[Regular commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, with commentary indicated by “EF”; additional commentary from Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, indicated by “RA.”–Admin1.]
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[RA] 10-26. There are ten generations from Shem to Abraham (as the universal history begins to focus down to a national history) as there are ten from Adam to Noah. In another formal symmetry, the ten antediluvian generations end with a father who begets three sons, just as this series of ten will end with Terah begetting Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This genealogy, which constitutes the bridge from the Flood to the beginning of the Patriarchal Tales, uses formulas identical with those of the antediluvian genealogy in Chapter 5, omitting the summarizing indication of life span and the report of death of each begetter. Longevity is now cut in half, and then halved again in the latter part of the list, as we approach Abram From this point, men will have merely the extraordinary life spans of modern Caucasian mountain dwellers and not legendary life spans. The narrative in this way is preparing to enter recognizable human time and family life. There is one hidden number-game here, as the Israeli Bible scholar Moshe Weinfeld has observed: the number of years from the birth of Shem’s son to Abram’s migration to Canaan is exactly a solar 365.
After the tower of Babel episode, the names of Shem’s descendants are listed, ending with Terach, the father of Abraham:
10 These are the begettings of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old, then he begot Arpakhshad, two years after the Deluge,these are the generations. This new section, leaving Universal History behind, reverts to the main purpose of the First Book of the Torah, which is that of giving a complete account of the founders of the Hebrew race, viz. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their children. Abram is traced back through ten successive generations to Shem, the son of Noah.
[EF] two years after the Deluge: Possibly a typical popular way of telling time (see Amos I:1, “two years after the earthquake”)
11 and Shem lived after he begot Arpakhshad five hundred year, and begot (other) sons and daughters. 12 Arpakhshad lived thirty-five years then he begot Shelah, 13 and Arpakhshad lived after he begot Shelah three years and four hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters. 14 Shelah lived thirty years, then he begot Ever, 15 and Shelah lived after he begot Ever three years and four hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters. 16 When Ever had lived thirty-four years, he begot Peleg,Peleg. See X,25. The descendants of Peleg were omitted from the former chapter because they were to be mentioned here.
17 and Ever lived after he begot Peleg thirty years and four hundred years, and begot other (sons) and daughters. 18 When Peleg had lived thirty years, he begot Re’u, 19 and Peleg lived after he begot Re’u nine years and two hundred years, and begot other (sons) and daughters. 20 When Re’u had lived thirty-two years, he begot Serug, 21 and Re’u lived after he begot Serug seven years and two hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters. 22 When Serug had lived thirty years, he begot Nahor. 23 and Serug lived after he begot Nahor two hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters. 24 When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he begot Terah, 25 and Nahor lived after he begot Terah nineteen years and a hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.
Graphics from inmydaysascripturejourney.blogspot.com26 When Terah had lived seventy years, he begot Avram, Nahor, and Haran.
Abram. The name was in common use at Babylon. ’Abi-rama’ is a witness to a Babylonian deed long before the days of Abraham.
[EF] Avram: Trad. English, “Abram.”
[RA] 27-32. This is a second genealogical document, using different language, and zeroing in on Abram’s immediate family and its migrations.
27 Now these are the begettings of Terah: Terah begot Avram, Nahor, and Haran: and Haran begot Lot.28 Haran died in the living-presence of Terah his father in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
in the presence of. During his father’s lifetime.
[EF] in the living-presence of Terah his father: During his father’s lifetime.
Ur of the Chaldees. Usually identified with Mugheir, a town in the Euphrates some distance east of its junction with the Tigris. The name Ur occurs in the inscriptions in the form Uru, which was one of the old Babylonian royal towns and a centre of the moon-god worship. Astounding discoveries have in recent years been made, and are still being made, in its ruins. These enable us to have a vivid picture of contemporary life in the native city of Abraham.
Chaldees. Is often used in the Bible as a synonym for Babylonians.
29 Avram and Nahor took themselves wives; the name of Avram’s wife was Sarai, the name of Nahor’s wife was Milca—daughter of Haran, father of Milca and father of Yisca.Sarai. The personal names ‘Sarai’ and ‘Nahor’ also occur in Babylonian inscriptions.
Milcah. The importance of mentioning her lies in the fact that she was the ancestress of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac (XXII,20;XXIV,15).
Iscah. This name is the basis for the Shakespearean name Jessica.
30 Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.
[EF] barren, she had no child: This doubling is characteristic of biblical style (formal poetry in the Bible was parallelism of lines).
31 Terah took Avram his son and Lot son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Avram his son, they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan. But when they had come as far as Harran they settled there.Haran. A town on the highway from Mesopotamia to the West; the converging point f the commercial routes from Babylon in the south, Nineveh in the East, and Damascus in the West.
[EF] Harran: An important city and center of moon worship, like Ur. The name means “crossroads.”
[RA] he set out with them. Two small changes in the vocalization of the two Hebrew words here yield “he took them out with him.” This is the reading of the Septuagint and the Samaritan Version.
Haran. In the Hebrew there is no confusion with the name of Abram’s deceased brother, because the latter begins with an aspirated heh, the former with a fricative et.
32 And the days of Terah were five years and two hundred years, then Terah died, in Harran.The death of Terah did not take place till sixty years after Abram had left Haran; but it is recorded here to complete the story of Terah and thus concentrate on the life of Abram.
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S6K: If we gather information from the text alone (vs. 24-32), note the following:
- Terach initiates the move from Ur of the Chaldees to head for the land of Canaan, with his family in tow. Why he decides to make such a move is not explained.
- Family being: Abram and Saray, Lot the grandson from 2nd son Charan who dies, 3rd son Nachor and Milkah.
- Nothing in the text says anything about Terach being an idol maker although we can presume the whole inhabited world at that time must have been idolatrous, since the whole plan of the Creator from the beginning is to make Himself known to ignorant man who keeps looking for Him in all the wrong places and mistaking every phenomenon of nature as Him or caused by Him. Hence, in this cultural context idol making would have been a lucrative business but whether Terach was indeed an idol-maker, that didn’t come from this text.
- They never reach Canaan and instead settle in Charan, no reason is given.
- Terach dies in Charan, perhaps that’s the clue, he’s too old to go any further, but this is just speculation.
- It is possible the surviving family of Terach would have settled permanently in Charan even after Terach’s death, specially if they had established themselves.
- Hence, for Abraham to continue the journey Terach had set out to do would have been a sentimental journey to finish what his father had started, but this is again, speculation.
- What does move Abraham to continue the journey is the divine call.
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