Isaiah 13:19

13:19 Babylon, the most admired ¹  of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ² 

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ³ 

Genesis 11:28

11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, ⁴  while his father Terah was still alive. ⁵ 

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.

Job 1:17

1:17 While this one was still speaking another messenger arrived and said, “The Chaldeans ⁶  formed three bands and made a raid ⁷  on the camels and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! ⁸  And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

Habakkuk 1:6

1:6 Look, I am about to empower ⁹  the Babylonians,

that ruthless ¹⁰  and greedy ¹¹  nation.

They sweep across the surface ¹²  of the earth,

seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.

Acts 7:4

7:4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God ¹³  made him move ¹⁴  to this country where you now live.

[13:19]  ¹ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

[13:19]  ² tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

[13:19]  ³ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.

[11:28]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”

[1:17]  ⁶ sn The name may have been given to the tribes that roamed between the Euphrates and the lands east of the Jordan. These are possibly the nomadic Kaldu who are part of the ethnic Aramaeans. The LXX simply has “horsemen.”

[1:17]  ⁷ tn The verb פָּשַׁט (pashat) means “to hurl themselves” upon something (see Judg 9:33, 41). It was a quick, plundering raid to carry off the camels.

[1:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “with the edge/mouth of the sword.”

[1:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.

[1:6]  ¹² tn Heb “the open spaces.”

[7:4]  ¹³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ¹⁴ tn The translation “made him move” for the verb μετοικίζω (metoikizw) is given by L&N 85.83. The verb has the idea of “resettling” someone (BDAG 643 s.v.); see v. 43, where it reappears.