argument" (Rosenmi.iller). And or n. city (Josephus, Eusebius, Onkelos, the name of Na.hor's wife, Milca.h (Queen, or Drusius, Keil, Mnl'}!hY, 'Speak~r's C?m• Counsel), the daughter of Haran, i. e. mentary '), its exo.ct site 1s uncert11rn. Rival N ahor's niece. Marriago with a half-sisteT claimants for tho !1onour of representing or a niece was afterwards forbitlden by the it hnve appeared in (1) a Persian fortress Mosaic code (Levit. xviii. 9, 14). The father (Persicum Castcllum) of the name of Ur, of Milcah, and the father of Iscah, whose mentioned by .Ammianus Marccllinus (lxxv. name" Seer" may have been introduced into c. 8) ns lying between Nisibis and the the narrative like that of N aarnah (eh. iv. 22), Tigiis (Bochart, Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, as that ofan eminent lady connected with the Delitzsch) ; (2) the modem Orfah, tlie family (Mnrphy). Ewald's hypothesis, that Edessa of the Greeks, situated "on one of Iscah was Lot's wife, is pure conjecture. the bare, rugged spurs which descend from Ver. 30. - But Sarai was barren; she the mountains of Armenia into the .Assyrian had no child. Perhaps in contrast to :\Iil- plains" (Stanley's 'Jewish Church,' i. 7); cah, who by this time had begun to have a and (3) Hur, the most important of the family (Murphy). early cspitals of Chaldrea, now the ruins of Ver. 31.-And Terah took-an act of Mugheir, at no great distance from the pure human volition on the part of Tcroh mouth, and six miles to the west, of the (Kalisch); under the guidance of Gocl's Euphrates (Rawlinson's '.Ancient Monarch- ordinary providence (Keil) ; but more pro- ies,' i. 15, 16; Smith's '.Assyrian Dis- bably, ns .AbJRm was called in Ur (i·,:de coveries,' xii. 233 ; ' Records of the Past,' infra), prompted by a knowledge of his son's vol. iii. p. 9). Yet none of them is. quite call, ancl a desire to participate in his son's exempt from difficulty. .A military fort, to inheritance (Lange)-Abram his son, and take the first-named location, does not Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and appear a suitable or likely place for a Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's nomade horde to settle in ; while the second wife. The Samaritan reads, "ancl 1Iilcah his has been reckoned too near Charran, the daughter-in-law, the wives of Abram ancl first place of encampment of the emi1-'Tants ; Nabor his sons," with an obvious intentioa aml the third, besides being exceedingly to account for the appearance of N ahor as a remote from Charran, scarcely harmonises settler in Charran (eh. uiv. 10) ; but it fa with Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrim better to understand the mi=tion of N ahor (.Acts vii 2). Unless, therefore, Stephen and his family as having taken place subse- meant Chaldrea when he said Mesopotamia quent to Terah's departure. And they went (Dykes), and .Abra.ham could speak of forth with them. I. e. Lot and Sarai with Northern Mesopotamia as his country (eh. Terah and .Abram (Keil) ; or, better, Terah xxiv. 4), when in reality he belonged to and .Abram with Lot aud Sarai (Jarchi, Rosen- Southern Babylonia, the identification of miiller, Murphy, 'Sreaker's Commentary'); Ur of the Chaldees with the Mugheir ruin though best is the inttrpretation, " and they though regarded with most favour by archre- went forth with each other" (Lange, Kalisch). ologists, will continue to be doubtful ; while, For the reflexive use of the personal pronoun if the clan march commenced at Etlessa, it vide eh. iii. i ; x.-tii. 3, and cf. Gesenins, will always require an effort to account for 'Gram.,' § 124. Other readings are, "and their coming to a halt so soon after sta.rting he Jed them forth" (Samaritan, LXX., Vnl- and so near home ; and the Nisibis station, gate, Dathius), and "and they (the unnamed though apparently more suitable than either members of tho family) went forth with in respect of distance, will remuin encum- those named " (Delitzsch). From Ur of the bered with its own peculiar difficulties. It Cha.ldees, to go into the la:id of Canaun. would seem, therefore, as if the exact situa- Expressive of the Divine destination, rather tion of the patriarchal town or country must the.n of the conscious intention of the tra- be left undetermined until further light can vellers (Heb. xi. 8), though Canaan was not be obtained. at this time unknown to the inhabitants of Ver. 29.-And Abram and Nahor took the Tigris and Euphrates valley (vide eh. them wives (cf. eh. vi. 2) : the name of xiv. 1-12). And they came into Haran. Abram's wife was Sarai. "My princess," Charran, Kappa,, Carrao, in north-west Me- from sarah, to rule (Gesenius, Lange) ; sopotamia, about twenty-five miles from "Strife" (Kalisch, Murphy): "Jah is Edessa, one of the supposed sites of Ur, and ruler" (Furst). The LXX. write l:apa, cele bm ted as tho scene of the overthrow o[ changing afterwards to l:,ip{,a to corre- Crassus by the Parthians (n.c. 63). And spontl with Sarah, That Sarai was Iscah dwelt there. Probably in consequence of (Josephus, Augustine, • Jerome, Jonathan) the growing infhmity of Terah, the period has been. inferred from eh. xx. 12; but, of their sojourn being differently computecl 176 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [OH, XI, 27-81,
according as Abram is regarded as having e.nd must he.ve survived that departure sixty been born in Torah's 70th or 180th .year. years (Kalisch, Dykes) ; wherees if Abrom Yer. 32.-And the daya of Terah were wa.s born in his father's 130th year, thon two hundred and ftva years. So that if Torah must havo Jied beforo his son's de- Abram 11-,,s born in Ternh's 70th year, Torah parture from Hiiran, which ngreos with Aots must have been 145 when Abram left Haran, vii. 4. And Terah died in Harl\n,