The Hebrew Name Game Sets the Scene for Abram and Sarai. Genesis 11:27-32

May the mumbling commence!

There’s just one more, short installment of the Hebrew Name Game before the life of Abram unfolds before us.  Let’s read it from the end of Genesis chapter eleven.  From Peterson’s, The Message:

This is the story of Terah.  Terah had Abram, Nahor and Haran.

            Haran had Lot.  Haran died before his father, Terah, in the country of his family, Ur of the Chaldees.

            Abram and Nahor each got married.  Abram’s wife was Sarai; Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran.  Haran had two daughters, Milcah and Iscah.

            Sarai was barren; she had no children.

            Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and Sarai his daughter-in-law (his son’s Abram’s wife) and set out with them from Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan.  But when they got as far as Haran, they settled down there.

            Terah lived 205 years.  He died in Haran.  (Genesis 11:27-32)

Now read the same passage from the NIV translation:

This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.  While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.  Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.  Now Sarai was barren; she had no children. 

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 

Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.  (Genesis 11:27-32)

In these accounts, these stories, there are only small details different.  I don’t have really any bones to pick with Peterson’s work. 

I would like to focus on the set up for the story of our great ancestors Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah).  It would seem that Terah’s family had fallen on hard times.  First Haran, the youngest of the three sons mentioned, dies prematurely – leaving a son and two daughters behind.  He dies before his father does.  That should never happen.  That’s tragic.

Then Nahor, the middle son, marries one of his nieces…  That’s curious.  No children are mentioned for Nahor and Milcah.

Abram marries Sarai.  And the narrator pointedly states Sarai is barren.  As if that were not enough, he also restates in the same thing directly after… she had no children.

Hard times, indeed!  Perhaps that’s why Terah gathered Abram, Lot and Sarai to leave Ur behind.  They set as a destination Canaan, but they only made it as far as Haran… which was not much different than Ur that he left behind.  The same god was worshiped there – the moon god.

Then Terah died in Haran.  That’s traumatic.  Losing your father can be life changing.

The scene is set.  How will the Lord enter Abram and Sarai’s life?

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out