Genesis 11:24-29

11:24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 11:25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Record of Terah

11:27 This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, ¹  while his father Terah was still alive. ²  11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ³  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ⁴  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

Genesis 11:31

11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 17:7

17:7 I will confirm ⁵  my covenant as a perpetual ⁶  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁷ 

Genesis 22:20-24

22:20 After these things Abraham was told, “Milcah ⁸  also has borne children to your brother Nahor – 22:21 Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram), ⁹  22:22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 22:23 (Now ¹⁰  Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) These were the eight sons Milcah bore to Abraham’s brother Nahor. 22:24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children – Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Genesis 24:3-4

24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise ¹¹  by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire ¹²  a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living. 24:4 You must go instead to my country and to my relatives ¹³  to find ¹⁴  a wife for my son Isaac.”

Exodus 3:6

3:6 He added, “I am the God of your father, ¹⁵  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look ¹⁶  at God.

Joshua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ¹⁷  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ¹⁸  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ¹⁹  other gods,

[11:28]  ¹ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

[11:28]  ² tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”

[11:29]  ³ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ⁴ sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[17:7]  ⁵ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[22:20]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the sentence begins with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) which draws attention to the statement.

[22:21]  ⁹ sn This parenthetical note about Kemuel’s descendant is probably a later insertion by the author/compiler of Genesis and not part of the original announcement.

[22:23]  ¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause gives information that is important but parenthetical to the narrative. Rebekah would become the wife of Isaac (Gen 24:15).

[24:3]  ¹¹ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.

[24:3]  ¹² tn Heb “because you must not take.”

[24:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “for to my country and my relatives you must go.”

[24:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and take.”

[3:6]  ¹⁵ sn This self-revelation by Yahweh prepares for the revelation of the holy name. While no verb is used here, the pronoun and the predicate nominative are a construction used throughout scripture to convey the “I am” disclosures – “I [am] the God of….” But the significant point here is the naming of the patriarchs, for this God is the covenant God, who will fulfill his promises.

[3:6]  ¹⁶ tn The clause uses the Hiphil infinitive construct with a preposition after the perfect tense: יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט (yare’ mehabbit, “he was afraid from gazing”) meaning “he was afraid to gaze.” The preposition min (מִן) is used before infinitives after verbs like the one to complete the verb (see BDB 583 s.v. 7b).

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “served.”