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Map of the Journeys of Abraham

The journeys of abraham.

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Map of Abram's Journey from Ur to Haran to Egypt

The Bible shifts its focus in Genesis 12 from the history of the entire human race to a man named Abram, the first Hebrew, and he lived in Ur of the Chaldees. Later God appeared to Abram and promised him that if he would leave his country and journey to a land that he has never seen, God would make of his descendants a great nation and through them the Savior of the world would come, through his "seed." Later God changed his name to Abraham which means "father of a many nations" and he obeyed God and journeyed to the land of Canaan. The Lord also spoke a promise that anyone who blessed Abraham and his descendants would be blessed and anyone who cursed Abraham and his descendants would be cursed.

The Journey (Abraham Visits 17 Locations) The land of Canaan would be the inheritance of Abraham's descendants but Abraham would only be a pilgrim there. On his journey to Canaan there were seventeen places that Abraham visited recorded in the Old Testament. Each of these places are important in the history of Israel and there is evidence of their existence in ancient times through archaeology. 1. Ur of the Chaldees was the original home of Abraham. It was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, and Ur was the capital of the ancient Chaldean Empire in ancient Mesopotamia. Sometime around 1900 BC the Lord told Abraham to leave his home and country and go to a land that He would show him. He obeyed and departed from Ur with his father Terah and his nephew Lot. (Gen. 11:31; Acts 7:2-4).

2. Haran in Mesopotamia was the first stopping place recorded inn the Bible. They dwelt here until after the death of his father Terah, and in Haran the Lord called Abraham again (Gen. 12:1-4; Acts 7:4). Nahor, Abraham's brother, had probably settled in Haran before they departed. 3. Damascus was a great city in the ancient world and it was located in ancient Aram (Syria). Abraham and his nephew Lot had departed Haran and followed the leading of the Lord. They moved southward and passed by the city of Damascus along the way and it might have been at this time that Abraham secured his servant Eliezer (Gen. 15:2). 4. Shechem or Sichem was the first place where Abraham came to in Canaan. The Lord appeared to Abraham again and confirmed his promises, and It was here at Shechem that Abraham built the first altar to the Lord (Gen. 12:6, 7). There is much history in this place (Joshua 24:1, Judges 9:6, 1 Kings 12:1). 5. Bethel . Abraham continued his journey southward and came to a mountain near Bethel, where he built a second altar (Genesis 12:8). 6. Egypt . Abraham and his family journeyed southward through the land of Canaan and a major famine hit they migrated to Egypt. In Egypt Abraham deceived the King in order to save his own life and was expelled from the land of Egypt (Gen. 12:9-20). The king of Egypt feared Abraham because of a dream and allowed him to leave with all of his possessions. 7. Bethel . Abraham and his nephew Lot returned to their former home at Bethel, but on account of strife between their herdsmen they parted each others company as friends. (Gen. 13:1-9). 8. Hebron . Lot chose the warm climate and lush plains of the Jordan Valley and pitched his tent toward Sodom, and Abraham left the desirable Sodom and Gomorrah and sojourned at Hebron in Mamre where he heard again from the Lord and built an altar (Gen. 13:10-18). An interesting note is that Hebron was one of the oldest cities in ancient Canaan and Numbers 13:22 says that "it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." 9. Dan . Four kings of the east came to Canaan who were united under Chedorlaomer of Elam (the territory of ancient Ur) and made war against the five kings of Canaan. In their conquest of the Jordan Valley they captured Lot as a prisoner of war, and when Abraham heard of it he pursued the four kings and overtook them at Dan and defeated them with the help of the Lord (Gen. 14:1-14), Abraham had assembled an army of 318 men. The city of Dan was located in the north between Hazor and Damascus. 10. Hobah . Abraham and his army of servants smote the army of the 4 kings of Chedorlaomer and chased them to Hobah, which was located near Damascus. Lot and all the people with them were rescued including their belongings (Gen. 14:15, 16). 11. Salem . On his return Abraham passed through Salem (Jerusalem) and was met by a man named Melchizedek whose name means "king of righteousness". Melchizedek was a mysterious man regarded in the Bible as the priest and king of Salem. This was the first mention of the word "priest" in the Bible and he gave to Abraham bread and wine. The Bible also mentions that Abraham paid him 1/10th of all his spoils from the war as a "tithe". Hebrews 7:3 gives an interesting description of Melchizedek and therefore his identity remains a mystery. The king of Sodom also came out to meet Abraham at the same place (Gen. 14:17-21). 12. Hebron . When Abraham finally returned to Hebron God reminded him of his covenant with him and changed his name from Abram to Abraham (Gen. 15:1-21; 17:1-27). During his stay at this place Ishmael was born (Gen. 16: 1-16) and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed (Gen. 18:1 - 19:38) 13. Gerar . Abraham left Hebron and for a time sojourned among the Philistines in Gerar which was in southern Canaan west of Beersheba. It was in Gerar that Abraham deceived King Abimelech (Gen. 20:1-18). 14. Beersheba . Abraham remained at Beersheba for some time. During this time he made a covenant with king Abimelech. Later he gave birth to a natural son of him and Sarah in his old age, he named him Isaac which means "laughter". When Isaac was born Ishmael was expelled and his mother Hagar fled and was met by "the Angel of the Lord" which was the Lord Himself (Gen. 21:1-34). 15. Moriah . It was in Beersheba that Abraham received the command from the Lord to take his only son Isaac to Mount Moriah, a mountain of Salem, to offer Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:1-18). 16. Beersheba . Abraham returned to Beersheba and dwelt there for some time. 17. Hebron . Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah as the family sepulcher and buried his wife Sarah there (Gen. 23: 1-20). At the age of 175 Abraham died, and was also buried in the cave at Machpelah.

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Map of the World of Abraham

Ur of the Chaldees

Ur in Easton's Bible Dictionary light, or the moon city, a city "of the Chaldees," the birthplace of Haran (Gen. 11:28,31), the largest city of Shinar or northern Chaldea, and the principal commercial centre of the country as well as the centre of political power. It stood near the mouth of the Euphrates, on its western bank, and is represented by the mounds (of bricks cemented by bitumen) of el-Mugheir, i.e., "the bitumined," or "the town of bitumen," now 150 miles from the sea and some 6 miles from the Euphrates, a little above the point where it receives the Shat el-Hie, an affluent from the Tigris. It was formerly a maritime city, as the waters of the Persian Gulf reached thus far inland. Ur was the port of Babylonia, whence trade was carried on with the dwellers on the gulf, and with the distant countries of India, Ethiopia, and Egypt. It was abandoned about B.C. 500, but long continued, like Erech, to be a great sacred cemetery city, as is evident from the number of tombs found there. (See ABRAHAM The oldest king of Ur known to us is Ur-Ba'u (servant of the goddess Ba'u), as Hommel reads the name, or Ur-Gur, as others read it. He lived some twenty-eight hundred years B.C., and took part in building the famous temple of the moon-god Sin in Ur itself. The illustration here given represents his cuneiform inscription, written in the Sumerian language, and stamped upon every brick of the temple in Ur. It reads: "Ur-Ba'u, king of Ur, who built the temple of the moon-god." "Ur was consecrated to the worship of Sin, the Babylonian moon-god. It shared this honour, however, with another city, and this city was Haran, or Harran. Harran was in Mesopotamia, and took its name from the highroad which led through it from the east to the west. The name is Babylonian, and bears witness to its having been founded by a Babylonian king. The same witness is still more decisively borne by the worship paid in it to the Babylonian moon-god and by its ancient temple of Sin. Indeed, the temple of the moon-god at Harran was perhaps even more famous in the Assyrian and Babylonian world than the temple of the moon-god at Ur. "Between Ur and Harran there must, consequently, have been a close connection in early times, the record of which has not yet been recovered. It may be that Harran owed its foundation to a king of Ur; at any rate the two cities were bound together by the worship of the same deity, the closest and most enduring bond of union that existed in the ancient world. That Terah should have migrated from Ur to Harran, therefore, ceases to be extraordinary. If he left Ur at all, it was the most natural place to which to go. It was like passing from one court of a temple into another. "Such a remarkable coincidence between the Biblical narrative and the evidence of archaeological research cannot be the result of chance. The narrative must be historical; no writer of late date, even if he were a Babylonian, could have invented a story so exactly in accordance with what we now know to have been the truth. For a story of the kind to have been the invention of Palestinian tradition is equally impossible. To the unprejudiced mind there is no escape from the conclusion that the history of the migration of Terah from Ur to Harran is founded on fact" (Sayce). Ur in Fausset's Bible Dictionary Of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:28; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7), from which Terah, Abraham, and Lot were called. In Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2). Now Mugheir (a ruined temple of large bitumen bricks, which also "mugheir" means, namely, Um Mugheir "mother of bitumen"), on the right bank of the Euphrates, near its junction with the Shat el Hie from the Tigris; in Chaldaea proper. Called Hur by the natives, and on monuments Ur. The most ancient city of the older Chaldaea. Its bricks bear the name of the earliest monumental kings, "Urukh king of Ur"; his kingdom extended as far N. as Niffer. The royal lists on the monuments enumerate Babylonian kings from Urukh (2230 B.C., possibly the Orchanus of Ovid, Met. 4:212) down to Nabonid (540 B.C.) the last. The temple was sacred to 'Urki, the moon goddess; Ilgi son of Urukh completed it. For two centuries it was the capital, and always was held sacred. One district was "Ibra," perhaps related to "Hebrew," Abraham's designation. Ur was also a cemetery and city of tombs, doubtless because of its sacred character, from whence the dead were brought to it from vast distances for 1,800 years. Eupolemos (in Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 9:17) refers to Ur as "the moon worshipping (kamarine; kamar being Arabic for moon) city." The derivation from Ur, "fire," led to the Koran and Talmud legends that Abraham miraculously escaped out of the flames into which Nimrod or other idolatrous persecutors threw him. Ur lies six miles distant from the present coarse of the Euphrates, and 125 from the sea; though it is thought it was anciently a maritime town, and that its present inland site is due to the accumulation of alluvium (?). The buildings are of the most archaic kind, consisting of low mounds enclosed within an enceinte, on most sides perfect, an oval space 1,000 yards long by 800 broad. The temple is thoroughly Chaldaean in type, in stages of which two remain, of brick partly sunburnt, partly baked, cemented with bitumen. Ur in Hitchcock's Bible Names fire Ur in Naves Topical Bible 1. Abraham's native place Ge 11:27,28 Abraham leaves Ge 11:31; 15:7; Ne 9:7 -2. Father of one of David's mighty men 1Ch 11:35 Ur in Smiths Bible Dictionary was the land of Haran's nativity, Ge 11:28 the place from which Terah and Abraham started "to go into the land of Canaan." Ge 11:31 It is called in Genesis "Ur of the Chaldaeans," while in the Acts St. Stephen places it, by implication, in Mesopotamia. Ac 7:2,4 These are all the indications which Scripture furnishes as to its locality. It has been identified by the most ancient traditions with the city of Orfah in the highlands of Mesopotamia, which unite the table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates. In later ages it was called Edessa, and was celebrated as the capital of Abgarus or Acbarus who was said to have received the letter and portrait of our Saviour. "Two, physical features must have secured Orfah, from the earliest times, as a nucleus for the civilization of those regions. One is a high-crested crag, the natural fortifications of the crested citadel....The other is an abundant spring, issuing in a pool of transparent clearness, and embosomed in a mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around, makes and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldaean wilderness. Round this sacred pool,'the beautiful spring Callirrhoe,' as it was called by the Greek writers, gather the modern traditions of the patriarch." --Stanley, Jewish Church, part i.p.7. A second tradition, which appears in the Talmud, finds Ur in Warka, 120 miles southeast from Babylon and four east of the Euphrates. It was the Orchoe of the Greeks, and probably the Ereck of Holy Scripture. This place bears the name of Huruk in the native inscriptions, and was in the countries known to the Jews as the land of the Chaldaeans. But in opposition to the most ancient traditions, many modern writers have fixed the site of Ur at a very different position, viz. in the extreme south of Chaldaea, at Mugheir, not very far above-- and probably in the time of Abraham actually upon-- the head of the Persian Gulf. Among the ruins which are now seen at the spot are the remains of one of the great temples, of a model similar to that of Babel, dedicated to the moon, to whom the city was sacred. (Porter and Rawlinson favor this last place.) Ur in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE ur ('ur, "flame"; Codex Vaticanus Sthur; Codex Sinaiticus Ora): Father of Eliphal, one of David's "mighty men," in 1 Ch 11:35; in the parallel 2 Sam 23:34 called "Ahasbai." Ur Scripture - Genesis 11:28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. https://bible-history.com/...

2 Kings 25:13 - And the pillars of brass that [were] in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that [was] in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. 2 Kings 24:2 - And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees , and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets. 2 Chronicles 36:17 - Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees , who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave [them] all into his hand. Genesis 11:31 - And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees , to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 2 Kings 25:4 - And the city was broken up, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which [is] by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees [were] against the city round about:) and [the king] went the way toward the plain. Genesis 15:7 - And he said unto him, I [am] the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees , to give thee this land to inherit it. 2 Kings 25:5 - And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. 2 Kings 25:25 - But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah. 2 Kings 25:24 - And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees : dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you. 2 Kings 25:26 - And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees . Nehemiah 9:7 - Thou [art] the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees , and gavest him the name of Abraham; Isaiah 13:19 - And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees ' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 Kings 25:10 - And all the army of the Chaldees , that [were with] the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Genesis 11:28 - And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees .

Ancient Haran

Haran in Easton's Bible Dictionary (1.) Heb. haran; i.e., "mountaineer." The eldest son of Terah, brother of Abraham and Nahor, and father of Lot, Milcah, and Iscah. He died before his father (Gen. 11:27), in Ur of the Chaldees. (2.) Heb. haran, i.e., "parched;" or probably from the Accadian charana, meaning "a road." A celebrated city of Western Asia, now Harran, where Abram remained, after he left Ur of the Chaldees, till his father Terah died (Gen. 11:31, 32), when he continued his journey into the land of Canaan. It is called "Charran" in the LXX. and in Acts 7:2. It is called the "city of Nahor" (Gen. 24:10), and Jacob resided here with Laban (30:43). It stood on the river Belik, an affluent of the Euphrates, about 70 miles above where it joins that river in Upper Mesopotamia or Padan-aram, and about 600 miles northwest of Ur in a direct line. It was on the caravan route between the east and west. It is afterwards mentioned among the towns taken by the king of Assyria (2 Kings 19:12; Isa. 37:12). It was known to the Greeks and Romans under the name Carrhae. (3.) The son of Caleb of Judah (1 Chr. 2:46) by his concubine Ephah. Haran in Fausset's Bible Dictionary HARAN was Terah's firstborn son, oldest brother of Abram (who is named first in Genesis 11:27, because heir of the promises), father of Lot, and Milcah who married her uncle Nahor, and Iscah or Sarai who married her uncle Abram, being "daughter (i.e. granddaughter) of his father not of his mother" (Genesis 20:12). That Haran was oldest brother appears from his brothers marrying his daughters, Sarai being only ten years younger than Abram (Genesis 17:17). Haran died in Ur, his native place, before his father. In the Hebrew the country Haran begins with 'ch', the man Haran with 'h', as also the Haran the Gershonite Levite under David of Shimei's family (1 Chronicles 23:9). Hara begins with 'h'; Caleb's son by Ephah (1 Chronicles 2:46) begins with 'ch'. Jewish tradition makes Haran to have been cast into Nimrod's furnace for wavering during Abram's fiery trial. Haran in Hitchcock's Bible Names mountainous country Haran in Naves Topical Bible 1. Father of Lot and brother of Abraham Ge 11:26-31 -2. Son of Caleb 1Ch 2:46 -3. A Levite 1Ch 23:9 -4. Also called CHARRAN A place in Mesopotamia to which Terah and Abraham migrated Ge 11:31; 12:4,5; Ac 7:4 Death of Terah at Ge 11:32 Abraham leaves, by divine command Ge 12:1-5 Jacob flees to Ge 27:43; 28:7; 29 Returns from, with Rachel and Leah Ge 31:17-21 Conquest of, king of Assyria 2Ki 19:12 Merchants of Eze 27:23 Idolatry in Jos 24:2,14; Isa 37:12 Haran in Smiths Bible Dictionary (a mountaineer). 1. The third son of Terah, and therefore youngest brother of Abram. Ge 11:26 (B.C. 1926.) Three children are ascribed to him --Lot, vs. Ge 11:27,31 and two daughters, viz., Milcah, who married her uncle Nahor, ver. Ge 11:29 and Iscah. ver. Ge 11:29 Haran was born in Ur of the Chaldees, and he died there while his father was still living. ver. Ge 11:28 2. A Gershonite Levite in the time of David, one of the family of Shimei. 1Ch 23:9 3. A son of the great Caleb by his concubine Ephah. 1Ch 2:46 4. HARAN or CHARRAN, Ac 7:2,4 name of the place whither Abraham migrated with his family from Ur of the Chaldees, and where the descendants of his brother Nahor established themselves. Comp. Ge 24:10 with Gene 27:43 It is said to be in Mesopotamia, Ge 24:10 or more definitely in Padan-aram, ch. Ge 25:20 the cultivated district at the foot of the hills, a name well applying to the beautiful stretch of country which lies below Mount Masius between the Khabour and the Euphrates. Here, about midway in this district, is a small village still called Harran. It was celebrated among the Romans, under the name of Charrae, as the scene of the defeat of Crassus. Haran in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE ha'-ran (charan; Charhran): The city where Terah settled on his departure from Ur (Gen 11:31 f); whence Abram set out on his pilgrimage of faith to Canaan (Gen 12:1 ff). It was probably "the city of Nahor" to which Abraham's servant came to find a wife for Isaac (Gen 24:10 ff). Hither came Jacob when he fled from Esau's anger (Gen 27:43). Here he met his bride (Gen 29:4), and in the neighboring pastures he tended the flocks of Laban. It is one of the cities named by Rabshakeh as destroyed by the king of Assyria (2 Ki 19:12; Isa 37:12). Ezekiel speaks of the merchants of Haran as trading with Tyre (27:23). The name appears in Assyro-Babalonian as Charran, which means "road"; possibly because here the trade route from Damascus joined that from Nineveh to Carchemish. It is mentioned in the prism inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. It was a seat of the worship of Sin, the moon-god, from very ancient times. A temple was built by Shalmaneser II. Haran seems to have shared in the rebellion of Assur (763 BC, the year of the solar eclipse, June 15). The privileges then lost were restored by Sargon II. The temple, which had been destroyed, was rebuilt by Ashurbanipal, who was here crowned with the crown of Sin. Haran and the temple suffered much damage in the invasion of the Umman-Manda (the Medes). Nabuna`id restored temple and city, adorning them on a lavish scale. Near Haran the Parthians defeated and slew Crassus (53 BC), and here Caracalla was assassinated (217 AD). In the 4th century it was the seat of a bishopric; but the cult of the moon persisted far into the Christian centuries. The chief temple was the scene of heathen worship until the 11th century, and was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th. The ancient city is represented by the modern Charran to the Southeast of Edessa, on the river Belias, an affluent of the Euphrates. The ruins lie on both sides of the stream, and include those of a very ancient castle, built of great basaltic blocks, with square columns, 8 ft. thick, which support an arched roof some 30 ft. in height. Remains of the old cathedral are also conspicuous. No inscriptions have yet been found here, but a fragment of an Assyrian lion has been uncovered. A well nearby is identified as that where Eliezer met Rebekah. In Acts 7:2,4, the King James Version gives the name as Charran. Genesis 11:29 - And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife [was] Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran , the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. Genesis 12:4 - So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran . Genesis 12:5 - And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran ; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. Genesis 11:32 - And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran . Ezekiel 27:23 - Haran , and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, [and] Chilmad, [were] thy merchants. 2 Kings 19:12 - Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; [as] Gozan, and Haran , and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which [were] in Thelasar? Isaiah 37:12 - Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, [as] Gozan, and Haran , and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which [were] in Telassar? Genesis 11:26 - And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran . Genesis 27:43 - Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran ; 1 Chronicles 23:9 - The sons of Shimei; Shelomith, and Haziel, and Haran , three. These [were] the chief of the fathers of Laadan. Genesis 11:28 - And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. Genesis 28:10 - And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran . Genesis 29:4 - And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence [be] ye? And they said, Of Haran [are] we. Genesis 11:27 - Now these [are] the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran ; and Haran begat Lot. 1 Chronicles 2:46 - And Ephah, Caleb's concubine, bare Haran , and Moza, and Gazez: and Haran begat Gazez. Genesis 11:31 - And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran , and dwelt there.

THE city of Nabulus, one of the most ancient in Israel, is also one of the most interesting. It lies in the beautiful Valley of Shechem, which is about 500 yards wide, between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. The place was originally called Shechem, and it was the first spot where Abraham pitched his tent after entering Canaan. It was a prominent place in the days of the Patriarchs, and is frequently mentioned in the Book of Genesis. It became, four centuries later, the first great gathering place of the Israelites after their occupation of the Promised Land. (Josh. 8:30-35.) Shechem was assigned to the Levites, and made a city of refuge. It was the first capital of the kingdom of Israel. It was called by the Romans Neapolis, and the Arabs have corrupted this into Nabulus, its modern name. Near the city is the well at which the Saviour held his discourse with the woman of Samaria. Jacob's well and the tomb of Joseph are also close by in the valley. A small remnant of the ancient Samaritans dwell here still, despised and persecuted by their Mahommedan masters. - Ancient Geography

Shechem in Easton's Bible Dictionary shoulder. (1.) The son of Hamor the Hivite (Gen. 33:19; 34). (2.) A descendant of Manasseh (Num. 26:31; Josh. 17:2). (3.) A city in Samaria (Gen. 33:18), called also Sichem (12:6), Sychem (Acts 7:16). It stood in the narrow sheltered valley between Ebal on the north and Gerizim on the south, these mountains at their base being only some 500 yards apart. Here Abraham pitched his tent and built his first altar in the Promised Land, and received the first divine promise (Gen. 12:6, 7). Here also Jacob "bought a parcel of a field at the hands of the children of Hamor" after his return from Mesopotamia, and settled with his household, which he purged from idolatry by burying the teraphim of his followers under an oak tree, which was afterwards called "the oak of the sorcerer" (Gen. 33:19; 35:4; Judg. 9:37). (See MEONENIM ¯T0002483.) Here too, after a while, he dug a well, which bears his name to this day (John 4:5, 39-42). To Shechem Joshua gathered all Israel "before God," and delivered to them his second parting address (Josh. 24:1-15). He "made a covenant with the people that day" at the very place where, on first entering the land, they had responded to the law from Ebal and Gerizim (Josh. 24:25), the terms of which were recorded "in the book of the law of God", i.e., in the roll of the law of Moses; and in memory of this solemn transaction a great stone was set up "under an oak" (comp. Gen. 28:18; 31:44-48; Ex. 24:4; Josh. 4:3, 8, 9), possibly the old "oak of Moreh," as a silent witness of the transaction to all coming time. Shechem became one of the cities of refuge, the central city of refuge for Western Israel (Josh. 20:7), and here the bones of Joseph were buried (24:32). Rehoboam was appointed king in Shechem (1 Kings 12:1, 19), but Jeroboam afterwards took up his residence here. This city is mentioned in connection with our Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria (John 4:5); and thus, remaining as it does to the present day, it is one of the oldest cities of the world. It is the modern Nablus, a contraction for Neapolis, the name given to it by Vespasian. It lies about a mile and a half up the valley on its southern slope, and on the north of Gerizim, which rises about 1,100 feet above it, and is about 34 miles north of Jerusalem. It contains about 10,000 inhabitants, of whom about 160 are Samaritans and 100 Jews, the rest being Christians and Mohammedans. The site of Shechem is said to be of unrivalled beauty. Stanley says it is "the most beautiful, perhaps the only very beautiful, spot in Central Israel." Gaza, near Shechem, only mentioned 1 Chr. 7:28, has entirely disappeared. It was destroyed at the time of the Conquest, and its place was taken by Shechem. (See SYCHAR ¯T0003542.) Shechem in Fausset's Bible Dictionary ("shoulder", or "upper part of the back just below the neck"); explained as if the town were on the shoulder of the heights dividing the waters that flow toward the Mediterranean on the W. and to the Jordan on the E.; or on a shoulder or ridge connected with Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Also called SICHEM, SYCHEM, and SYCHAR (John 4:5; Joshua 20:7; Judges 9:9; 1 Kings 12:25). Mount Gerizim is close by (Judges 9:7) on the southern side, Mount Ebal on the northern side. These hills at the base are but 500 yards apart. Vespasian named it Neapolis; coins are extant with its name "Flavia Neapolis"; now Nablus by corruption. The situation is lovely; the valley runs W. with a soil of rich, black, vegetable mold, watered by fountains, sending forth numerous streams flowing W.; orchards of fruit, olive groves, gardens of vegetables, and verdure on all sides delight the eye. On the E. of Gerizim and Ebal the flue plain of Mukhna stretches from N. to S. Here first in Canaan God appeared to Abraham (Genesis 12:6), and here he pitched his tent and built an altar under the oak or terebinth (not "plain") of Moreh; here too Jacob re-entered the promised land (Genesis 33:18- 19), and "bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent," from the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, and bequeathed it subsequently to Joseph (Genesis 48:22; Joshua 24:32; John 4:5); a dwelling place, whereas Abraham's only purchase was a burial place. It lay in the rich plain of the Mukhna, and its value was increased by the well Jacob dug there. Joshua made "Shechem in Mount Ephraim" one of the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7). The suburbs in our Lord's days reached nearer the entrance of the valley between Gerizim and Ebal than now; for the narrative in John 4:30; John 4:35, implies that the people could be seen as they came from the town toward Jesus at the well, whereas Nablus now is more than a mile distant, and cannot be seen from that point. Josephus (B. J. 3:7, section 32) says that more than 10,000 of the inhabitants were once destroyed by the Romans, implying a much larger town and population than at present. (See DINAH; HAMOR.) frontJACOB on the massacre by Simeon and Levi, Genesis 34.) Under Abraham's oak at Shechem Jacob buried the family idols and amulets (Genesis 35:1-4). Probably too "the strange gods" or "the gods of the stranger" were those carried away by Jacob's sons from Shechem among the spoils (Genesis 35:2; Genesis 34:26-29). The charge to "be clean and change garments" may have respect to the recent slaughter of the Shechemites, which polluted those who took part in it (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences). Shechem was for a time Ephraim's civil capital. as Shiloh was its religious capital (Judges 9:2; Judges 21:19; Joshua 24:1-25-26; 1 Kings 12:1). At the same "memorial terebinth" at Shechem the Shechemites made Abimelech king (Judges 9:6). Jotham's parable as to the trees, the vine, the fig, and the bramble, were most appropriate... Shechem in Hitchcock's Bible Names part; portion; back early in the morning Shechem in Naves Topical Bible 1. Also called SICHEM and SYCHEM, a district in the central part of the land of Canaan Abraham lives in Ge 12:6 The flocks and herds of Jacob kept in Ge 37:12-14 Joseph buried in Jos 24:32 Jacob buried in Ac 7:16; with Ge 50:13 -2. Also called SYCHAR, a city of refuge in Mount Ephraim Jos 20:7; 21:21; Jud 21:19 Joshua assembled the tribes of Israel at, with all their elders, chiefs, and judges, and presented them before the Lord Jos 24:1-28 Joshua buried at Jos 24:30-32 Abimelech made king at Jud 8:31; 9 Rehoboam crowned at 1Ki 12:1 Destroyed by Abimelech Jud 9:45 Rebuilt by Jeroboam 1Ki 12:25 Men of, killed by Ishmael Jer 41:5 Jesus visits; disciples made in Joh 4:1-42 -3. Son of Hamor; seduces Jacob's daughter; killed by Jacob's sons Ge 33:19; 34; Jos 24:32; Jud 9:28 Called SYCHEM Ac 7:16 -4. Ancestor of the Shechemites Nu 26:31; Jos 17:2 -5. Son of Shemidah 1Ch 7:19 Shechem in Smiths Bible Dictionary (back or shoulder). 1. An important city in central Israel, in the valley between mounts Ebal and Gerizim, 34 miles north of Jerusalem and 7 miles southeast of Samaria. Its present name, Nablus, is a corruption of Neapolis, which succeeded the more ancient Shechem, and received its new name from Vespasian. On coins still extant it is called Flavia Neapolis. The situation of the town is one of surpassing beauty. It lies in a sheltered valley, protected by Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north. The feet of these mountains, where they rise from the town, are not more than five hundred yards apart. The bottom of the valley is about 1800 feet above the level of the sea, and the top of Gerizim 800 feet higher still. The sit of the present city, which was also that of the Hebrew city, occurs exactly on the water-summit; and streams issuing from the numerous springs there flow down the opposite slopes of the valley, spreading verdure and fertility in every direction. Travellers vie with each other in the language which they employ to describe the scene that here bursts so suddenly upon them on arriving in spring or early summer at this paradise of the holy land. "The whole valley," says Dr. Robinson, "was filled with gardens of vegetables and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by fountains which burst forth in various parts and flow westward in refreshing streams. it came upon us suddenly like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Israel." The allusions to Shechem in the Bible are numerous, and show how important the place was in Jewish history. Abraham, on his first migration to the land of promise, pitched his tent and built an altar under the oak (or terebinth) of Moreh at Shechem. "The Canaanite was then in the land;" and it is evident that the region, if not the city, was already in possession of the aboriginal race. See Ge 12:6 At the time of Jacob's arrival here, after his sojourn in Mesopotamia, Ge 33:18; 34 Shechem was a Hivite city, of which Hamor, the father of Shechem, was the headman. it was at this time that the patriarch purchased from that chieftain "the parcel of the field" which he subsequently bequeathed, as a special patrimony, to his son Joseph. Ge 33:19; Jos 24:32; Joh 4:5 The field lay undoubtedly on the rich plain of the Mukhna, and its value was the greater on account of the well which Jacob had dug there, so as not to be dependent on his neighbors for a supply of water. In the distribution of the land after its conquest by the Hebrews, Shechem fell to the lot of Ephraim, Jos 20:7 but was assigned to the Levites, and became a city of refuge. Jos 21:20,21 It acquired new importance as the scene of the renewed promulgation of the law, when its blessings were heard from Gerizim and its curses from Ebal, and the people bowed their heads and acknowledged Jehovah as their king and ruler. De 27:11; Jos 24:23-25 it was here Joshua assembled the people, shortly before his death, and delivered... Shechem in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE she'-kem (shekhem, "shoulder"; Suchem, he Sikima, ta Sikima, etc.; the King James Version gives "Sichem" in Gen 12:6; and "Sychem" in Acts 7:16): 1. Historical: This place is first mentioned in connection with Abraham's journey from Haran. At the oak of Moreh in the vicinity he reared his first altar to the Lord in Israel (Gen 12:6 f). It was doubtless by this oak that Jacob, on his return from Paddan-aram, buried "the strange (the American Standard Revised Version "foreign") gods" (Gen 35:4). Hither he had come after his meeting with Esau (Gen 33:18). Eusebius, in Onomasticon, here identifies Shechem with Shalem; but see SHALEM. To the East of the city Jacob pitched his tent in a "parcel of ground" which he had bought from Hamor, Shechem's father (Gen 33:19). Here also he raised an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel, "God, the God of Israel" (Gen 33:20). Then follows the story of Dinah's defilement by Shechem, son of the city's chief; and of the treacherous and terrible vengeance exacted by Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34). To the rich pasture land near Shechem Joseph came to seek his brethren (Gen 37:12 ff). It is mentioned as lying to the West of Michmethath (el-Makhneh) on the boundary of Manasseh (Josh 17:7). It was in the territory of Ephraim; it was made a city of refuge, and assigned to the Kohathite Levites (Josh 20:7; 21:21). Near the city the Law was promulgated (Dt 27:11; Josh 8:33). When his end was approaching Joshua gathered the tribes of Israel here and addressed to them his final words of counsel and exhortation (chapter 24). Under the oak in the neighboring sanctuary he set up the stone of witness (24:26). The war of conquest being done, Joseph's bones were buried in the parcel of ground which Jacob had bought, and which fell to the lot of Joseph's descendants (24:33). Abimelech, whose mother was a native of the city, persuaded the men of Shechem to make him king (Jdg 9:1-6), evidently seeking a certain consecration from association with "the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem." Jotham's parable was spoken from the cliff of Gerizim overhanging the town (Jdg 9:7 ff). After a reign of three years Abimelech was rejected by the people. He captured the city, razed it to the foundations, and sowed it with salt. It was then the seat of Canaanite idolatry, the temple of Baal-berith being here (Jdg 9:4,46). In the time of the kings we find that the city was once more a gathering-place of the nation. It was evidently the center, especially for the northern tribes; and hither Rehoboam came in the hope of getting his succession to the throne confirmed (1 Ki 12:1; 2 Ch 10:1). At the disruption Jeroboam fortified the city and made it his residence (2 Ch 10:25; Ant, VIII, viii, 4). The capital of the Northern Kingdom was moved, however, first to Tirzah and then to Samaria, and Shechem declined in political importance. Indeed it is not named again in the history of the monarchy. Apparently there were Israelites in it after the captivity, some of whom on their way to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem met a tragic fate at the hands of Ishmael ben Nethaniah (Jer 41:5 ff). It became the central city of the Samaritans, whose shrine...

Joshua 17:2 - There was also [a lot] for the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem , and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these [were] the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph by their families. 1 Chronicles 7:28 - And their possessions and habitations [were], Bethel and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof: Genesis 34:24 - And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. 1 Chronicles 6:67 - And they gave unto them, [of] the cities of refuge, Shechem in mount Ephraim with her suburbs; [they gave] also Gezer with her suburbs, Judges 21:19 - Then they said, Behold, [there is] a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly [in a place] which [is] on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem , and on the south of Lebonah. Genesis 34:20 - And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, Numbers 26:31 - And [of] Asriel, the family of the Asrielites: and [of] Shechem , the family of the Shechem ites: Judges 9:2 - Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem , Whether [is] better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, [which are] threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I [am] your bone and your flesh. Joshua 20:7 - And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which [is] Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. Joshua 24:1 - And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem , and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. Judges 9:31 - And he sent messengers unto Abimelech privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem ; and, behold, they fortify the city against thee. Judges 9:49 - And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put [them] to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. Judges 9:7 - And when they told [it] to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem , that God may hearken unto you. Genesis 33:18 - And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem , which [is] in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. Joshua 21:21 - For they gave them Shechem with her suburbs in mount Ephraim, [to be] a city of refuge for the slayer; and Gezer with her suburbs, Judges 9:1 - And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, 1 Kings 12:25 - Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. Genesis 35:4 - And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which [were] in their hand, and [all their] earrings which [were] in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which [was] by Shechem . Judges 9:18 - And ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem , because he [is] your brother;) Jeremiah 41:5 - That there came certain from Shechem , from Shiloh, and from Samaria, [even] fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring [them] to the house of the LORD. Judges 9:24 - That the cruelty [done] to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem , which aided him in the killing of his brethren. Judges 9:3 - And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He [is] our brother. Genesis 34:13 - And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister: Joshua 17:7 - And the coast of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethah, that [lieth] before Shechem ; and the border went along on the right hand unto the inhabitants of Entappuah. Genesis 34:8 - And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife. Genesis 37:14 - And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem . Judges 9:41 - And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem . Psalms 60:6 - God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem , and mete out the valley of Succoth. Psalms 108:7 - God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem , and mete out the valley of Succoth. Genesis 34:26 - And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem 's house, and went out.

HEBRON is one of the most ancient cities in the world still existing, and it is in this respect the rival of Damascus. It was originally called Kirjath-Arba, " The city of Arba." It was afterwards known as Mamre. The vicinity was long the favorite camping-ground of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelt here, and it was here that Abraham bought a tomb - the Cave of Machpelah. After the occupation of the land by the Israelites, Hebron became one of the cities of refuge. It was David's first capital. The town was situated in a narrow valley - the "Valley of the Eschol; " whose sides are clothed with vineyards, groves of olives, and other fruit trees. The valley runs from north to south, and the main quarter of the town, surmounted by the lofty walls of the great mosque, lies partly on the eastern slope. The houses are stone, solidly built, flat-roofed, and have each one or two little cupolas, such as are seen in several parts of Israel. The town has no walls; but the main streets opening on the principal roads have gates. The population is about 8000, of which about 600 are Jews; the remainder Turks and Arabs. - Ancient Geography

Hebron in Easton's Bible Dictionary a community; alliance. (1.) A city in the south end of the valley of Eshcol, about midway between Jerusalem and Beersheba, from which it is distant about 20 miles in a straight line. It was built "seven years before Zoan in Egypt" (Gen. 13:18; Num. 13:22). It still exists under the same name, and is one of the most ancient cities in the world. Its earlier name was Kirjath-arba (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 14:15; 15:3). But "Hebron would appear to have been the original name of the city, and it was not till after Abraham's stay there that it received the name Kirjath-arba, who [i.e., Arba] was not the founder but the conqueror of the city, having led thither the tribe of the Anakim, to which he belonged. It retained this name till it came into the possession of Caleb, when the Israelites restored the original name Hebron" (Keil, Com.). The name of this city does not occur in any of the prophets or in the New Testament. It is found about forty times in the Old. It was the favorite home of Abraham. Here he pitched his tent under the oaks of Mamre, by which name it came afterwards to be known; and here Sarah died, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 23:17- 20), which he bought from Ephron the Hittite. From this place the patriarch departed for Egypt by way of Beersheba (37:14; 46:1). It was taken by Joshua and given to Caleb (Josh. 10:36, 37; 12:10; 14:13). It became a Levitical city and a city of refuge (20:7; 21:11). When David became king of Judah this was his royal residence, and he resided here for seven and a half years (2 Sam. 5:5); and here he was anointed as king over all Israel (2 Sam. 2:1-4, 11; 1 Kings 2:11). It became the residence also of the rebellious Absalom (2 Sam. 15:10), who probably expected to find his chief support in the tribe of Judah, now called el-Khulil. In one part of the modern city is a great mosque, which is built over the grave of Machpelah. The first European who was permitted to enter this mosque was the Prince of Wales in 1862. It was also visited by the Marquis of Bute in 1866, and by the late Emperor Frederick of Germany (then Crown-Prince of Prussia) in 1869. One of the largest oaks in Israel is found in the valley of Eshcol, about 3 miles north of the town. It is supposed by some to be the tree under which Abraham pitched his tent, and is called "Abraham's oak." (See OAK ¯T0002758.) (2.) The third son of Kohath the Levite (Ex. 6:18; 1 Chr. 6:2, 18). (3.) 1 Chr. 2:42, 43. (4.) A town in the north border of Asher (Josh. 19:28). Hebron in Fausset's Bible Dictionary 1. Third son of Kohath; younger brother of Amram, father of Moses and Aaron (Exodus 6:18). The family of Hebronites sprang from him. In the 40th year of David's reign 2,700 of them, at Jazer in Gilead, "mighty men of valor," superintended for the king the two and a half tribes "in matters pertaining to God and the king" (1 Chronicles 26:30- 32); Jerijah was their chief. Also Hashabiah and 1,700 Hebronites were officers "in all the Lord's business and the king's service" on the W. of Jordan. 2. 1 Chronicles 2:42-43. 3. A city in the hill country of Judah, originally Kirjath (the city of) Arba (Joshua 15:13; Joshua 14:15). "Arba was a great man among the Anakims, father of Anak." (See Joshua 21:11; Judges 1:10.) Twenty Roman miles S. of Jerusalem, and twenty N. of Beersheba. Rivaling Damascus in antiquity. Built seven years before Zoan in Egypt (Numbers 13:22). Well known at Abram's entrance into Canaan, 3,780 years ago (Genesis 42:18). Hebron was the original name, changed to Kirjath Arba during Israel's sojourn in Egypt, and restored by Caleb, to whom it was given at the conquest of Israel (Genesis 23:2; Joshua 14:13-15). The third resting place of Abram; Shechem was the first, Bethel the second. Near Hebron was the cave of Machpelah, where he and Sarah were buried. Now El Khalil, the house of "the friend" of God. Over the cave is now the mosque El Haran, from which all but Muslims are excluded jealously (though the Prince of Wales was admitted), and in which probably lie the remains of Abraham and Isaac, and possibly Jacob's embalmed body, brought up in state from Egypt (Genesis 50:13). Near it was the oak or terebinth, a place of pagan worship. Hebron was called for a time also Mamre, from Abram's ally (Genesis 23:19; Genesis 35:27). It was made a Levite city of refuge (Joshua 21:11-13). Still there is an oak bearing Abraham's name, 23 ft. in girth, and covering 90 ft. space in diameter. In Hebron, David reigned over Judah first for seven and a half years (2 Samuel 5:5). Here Absalom set up the standard of revolt. On the return from Babylon some of the children of Judah dwelt in Kirjath Arba (Nehemiah 11:25). After various vicissitudes it fell into the Moslems' hands in A.D. 1187, and has continued so ever since. It is picturesquely situated in a narrow valley running from N. to S. (probably that of Eshcol, whence the spies got the great cluster of grapes, Numbers 13:23), surrounded by rocky hills, still famed for fine grapes. S. of the town in the bottom of the valley is a tank, 130 ft. square by 50 deep. At the western end is another, 85 ft. long by 55 broad. Over the former probably David hung Ishbosheth's murderers (2 Samuel 4:12). 4. A town in Asher; spelled in Hebrew differently from the former Hebron. Abdon is read in many manuscripts Hebron in Hitchcock's Bible Names society; friendship Hebron in Naves Topical Bible 1. A city of the territory of the tribe of Asher Jos 19:28 -2. A city of the tribe of Judah, south of Jerusalem When built Nu 13:22 Fortified 2Ch 11:10 Called KIRJATH-ARBA Ge 23:2 ARBA Ge 35:27; Jos 15:13 Abraham lived there and Sarah died at Ge 23:2 Hoham, king of, confederated with other kings of the Canaanites against Joshua Jos 10:3-39 Descendants of the Anakim live at Nu 13:22; Jos 11:21 Conquest of, by Caleb Jos 14:6-15; Jud 1:10,20 A city of refuge Jos 20:7; 21:11,13 David crowned king of Judah at 2Sa 2:1-11; 3 David crowned king of Israel at 2Sa 5:1-5 The burial place of Sarah Ge 23:2 The burial place of Abner 2Sa 3:32 The burial place of Ish-bosheth 2Sa 4:12 The conspirators against Ish-bosheth hanged at 2Sa 4:12 Absalom made king at 2Sa 15:9,10 Jews of the Babylonian captivity lived at Ne 11:25 Pool of 2Sa 4:12 -3. Son of Kohath Ex 6:18; Nu 3:19; 1Ch 6:2,18; 23:12,19 Hebron in Smiths Bible Dictionary (alliance). 1. The third son of Kohath, who was the second son of Levi. Ex 6:18; Nu 3:19; 1Ch 6:2,18; 23:12 He was the founder of a family of Hebronites, Nu 3:27; 26:58; 1Ch 26:23,30,31, or Bene-Hebron. 1Ch 15:9; 23:19 2. A city of Judah, Jos 15:54 situated among the mountains, Jos 20:7 20 Roman miles south of Jerusalem, and the same distance north of Beersheba. Hebron is one of the most ancient cities in the world still existing; and in this respect it is the rival of Damascus. It was a well-known town when Abraham entered Canaan, 3800 years ago. Ge 13:18 Its original name was Kirjath-arba, Jud 1:10 "the city of Arba;" so called from Arba the father of Anak. Jos 15:13,14; 21:13 Sarah died at Hebron; and Abraham then bought from Ephron the Hittite the field and cave of Machpelah, to serve as a family tomb Ge 23:2-20 The cave is still there, and the massive walls of the Haram or mosque, within which it lies, form the most remarkable object in the whole city. Abraham is called by Mohammedans el-Khulil, "the Friend," i.e. of God, and this is the modern name of Hebron. Hebron now contains about 5000 inhabitants, of whom some fifty families are Jews. It is picturesquely situated in a narrow valley, surrounded by rocky hills. The valley runs from north to south; and the main quarter of the town, surmounted by the lofty walls of the venerable Haram, lies partly on the eastern slope. Ge 37:14 comp. Gene 23:19 About a mile from the town, up the valley, is one of the largest oak trees in Israel. This, say some, is the very tree beneath which Abraham pitched his tent, and it still bears the name of the patriarch. 3. One of the towns in the territory of Asher, Jos 19:28 probably Ebdon or Abdom. Hebron in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE he'-brun (chebhron, "league" or "confederacy"; Chebron): One of the most ancient and important cities in Southern Israel, now known to the Moslems as el Khalil (i.e. Khalil er Rahman, "the friend of the Merciful," i.e. of God, a favorite name for Abraham; compare Jas 2:23). The city is some 20 miles South of Jerusalem, situated in an open valley, 3,040 ft. above sea-level. I. History of the City. Hebron is said to have been rounded before Zoan (i.e. Tanis) in Egypt (Nu 13:22); its ancient name was Kiriath-arba, probably meaning the "Four Cities," perhaps because divided at one time into four quarters, but according to Jewish writers so called because four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Adam were buried there. According to Josh 15:13 it was so called after Arba, the father of Anak. 1. Patriarchal Period: Abram came and dwelt by the oaks of MAMRE (which see), "which are in Hebron" Gen (13:18); from here he went to the rescue of Lot and brought him back after the defeat of Chedorlaomer (14:13 f); here his name was changed to Abraham (17:5); to this place came the three angels with the promise of a son (18:1 f); Sarah died here (23:2), and for her sepulcher Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah (23:17); here Isaac and Jacob spent much of their lives (35:27; 37:14); from here Jacob sent Joseph to seek his brethren (37:14), and hence, Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt (46:1). In the cave of Machpelah all the patriarchs and their wives, except Rachel, were buried (49:30 f; 50:13). 2. Times of Joshua and Judges: The spies visited Hebron and near there cut the cluster of grapes (Nu 13:22 f). HOHAM (which see), king of Hebron, was one of the five kings defeated by Joshua at Beth-horon and slain at Makkedah (Josh 10:3 f). Caleb drove out from Hebron the "three sons of Anak" (Josh 14:12; 15:14); it became one of the cities of Judah (Josh 15:54), but was set apart for the Kohathite Levites (Josh 21:10 f), and became a city of refuge (Josh 20:7). One of Samson's exploits was the carrying of the gate of Gaza "to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron" (Jdg 16:3). 3. The Days of the Monarchy: David, when a fugitive, received kindness from the people of this city (1 Sam 30:31); here Abner was treacherously slain by Joab at the gate (2 Sam 3:27), and the sons of Rimmon, after their hands and feet had been cut off, were hanged "beside the pool" (2 Sam 4:12). After the death of Saul, David was here anointed king (2 Sam 5:3) and reigned here 7 1/2 years, until he captured Jerusalem and made that his capital (2 Sam 5:5); while here, six sons were born to him (2 Sam 3:2). In this city Absalom found a center for his disaffection, and repairing there under pretense of performing a vow to Yahweh, he raised the standard of revolt (2 Sam 15:7 f). Josephus mistakenly places here the dream of Solomon (Ant., VIII, ii, 1) which occurred at Gibeon (1 Ki 3:4). Hebron was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch 11:10). 4. Later History: Probably during the captivity Hebron came into the hands of Edom, though it appears to have been colonized by returning Jews (Neh 11:25); it was recovered from Edom by Simon Maccabeus (1 Macc 5:65; Josephus, Ant, XII, viii, 6). In the first great revolt... Bethel

Bethel in Easton's Bible Dictionary house of God. (1.) A place in Central Israel, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz (Gen. 28:19). The name Bethel was at first apparently given to the sanctuary in the neighbourhood of Luz, and was not given to the city itself till after its conquest by the tribe of Ephraim. When Abram entered Canaan he formed his second encampment between Bethel and Hai (Gen. 12:8); and on his return from Egypt he came back to it, and again "called upon the name of the Lord" (13:4). Here Jacob, on his way from Beersheba to Haran, had a vision of the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top reached unto heaven (28:10, 19); and on his return he again visited this place, "where God talked with him" (35:1-15), and there he "built an altar, and called the place El- beth-el" (q.v.). To this second occasion of God's speaking with Jacob at Bethel, Hosea (12:4,5) makes reference. In troublous times the people went to Bethel to ask counsel of God (Judg. 20:18, 31; 21:2). Here the ark of the covenant was kept for a long time under the care of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (20:26-28). Here also Samuel held in rotation his court of justice (1 Sam. 7:16). It was included in Israel after the kingdom was divided, and it became one of the seats of the worship of the golden calf (1 Kings 12:28-33; 13:1). Hence the prophet Hosea (Hos. 4:15; 5:8; 10:5, 8) calls it in contempt Beth-aven, i.e., "house of idols." Bethel remained an abode of priests even after the kingdom of Israel was desolated by the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:28, 29). At length all traces of the idolatries were extirpated by Josiah, king of Judah (2 Kings 23:15-18); and the place was still in existence after the Captivity (Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32). It has been identified with the ruins of Beitin, a small village amid extensive ruins some 9 miles south of Shiloh. (2.) Mount Bethel was a hilly district near Bethel (Josh. 16:1; 1 Sam. 13:2). (3.) A town in the south of Judah (Josh. 8:17; 12:16). Bethel in Fausset's Bible Dictionary ("house of God".) 1. Abram pitched his tent on a mountain E. of Bethel, abounding in pasture (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). The city, near the place, then bore the Canaanite name Luz. Bethel is the name given by anticipation to the place; appropriately so, as Abram virtually made it the "house of God." It was expressly so named by Jacob, when he had the vision of the heavenly ladder, on his way from his father at Beersheba to Harsh (Genesis 28:19; Genesis 31:13). He set up a pillar, and anointed it with oil, to mark the place where God spoke with him. Bethel, the place, is expressly distinguished from Luz, the old Canaanite city. "Jacob called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the first" (Joshua 16:1-2). The naming of Bethel Jacob repeated more publicly on his return home, 20 years later, with his family purified of idols, when God again appeared to him, and confirmed his change of name to Israel (Genesis 35:1-15; Genesis 32:28). Bethel belonged by lot to Benjamin, but was falcon by Ephraim (Bethel being on his southern border) through the treachery of an inhabitant (Judges 1:22-26). It was about 12 miles N. of Jerusalem. In Judges 20:26 translate for "the house of God" Bethel. During the civil war with Benjamin the tribes took the ark thither to consult God (compare 1 Samuel 10:3). It was one of Samuel's towns of circuit for judging (1 Samuel 7:16). One of Jeroboam's two sanctuaries for the calf worship, selected doubtless because of its religious associations (1 Kings 12-13). There the prophet from Judah foretold the overthrow of the calf altar by Josiah. Abijah, king of Judah, took Bethel from Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:19), but it was soon recovered by Israel. Under Ahab the Baal worship at Samaria and Jezreel drew off attention from the calf worship at Bethel. This accounts for a school of prophets of Jehovah being there in Elijah's time (2 Kings 2:2-3). The existence of "bears," two, near the town, implies that Bethel was then less frequented (2 Kings 2:23- 25). Under Jehu, who restored the calf worship, and Jeroboam II his great grandson, Bethel comes again into prominence (2 Kings 10:29). Bethel became the king's chapel" (sanctuary) "the king's court" ("house of the kingdom") (Amos 7:13; Amos 3:14-15). More altars, besides the original one were erected. "Summer and winter houses" too, and "great houses" and "houses of ivory." After the overthrow of Israel, the king of Assyria sent one of the Israelite priests to settle at Bethel, and teach the new settlers from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, "the manner of the god of the land," and "how they should fear Jehovah" (2 Kings 17:27- 28). Josiah, as foretold, defiled the altar with dead men's bones, but disturbed not the sepulchre of the prophet of Judab when he discerned its title. It was ordered by God that the votaries of the calf worship at Bethel never dared to violate the sepulchre and title of the prophet who denounced their idol. The worship of Jehovah and of the calves had been all along strangely blended. (See BETHAVEN.) Among those returning from captivity were men of Bethel (Ezra 2:28; Nehemiah 7:32; Nehemiah 11:31.) The ruins, covering three or four acres, still bear a like name, Beitin, on a low bill, between two wadies, which unite in the main valley of es-Suweinit, toward the S.E. Bethel still abounds in stones such as Jacob used for his pillow and afterward for a sanctuary. On the round mount S.E. of Bethel. Abram doubtless built the altar, and afterwards stood with Lot when giving him his choice of the land (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:10). E. of this mount stands the ruin Tel er Rijmah, "the mound of the heap," answering to Ai or Hai. Ritter makes Medinet Gai answer to Ai. 2. A town in southern Judah (Joshua 12:16; 1 Samuel 30:27). Bethel in Joshua 19:4 answers to Chesil in Joshua 15:30. Bethuel, 1 Chronicles 4:30. Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho under the curse (1 Kings 16:34). Bethel in Hitchcock's Bible Names the house of God Bethel in Naves Topical Bible 1. A city north of Jerusalem The ancient city adjacent to, and finally embraced in, was called Luz Jos 18:13; Jud 1:23-26 Abraham estblishes an altar at Ge 12:8; 13:3,4 The place where Jacob saw the vision of the ladder Ge 28:10-22; 31:13; Ho 12:4 And builds an altar at Ge 35:1-15 Deborah dies at Ge 35:8 Conquered by Joshua Jos 8:17; with 12:16 Conquered by the household of Joseph Jud 1:22-26 Allotted to Benjamin Jos 18:13,22 Court of justice held at By Deborah Jud 4:5 By Samuel 1Sa 7:16 Tabernacle at, and called HOUSE OF GOD Jud 20:18,31; 21:2 Jeroboam institutes idolatrous worship at 1Ki 12:25-33; 2Ki 10:29 Idolatry at Jer 48:13; Am 4:4 Shalmanezer sends a priest to 2Ki 17:27,28 Prophecies against the idolatrous altars at 1Ki 13:1-6,32; 2Ki 23:4,15-20; Am 3:14 The school of prophets at 2Ki 2:3 The young men of, mock Elisha 2Ki 2:23,24 People of, return from Babylon Ezr 2:28; Ne 7:32 Prophecies against Am 5:5 -2. A city in the south of territory of the tribe of Judah 1Sa 30:27 -3. A mountain 1Sa 13:2 Bethel in Smiths Bible Dictionary (the house of God) well known city and holy place of central Israel, about 12 mlles north of Jerusalem. If we are to accept the precise definition of Ge 12:8 the name of Bethel would appear to have existed at this spot even before the arrival of Abram in Canaan. Ge 12:8; 13:3,4 Bethel was the scene of Jacob's vision. Ge 28:11-19; 31:13 Jacob lived there. Ge 35:1-8 The original name was Luz. Jud 1:22,23 After the conquest Bethel is frequently heard of. In the troubled times when there was no king in Israel, it was to Bethel that the people went up in their distress to ask counsel of God. Jud 20:18,26,31; 21:2 Authorized Version, "house of God." Here was the ark of the covenant. Jud 20:26- 28; 21:4 Later it is named as one of the holy cities to which Samuel went on circuit. 1Sa 7:16 Here Jeroboab placed one of the two calves of gold. Toward the end of Jeroboam's life Bethel fell into the hands of Judah. 2Ch 13:19 Elijah visited Bethel, and we hear of "sons of the prophets" as resident there. 2Ki 2:2,3 But after the destruction of Baal worship by Jehu Bethel comes once more into view. 2Ki 10:29 After the desolation of the northern kingdom by the king of Assyria, Bethel still remained an abode of priests. 2Ki 17:27,28 In later times Bethel is named only once under the scarcely-altered name of Beitin. Its ruins still lie on the righthand side of the road from Jerusalem to Nablus. 2. A town in the south part of Judah, named in Jos 12:16 and 1Sam 30:27 In Jos 15:30; 19:4; 1Ch 4:29,30 the place appears under the name of CHESIL, BETHUL and BETHUEL. Hiel the Bethelite is recorded as the rebuilder of Jericho. 1Ki 16:34 3. In Jos 16:1 and 1Sam 13:2 Mount Bethel, a hilly section near Beth-el, is referred to. Bethel in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE beth'-el (beth-'el; Baithel and oikos theou, literally, "house of God"): (1) A town near the place where Abraham halted and offered sacrifice on his way south from Shechem. 1. Identification and Description: It lay West of Ai (Gen 12:8). It is named as on the northern border of Benjamin (the southern of Ephraim, Josh 16:2), at the top of the ascent from the Jordan valley by way of Ai (Josh 18:13). It lay South of Shiloh (Jdg 21:19). Eusebius, Onomasticon places it 12 Roman miles from Jerusalem, on the road to Neapolis. It is represented by the modern Beitin, a village of some 400 inhabitants, which stands on a knoll East of the road to Nablus. There are four springs which yield supplies of good water. In ancient times these were supplemented by a reservoir hewn in the rock South of the town. The surrounding country is bleak and barren, the hills being marked by a succession of stony terraces, which may have suggested the form of the ladder in Jacob's famous dream. 2. The Sanctuary: The town was originally called Luz (Gen 28:19, etc.). When Jacob came hither on his way to Paddan-aram we are told that he lighted upon "the place" (Gen 28:11. Hebrew). The Hebrew maqom, like the cognate Arabic maqam, denotes a sacred place or sanctuary. The maqom was doubtless that at which Abraham had sacrificed, East of the town. In the morning Jacob set up "for a pillar" the stone which had served as his pillow (Gen 28:18; see PILLAR, matstsebhah), poured oil upon it and called the name of the place Bethel, "house of God"; that is, of God whose epiphany was for him associated with the pillar. This spot became a center of great interest, lending growing importance to the town. In process of time the name Luz disappeared, giving place to that of the adjoining sanctuary, town and sanctuary being identified. Jacob revisited the place on his return from Paddan-aram; here Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under "the oak" (Gen 35:6 f). Probably on rising ground East of Bethel Abraham and Lot stood to view the uninviting highlands and the rich lands of the Jordan valley (Gen 13:9 ff). 3. History: Bethel was a royal city of the Canaanites (Josh 12:16). It appears to have been captured by Joshua (8:7), and it was allotted to Benjamin (Josh 18:22). In Jdg 1:22 ff it is represented as held by Canaanites, from whom the house of Joseph took it by treachery (compare 1 Ch 7:28). Hither the ark was brought from Gilgal (Jdg 2:1, Septuagint). Israel came to Bethel to consult the Divine oracle (Jdg 20:18), and it became an important center of worship (1 Sam 10:3). The home of the prophetess Deborah was not far off (Jdg 4:5). Samuel visited Bethel on circuit, judging Israel (1 Sam 7:16). With the disruption of the kingdom came Bethel's greatest...

2 Kings 23:15 - Moreover the altar that [was] at Bethel , [and] the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, [and] stamped [it] small to powder, and burned the grove. 1 Chronicles 7:28 - And their possessions and habitations [were], Bethel and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof: 2 Kings 2:23 - And he went up from thence unto Bethel : and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 2 Chronicles 13:19 - And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephrain with the towns thereof. 1 Samuel 10:3 - Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel , one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine: 1 Kings 12:33 - So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, [even] in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. Joshua 8:17 - And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel , that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. 1 Samuel 13:2 - Saul chose him three thousand [men] of Israel; [whereof] two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Bethel , and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. 2 Kings 23:4 - And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel . Joshua 12:9 - The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which [is] beside Bethel , one; Joshua 12:16 - The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel , one; Genesis 31:13 - I [am] the God of Bethel , where thou anointedst the pillar, [and] where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. Joshua 18:13 - And the border went over from thence toward Luz, to the side of Luz, which [is] Bethel , southward; and the border descended to Atarothadar, near the hill that [lieth] on the south side of the nether Bethhoron. 1 Kings 13:4 - And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel , that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. Joshua 16:1 - And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Bethel , Genesis 28:19 - And he called the name of that place Bethel : but the name of that city [was called] Luz at the first. Amos 7:10 - Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. Amos 7:13 - But prophesy not again any more at Bethel : for it [is] the king's chapel, and it [is] the king's court. Joshua 8:9 - Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people. Amos 3:14 - That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel : and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. Jeremiah 48:13 - And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence. 1 Samuel 7:16 - And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel , and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. 2 Kings 23:19 - And all the houses also of the high places that [were] in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [the LORD] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel . Genesis 35:1 - And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel , and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 1 Kings 13:32 - For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel , and against all the houses of the high places which [are] in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. Judges 4:5 - And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 2 Kings 2:3 - And the sons of the prophets that [were] at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know [it]; hold ye your peace. 2 Kings 23:17 - Then he said, What title [is] that that I see? And the men of the city told him, [It is] the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel . Joshua 7:2 - And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which [is] beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel , and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. 1 Kings 13:1 - And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel : and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

The Ancient Nile River

Nile River in Easton's Bible Dictionary dark; blue, not found in Scripture, but frequently referred to in the Old Testament under the name of Sihor, i.e., "the black stream" (Isa. 23:3; Jer. 2:18) or simply "the river" (Gen. 41:1; Ex. 1:22, etc.) and the "flood of Egypt" (Amos 8:8). It consists of two rivers, the White Nile, which takes its rise in the Victoria Nyanza, and the Blue Nile, which rises in the Abyssinian Mountains. These unite at the town of Khartoum, whence it pursues its course for 1,800 miles, and falls into the Mediterranean through its two branches, into which it is divided a few miles north of Cairo, the Rosetta and the Damietta branch. (See EGYPT ¯T0001137.) Nile River in Fausset's Bible Dictionary Not so named in the Bible; related to Sanskrit Nilah, "blue." The Nile has two names: the sacred name Hapi, or Hapi-mu, "the abyss of waters," Hp-ro-mu, "the waters whose source is hidden"; and the common name Yeor Aor, Aur (Atur): both Egyptian names. Shihor, "the black river," is its other Bible name, Greek Melas or Kmelas, Latin Melo, darkened by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its overflow (Jeremiah 2:18). The hieroglyphic name of Egypt is Kam, "black." Egyptians distinguished between Hapi-res, the "southern Nile" of Upper Egypt, and Hapi-meheet, the "northern Nile" of Lower Egypt. Hapi-ur, "the high Nile," fertilizes the land; the Nile low brought famine. The Nile god is painted red to represent the inundation, but blue at other times. An impersonation of Noah (Osburn). Famine and plenty are truly represented as coming up out of the river in Pharaoh's dream (Genesis 41). Therefore they worshipped it, and the plague on its waters, was a judgment on that idolatry (Exodus 7:21; Psalm 105:29). (See EGYPT; EXODUS.) The rise begins at the summer solstice; the flood is two months later, after the autumnal equinox, at its height pouring through cuttings in the banks which are higher than the rest of the soil and covering the valley, and lasting three months. (Amos 8:8; Amos 9:5; Isaiah 23:3). The appointed S.W. bound of Israel (Joshua 13:3; 1 Chronicles 13:5; 2 Chronicles 9:26; Genesis 15:18). 1 Kings 8:65 "stream" (nachal, not "river".) Its confluent is still called the Blue river; so Nilah means "darkblue," or "black." The plural "rivers" is used for the different mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile. The tributaries are further up than Egypt (Psalm 78:44; Exodus 7:18-20; Isaiah 7:18; Isaiah 19:6; Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 30:12). "The stream (nachal) of Egypt" seems distinct (Isaiah 27:12), now "wady el Arish" (where was the frontier city Rhino-corura) on the confines of Israel and Egypt (Joshua 15:4; Joshua 15:47, where for "river" should stand "stream," nachal)). Smith's Bible Dictionary suggests that nachal) is related to the Nile and is that river; but the distinctness with which nachal) is mentioned, and not as elsewhere Sihor, or "river," Ye'or, forbids the identification. "The rivers of Ethiopia" (Isaiah 18:1-2), Cush, are the Atbara, the Astapus or Blue river, between which two rivers Meroe (the Ethiopia meant in Isaiah 18) lies, and the Astaboras or White Nile; these rivers conjoin in the one Nile, and wash down the soil along their banks from Upper Egypt, and deposit it on Lower Egypt; compare "whose land (Upper Egypt) the rivers have spoiled" or "cut up" or "divided." The Nile is called "the sea" (Isaiah 19:5), for it looks a sea at the overflow; the Egyptians still call it El Bahr "the sea" (Nahum 3:8). Its length measured by its course is probably 3,700 miles, the longest in the world. Its bed is cut through layers of nummulitic limestone (of which the pyramids of Ghizeh are built, full of nummulites, which the Arabs call "Pharaoh's beans"), sandstone under that, breccia verde under that, azoic rocks still lower, with red granite and syenite rising through all the upper strata... Nile River in Naves Topical Bible Called THE RIVER Isa 11:15; 19:5-10; Eze 29:4; Am 8:8 -Called SIHOR Isa 23:3; Jer 2:18 Nile River in Smiths Bible Dictionary (blue, dark), the great river of Egypt. The word Nile nowhere occurs in the Authorized Version but it is spoken of under the names of Sihor [SIHOR] and the "river of Egypt." Ge 15:18 We cannot as yet determine the length of the Nile, although recent discoveries have narrowed the question. There is scarcely a doubt that its largest confluent is fed by the great lakes on and south of the equator. It has been traced upward for about 2700 miles, measured by its course, not in a direct line, and its extent is probably over 1000 miles more. (The course of the river has been traced for 3300 miles. For the first 1800 miles (McClintock and Strong say 2300) from its mouth it receives no tributary; but at Kartoom, the capital of Nubia, is the junction of the two great branches, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, so called from the color of the clay which tinges their waters. The Blue Nile rises in the mountains of Abyssinia and is the chief source of the deposit which the Nile brings to Egypt. The White Nile is the larger branch. Late travellers have found its source in Lake Victoria Nyanza, three degrees south of the equator. From this lake to the mouth of the Nile the distance is 2300 miles in a straight line --one eleventh the circumference of the globe. From the First Cataract, at Syene, the river flows smoothly at the rate of two or three miles an hour with a width of half a mile. to Cairo. A little north of Cairo it divides into two branches, one flowing to Rosetta and the other to Damietta, from which place the mouths are named. See Bartlett's "Egypt and Israel," 1879. The great peculiarity of the river is its annual overflow, caused by the periodical tropical rains. "With wonderful clock-like regularity the river begins to swell about the end of June, rises 24 feet at Cairo between the 20th and 30th of September and falls as much by the middle of May. Six feet higher than this is devastation; six feet lower is destitution." --Bartlett. So that the Nile increases... Nile River in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE nil (Neilos, meaning not certainly known; perhaps refers to the color of the water, as black or blue. This name does not occur in the Hebrew of the Old Testament or in the English translation): I. THE NILE IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 1. Description 2. Geological Origin 3. The Making of Egypt 4. The Inundation 5. The Infiltration II. THE NILE IN HISTORY 1. The Location of Temples 2. The Location of Cemeteries 3. The Damming of the Nile 4. Egyptian Famines III. THE NILE IN RELIGION 1. The Nile as a God 2. The Nile in the Osirian Myth 3. The Celestial Nile A river of North Africa, the great river of Egypt. The name employed in the Old Testament to designate the Nile is in the Hebrew ye'or, Egyptian aur, earlier, atur, usually translated "river," also occasionally "canals" (Ps 78:44; Ezek 29:3 ff). In a general way it means all the water of Egypt. The Nile is also the principal river included in the phrase nahare kush, "rivers of Ethiopia" (Isa 18:1). Poetically the Nile is called yam, "sea" (Job 41:31; Nah 3:8; probably Isa 18:2), but this is not a name of the river. shichor, not always written fully, has also been interpreted in a mistaken way of the Nile (see SHIHOR). Likewise nahar mitsrayim, "brook of Egypt," a border stream in no way connected with the Nile, has sometimes been mistaken for that river. See RIVER OF EGYPT. I. The Nile in Physical Geography. 1. Description: The Nile is formed by the junction of the White Nile and the Blue Nile in latitude 15 degree 45' North and longitude 32 degree 45' East. The Blue Nile rises in the highlands of Abyssinia, latitude 12 degree 30' North, long. 35 degree East, and flows Northwest 850 miles to its junction with the White North. The White Nile, the principal branch of the North, rises in Victoria Nyanza, a great lake in Central Africa, a few miles North of the equator, long. 33 degree East (more exactly the Nile may be said to rise at the headwaters of the Ragera River, a small stream on the other side of the lake, 3 degree South of the equator), and flows North in a tortuous channel, 1,400 miles to its junction with the Blue Nile. From this junction-point the Niles flows North through Nubia and Egypt 1,900 miles and empties into the Mediterranean Sea, in latitude 32 degree North, through 2 mouths, the Rosetta, East of Alexandria, and the Damietta, West of Port Said. There were formerly 7 mouths scattered along a coast-line of 140 miles. 2. Geological Origin: The Nile originated...

Ancient Memphis

Hosea 9:6 - For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant [places] for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns [shall be] in their tabernacles.

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• The Landscapes of Palestine
• The Rulers of Palestine
• The Climate of Palestine
• Major Jewish Religious Festivals
• What is the New Testament?
• Who wrote the Gospels?
• English Translations of the New Testament
• John's mission foretold
• The birth of John
• John's message
• John begins baptising
• John criticises Herod
• Was John the promised Elijah?
• Jesus's birth announced
• Mary & Joseph go to Bethlehem
• The birth of Jesus
• Shepherds visit the infant
• Jewish religious rituals
• Wise men visit Jerusalem
• The holy family flees to Egypt
• The holy family returns to Nazareth
• Jesus grows up
• Jesus starts his ministry
• Jesus is tempted
• Jesus returns to Galilee
• Jesus goes back to Nazareth
• Jesus travels to Jerusalem
• Jesus passes through Samaria
• Jesus performs healing miracles
• Jesus teaches in Capernaum
• Jesus's teachings on a hillside
• Jesus upsets the Pharisees
• Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee
• Jesus heals & teaches in Jerusalem
• Jesus teaches how to receive the Holy Spirit
• Jesus journeys among the Gentiles
• Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee
• Jesus in Tyre and Sidon
• Who is Jesus?
• Jesus is changed on the slopes of Mount Hermon
• Jesus pays the Temple Tax
• Jesus claims God's personal name
• The Parable of the Good Samaritan
• The Parable of the Prodigal Son
• Lazarus, Come out!
• Jesus's entry into Jerusalem
• Jesus curses a fig tree
• Jesus heralds the end of the sacrificial system
• Jesus in Jerusalem during Passover week
• The Parable of the Sheep & the Goats
• Paying taxes to Caesar
• Jesus is betrayed
• The Last Supper
• Jesus crosses the Kidron Valley
• Jesus is arrested
• Jesus is taken to the Praetorium
• Jesus is tried by Pilate
• The death of Judas
• Jesus is executed by crucifixion
• The Pharisees mount a guard on the tomb
• Jesus rises from the tomb
• Jesus appears to his followers
• Jesus is taken into God's presence
• Jesus appears to Peter, James & Paul
• Who were Jesus's followers?
• The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit
• Peter & John heal a crippled man
• The believers share their possessions
• Opposition in Jerusalem
• Stephen is killed & the believers are scattered
• Philip's Journeys
• Peter's Journeys
• Peter hands over the leadership to James
• The Gentile Church at Antioch
• Saul's Early Life
• Saul persecutes the believers
• The beginning of Saul's ministry
• Saul & Barnabas in Antioch & Jerusalem
• Paul starts his 1st Missionary Journey
• Paul, Barnabas & Mark in Cyprus
• Paul, Barnabas & Mark sail to Pamphylia
• Paul & Barnabas travel inland
• Paul & Barnabas in Iconium
• Paul & Barnabas in Lystra
• Paul & Barnabas return to Perga
• Paul & Barnabas return to Antioch in Syria
• Paul & Barnabas attend the Council of Jerusalem
• Paul & Barnabas take the decision to Antioch
• Paul starts his 2nd Missionary Journey
• Paul travels to Troas
• Paul sails across to Europe
• Paul arrives in Philippi
• Paul travels to Amphipolis & Apollonia
• Paul in Thessalonica
• Paul in Berea
• Paul in Athens
• Paul in Corinth
• Paul returns to Jerusalem
• Paul starts his 3rd Missionary Journey
• The Ephesians are filled with the Holy Spirit
• The silversmiths riot in Ephesus
• Paul travels to Corinth
• Paul returns to Macedonia
• Eutychus falls from a window in Troas
• Paul leaves for Assos
• Paul sails to Miletus
• Paul visits Cos and Rhodes
• Paul visits Philip in Caesarea
• Paul meets violent opposition in Jerusalem
• Paul addresses the crowds
• Paul in Caesarea
• Paul appeals to Emperor Nero
• Paul sets sail for Rome
• Paul is shipwrecked
• Paul in Malta
• Paul heads for Rome
• An Introduction to Paul's Letters
• Paul's Letter to Galatia
• Paul explains his personal background
• Alive in Christ
• Set free from Slavery
• The Fruit of the Spirit
• Paul's 1st Letter to Thessalonica
• Paul hopes to visit Thessalonica
• The Day of the Lord
• How Christians should behave
• Paul's 2nd Letter to Thessalonica
• The coming Day of the Lord
• Saved by the power of the Holy Spirit
• Paul's 1st Letter to Corinth
• The Holy Spirit helps us understand
• Temples of the Holy Spirit
• Advice on Marriage & Relationships
• Running the Race of Life
• The Lord's Supper
• Spiritual Gifts
• Worship in the early church
• The risen Lord Jesus appears to his followers
• Paul's 2nd Letter to Corinth
• Paul explains his revised plans
• Christ's Victory Parade & the New Covenant
• How God changes lives
• Paul's plans for the future
• Paul defends himself against criticism
• Paul's weaknesses
• Paul's Letter to Rome
• How to be put right with God
• God's covenant promise fulfilled
• New life in the power of the Holy Spirit
• Persecution by the Jews
• Paul's mission
• Paul's Letter to Ephesus
• God's secret plan
• The new life
• The armour of God
• Paul's Letter to Colossae
• Jesus is exactly like God
• Saved by Christ's death
• Practical advice for believers
• Paul's Letter to Philemon at Colossae
• Paul's Letter to Philippi
• To live is Christ
• Warnings about the Jewish Law
• Introduction to Paul's Pastoral Letters
• Paul's 4th Missionary Journey
• Paul's 1st Letter to Timothy in Ephesus
• Worship among the believers
• Holding onto the truth
• Paul's Letter to Titus in Crete
• Appointing Church Leaders
• Paul's 2nd Letter to Timothy at Ephesus
• The 'last days'
• Paul's Final Sacrifice
• The Letter to the Jewish believers
• God speaks through the prophets & Jesus
• Jesus is greater than Moses
• Jesus speaks to God for believers
• Jesus - a priest like Melchizedek
• The New Covenant agreement
• God does not want animal sacrifices
• Having faith
• Looking forwards, not backwards
• The General Letters: James, Jude, Peter & John
• The Letter of James to the Jewish believers
• Faith without actions is worthless
• The power of words
• The Letter of Jude to the Jewish believers
• Signs of 'the last days'
• The 1st Letter of Peter to the Jewish believers
• The living hope
• Living stones
• Baptism & the flood
• The 2nd Letter of Peter to the Jewish believers
• Peter speaks out against immorality
• The 'Last Days' & The 'Day of the Lord'
• Introduction to John & his 3 Letters
• The 1st Letter of John
• The 'logos' of God
• The 'new' commandment
• The last days
• Filled with the Holy Spirit
• Love one another
• God's love drives away fear
• The 2nd Letter of John
• The 3rd Letter of John
• Introduction to the Revelation of John
• John's Letter to the 7 Churches of Asia Minor
• The messages to the believers on the coastal plain
• The messages to the believers living inland
• John's vision of God's heavenly rule
• The satan's rebellion against God
• The downfall of Rome & it's empire
• The resurrection of the dead
• The final judgement
• The new heaven & the new earth
• Introduction to the Romano-Jewish world
• Roman Emperors in the New Testament
• Jewish Religious Leaders
• New Testament Languages
• Jewish & Greek Names
• Jewish & Roman Currency
• Jewish Nationalists
• The Romano-Jewish War
• Constantine & the Helena Churches
• Ecumenical Church Councils
• Palestine - A Land Bridge
• Routes across Palestine
• The River Jordan
• Ancient Israel
• The Message of the Old Testament
• Who wrote the Old Testament?
• Dating events in the Old Testament
• The Biblical account of Creation
• Adam's Journey from the Garden of Eden
• Cain is sent on a journey to the east of Eden
• Enoch founds a city in Mesopotamia
• Noah journeys to Aratta on the flood
• The Colonisation of the Ancient World
• The Tower of Babylonia

Abram's Journey to Canaan

• Abram settles in Canaan
• Abram travels north to rescue Lot
• The birth of Ishmael
• Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed
• Abraham journeys south and Isaac is born
• Abraham's sacrifice on Mount Moriah
• Abraham's wife dies at Hebron
• Abraham seeks a wife for Isaac
• Abraham dies at Hebron
• Isaac moves to Beersheba
• Jacob cheats Esau and flees to Mesopotamia
• Jacob returns to Canaan and meets Esau
• God blesses Jacob at Bethel
• Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt
• Joseph becomes Vizier of Egypt
• Jacob's family joins Joseph in Egypt
• The Israelites in Egypt
• Prince Moses escapes to Midian
• Moses is called by God at Mt Sinai
• Egypt suffers ten plagues
• The Israelites flee from Egypt
• The Israelites cross the Sea of Reeds
• Moses receives the Ten Commandments
• Moses constructs the Ark of the Covenant
• The Israelites rebel against God
• The Israelites are counted
• Hardships encountered in the desert
• Moses sends spies into Canaan
• Korah leads a rebellion against Moses
• The Israelites remain at Kadesh Barnea
• The Israelites attempt to enter Canaan
• The Israelites journey north to Moab
• The Israelites defeat King Sihon and King Og
• Balaam blesses the Israelites
• The Israelites defeat the kings of Midian
• The boundaries of Canaan are agreed
• More laws and religious practices
• Moses dies at Mount Nebo
• The Israelites cross the River Jordan
• The Israelites conquer Jericho and Ai
• Joshua builds an altar at Mt Ebal
• Joshua is deceived by the Hivites
• Joshua conquers the Southern Cities
• Joshua embarks on the Northern Campaign
• Canaan is divided among the twelve tribes
• Six Cities of Refuge are set up
• Joshua says farewell
• The Israelites fight the remaining Canaanites
• God appoints inspirational leaders
• Israel under the 'judges': Othniel and Ehud
• Deborah and Barak defeat Sisera
• Gideon defeats the Midianites
• Abimelech becomes king
• Jephthah defeats the Ammonites
• Samson challenges the Philistines
• The conquest of Laish
• Gibeah is destroyed & the Benjamites punished
• Job is faced with adversity
• Ruth's journey to Bethlehem
• Samuel is taken to Shiloh
• The Ark of the Covenant is captured at Aphek
• The Ark is taken to Ashdod
• The Ark is moved to Ekron
• The Ark is returned to the Israelites
• Samuel administers justice from Ramah
• Saul's Journey to Kingship
• Jonathan demolishes the Philistine pillar at Geba
• Samuel condemns Saul at Gilgal
• David defeats Goliath of Gath
• Saul becomes jealous of David
• Samuel dies and is buried at Ramah
• David marries Abigail
• Saul is killed by the Philistines at Mt Gilboa
• David becomes King of Judah and Israel
• David captures Jerusalem
• The Ark of the Covenant is brought to Jerusalem
• David's victories over Israel's neighbours
• David's affair with Bathsheba
• Absalom's flight & his rebellion against David
• Further events during David's reign
• Solomon succeeds his father David
• Solomon's alliance with Egypt
• Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem
• Solomon builds a palace and furnishes the Temple
• The Ark of the Covenant is installed in the Temple
• Solomon rebuilds the cities of Israel
• Solomon's overseas trading expeditions
• The Queen of Sheba travels to Jerusalem
• Solomon builds a network of chariot cities
• Solomon turns away from God
• Solomon dies and the kingdom is divided
• Jeroboam builds temples to worship Baal
• Israel and Judah fight each other
• Israel descends into civil war
• Jezebel kills the prophets & Elijah escapes
• Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal
• Elijah organises the opposition to King Ahab
• King Ahab seizes Naboth's vineyard
• Elijah is taken up to heaven
• Elisha performs miracles and healings
• Elisha displays spiritual gifts
• Jehu races to Jezreel to depose King Joram
• King Joash repairs the Temple in Jerusalem
• Pharaoh Shoshenk I rescues Israel
• Jeroboam II restores the boundaries of Israel
• Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria invades Israel
• Israel falls & the exiles are led to Assyria
• Assyrians settle in Samaria
• King Hezekiah of Judah rebels against Assyria
• Sennacherib attacks and destroys Lachish
• Isaiah prophesies the destruction of Judah
• King Josiah ushers in religious reforms
• Assyria is conquered by the Babylonians
• King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invades Judah
• Jerusalem falls and the exile in Babylon begins
• Biblical sources relating to Judah in exile
• The middle years of exile (586-539BC)
• Daniel interprets dreams and riddles
• Daniel's vision of the 'Son of Man'
• Daniel's vision of the 'end times'
• The later years of exile & the return to Judah
• The completion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
• A third group of exiles returns with Ezra
• A fourth group of exiles returns with Nehemiah
• Nehemiah becomes Governor of Judah
• The people renew their covenant with God
• Jerusalem's new walls are dedicated
• Esther becomes Queen of Persia
• Mordecai uncovers a plot to kill the king
• The origin of the Jewish festival of Purim
• What are the Psalms?
• Some psalms of King David
• Songs of Praise and Despair
• Later psalms ... and the earliest
• Some Memorable Sayings
• The wisdom of Solomon's words
• The Ways of the LORD
• Quarrelling, drinking & gossiping
• The Philosopher
• More wise words from the Philosopher
• More from the Lovers
• Love is as strong as death
• The Mourner
• The LORD's love and mercy continue
• Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets
• Introduction to the Book of Amos
• Amos denounces social injustice in Israel
• Introduction to Hosea's prophesy
• Hosea laments the unfaithfulness of Israel
• The Lord promises to punish Israel
• Introduction to Micah's prophesy
• Micah decries social injustice in Israel and Judah
• Introduction to the Book of Isaiah
• Prophecies written before the fall of Jerusalem
• Isaiah predicts a future golden age
• Isaiah reassures King Ahaz of God's support
• Troubled times and a glorious future kingdom
• Isaiah foresees the return of the exiles
• Isaiah warns of six catastrophes
• The final years before the fall of Judah
• Words of comfort after the fall of Jerusalem
• The LORD will help Israel
• God chooses Cyrus to save his people
• The suffering servant of the LORD
• Encouragement for those in exile
• Those returning are encouraged to follow the LORD
• The LORD's blessing will rest on Jerusalem
• Introduction to the Book of Jonah
• Jonah is thrown overboard to appease the gods
• Jonah arrives at Nineveh
• Introduction to the Book of Nahum
• Nahum predicts the fall of Nineveh
• Introduction to the Book of Jeremiah
• Jeremiah says idolatry will bring Judah's fall
• Jeremiah prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem
• Jeremiah calls for repentance
• Plots are hatched against Jeremiah
• Jeremiah is beaten and arrested
• Jeremiah is charged with treason
• Words of hope and consolation
• Miscellaneous flashbacks to earlier times
• Jeremiah attempts to leave Jerusalem
• Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians
• Gedeliah is murdered & Jeremiah goes to Egypt
• Jeremiah sees disaster in Egypt
• Messages to the surrounding nations
• Introduction to the Book of Zephaniah
• Zephaniah warns of the punishment of Judah
• Introduction to the Book of Habakkuk
• Habakkuk asks why the cruel Babylonians succeed
• Introduction to the Book of Ezekiel
• Ezekiel is called to be a prophet
• Ezekiel's vision of idolatry in the Temple
• Ezekiel speaks through prophesies and parables
• Ezekiel's message of impending doom
• Further prophecies & the fall of Jerusalem
• Hope for the future - New life for Israel
• The defeat of Gog and Magog
• Ezekiel's vision of the New Jerusalem
• Ezekiel sees the glory of the LORD
• The restored land of Israel
• Introduction to the prophecy of Obadiah
• Obadiah prophesies the resurgence of Israel
• Introduction to the Book of Haggai
• Haggai urges the exiles to re-build the Temple
• Introduction to the Book of Zechariah
• Zechariah has visions of horses & horns
• The vision of the measuring line
• Further visions about Jerusalem
• The LORD promises to restore Jerusalem
• Prophesies about the coming of the Messiah
• Prophesies about the Last Days
• An Introduction to the Book of Malachi
• Malachi announces the Day of the LORD
• God promises to send Elijah
• Introduction to the Book of Joel
• Joel foresees the Day of the LORD
• The Names of the God of Israel
• Foreign gods
• Pharaohs of the Old Testament
• The Old Testament & the Jewish Tanakh
• Sources of the History of Israel and Judah
• The Dead Sea Scrolls
• Between the Old and the New Testaments
• The Old Covenant & The New Covenant
• Who is my neighbour?
• Seeking revenge or Offering forgiveness?
• The Commandments - Impossible to keep?
• Was Jesus the Jewish Messiah?
• Was Jesus an outspoken rabbi or was he God?
• How to get right with God: Sacrifice or Faith?
• How to get right with God: By water or the Spirit?
• The power of the Holy Spirit - for everyone?
• A new nation? Or eternal life in God's kingdom?
• 1. From Cain & Abel to the Judges
• 2. From the Kingdom of Israel to the Exile
• 3. From the Exile to the Birth of Jesus
• 4. From the Birth to the Death of Jesus
• 5. From Acts of the Apostles to John's Revelation
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• 1 Jan. John 2:1-11
• 2 Jan. Luke 4:14-30
• 3 Jan. Luke 4:31-37
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• 8 Jan. John 4:15-26
• 9 Jan. Mark 1:14-15
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• 11 Jan. Luke 7:11-17
• 12 Jan. Mark 1:16-20
• 13 Jan. Mark 1:21-27
• 14 Jan. Mark 1:29-34
• 15 Jan. Mark 1:35-42
• 16 Jan. Matthew 4:25 - 5:10
• 17 Jan. Matthew 5:13
• 18 Jan. Matthew 5:14-16
• 19 Jan. Matthew 5:38-48
• 20 Jan. Matthew 6:5-13
• 21 Jan. Matthew 6:19-24
• 22 Jan. Matthew 7:1-5
• 23 Jan. Matthew 7:7-12
• 24 Jan. Matthew 7:13-14
• 25 Jan. Matthew 7:24-29
• 26 Jan. Mark 2:1-6
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• 15 Feb. Mark 6:45-52
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• 1 Mar. John 7:14-24
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• 22 Mar. John 12:12-19
• 23 Mar. Mark 11:12-14,20-24
• 24 Mar. Mark 11:15-19
• 25 Mar. Mark 11:27-33
• 26 Mar. Matthew 23:1-28
• 27 Mar. Matthew 25:31-46
• 28 Mar. Mark 12:1-12
• 29 Mar. Mark 12:13-17
• 30 Mar. Mark 12:18-27
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• 3 Apr. Mark 14:12-16
• 4 Apr. John 13:1-15
• 5 Apr. John 13:21-30
• 6 Apr. John 14:1-11
• 7 Apr. John 14:15-26
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• 9 Apr. Mark 14:22-25
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• 14 Apr. Mark 14:53-59
• 15 Apr. Mark 14:60-65
• 16 Apr. Mark 14:66-72
• 17 Apr. Luke 23:1-11
• 18 Apr. John 18:28-40
• 19 Apr. Matthew 27:27-40
• 20 Apr. Matthew 27:62-66
• 21 Apr. Matthew 28:1-10
• 22 Apr. Luke 24:35-43
• 23 Apr. John 20:24-29
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• 25 Apr. Matthew 28:16-20
• 26 Apr. Luke 24:45-53
• 27 Apr. 1 Corinthians 15:1-9
• 28 Apr. John 21:20-25
• 29 Apr. Acts 1:1-5
• 30 Apr. Acts 1:15-26
• 1 May. Acts 2:1-4
• 2 May. Acts 2:5-13
• 3 May. Acts 2:14-42
• 4 May. Acts 2:43-47
• 5 May. Acts 3:1-10
• 6 May. Acts 3:11-26
• 7 May. Acts 4:1-31
• 8 May. Acts 4:32-5:11
• 9 May. Acts 5:12-16
• 10 May. Acts 5:17-42
• 11 May. Acts 6:1-7
• 12 May. Acts 6:8-15
• 13 May. Acts 7:1-60
• 14 May. Acts 8:1,11:19-21
• 15 May. Acts 8:5-8
• 16 May. Acts 8:9-13
• 17 May. Acts 8:14-25
• 18 May. Acts 8:26-40
• 19 May. Acts 2:1-2,3:1-2,5:1-3,8:14-17
• 20 May. Acts 9:32-43
• 21 May. Acts 10:1-23
• 22 May. Acts 10:23-48
• 23 May. Acts 11:1-18
• 24 May. Acts 12:1-19
• 25 May. Acts 7:58-8:3,9:1-9
• 26 May. Acts 9:10-19
• 27 May. Galatians 1:11-2:2
• 28 May. Acts 11:19-26
• 29 May. Acts 11:27-13:3
• 30 May. Acts 13:1-5
• 31 May. Acts 13:4-12
• 1 June Acts 13:13
• 2 June. Acts 13:14-52
• 3 June. Acts 14:1-7
• 4 June. Acts 14:8-20
• 5 June. Acts 14:21-28
• 6 June. Acts 15:1-20
• 7 June. Acts 15:22-35
• 8 June. Acts 15:36-16:5
• 9 June. Acts 16:6-8
• 10 June. Acts 16:9-10
• 11 June. Acts 16:13-15
• 12 June. Acts 16:16-24
• 13 June. Acts 16:25-34
• 14 June. Acts 16:35-40
• 15 June. Acts 17:1
• 16 June. Acts 17:1-9
• 17 June. Acts 17:10-15
• 18 June. Acts 17:16-33
• 19 June. Acts 18:1-11
• 20 June. Acts 18:12-17
• 21 June. Acts 18:18-23
• 22 June. Acts 18:24-28
• 23 June. Acts 19:1-7
• 24 June. Acts 19:8-10
• 25 June. Acts 19:11-20
• 26 June. Acts 19:23-20:1
• 27 June. Acts 20:1-3
• 28 June. Acts 20:3-6
• 29 June. Acts 20:7-12
• 30 June. Acts 20:13-38
• 1 July Acts 21:1-7
• 2 July Acts 21:7-15
• 3 July Acts 21:17-26
• 4 July Acts 21:27-40
• 5 July Acts 22:1-29
• 6 July Acts 22:30-23:11
• 7 July Acts 23:12-32
• 8 July Acts 24:1-26
• 9 July Acts 24:27-25:12
• 10 July Acts 25:13-27
• 11 July Acts 26:1-32
• 12 July Acts 27:1-6
• 13 July Acts 27:7-20
• 14 July Acts 27:21-44
• 15 July Acts 28:1-10
• 16 July Acts 28:11-31
• 17 July Colossians 4:2-17
• 18 July 2 Peter 1:1-2,3:1-16
• 19 July Galatians 1:1-24
• 20 July Galatians 2:1-10
• 21 July Galatians 3:1-14
• 22 July Galatians 3:19-29
• 23 July Galatians 4:1-31
• 24 July Galatians 5:16-25,6:1-18
• 25 July 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
• 26 July 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
• 27 July 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
• 28 July 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
• 29 July 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11
• 30 July 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
• 31 July 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
• 1 Aug. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-15
• 2 Aug. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18
• 3 Aug. 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
• 4 Aug. 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
• 5 Aug. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
• 6 Aug. 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
• 7 Aug. 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
• 8 Aug. 1 Corinthians 4:1-17
• 9 Aug. 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
• 10 Aug. 1 Corinthians 7:1-16
• 11 Aug. 1 Corinthians 9:1-27
• 12 Aug. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17,11:20-34
• 13 Aug. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
• 14 Aug. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
• 15 Aug. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
• 16 Aug. 1 Corinthians 14:1-25
• 17 Aug. 1 Corinthians 14:26-40
• 18 Aug. 1 Corinthians 15:1-26
• 19 Aug. 1 Corinthians 15:35-55
• 20 Aug. 1 Corinthians 16:1-24
• 21 Aug. 2 Corinthians 1:1-11
• 22 Aug. 2 Corinthians 2:12-17
• 23 Aug. 2 Corinthians 3:5-18
• 24 Aug. 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
• 25 Aug. 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
• 26 Aug. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
• 27 Aug. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
• 28 Aug. 2 Corinthians 6:1-18,7:1
• 29 Aug. 2 Corinthians 8:1-12
• 30 Aug. 2 Corinthians 11:16-33
• 31 Aug. 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
• 1 Sept. 2 Corinthians 13:5-14
• 2 Sept. Romans 1:1-7
• 3 Sept. Romans 1:18-32
• 4 Sept. Romans 2:1-11
• 5 Sept. Romans 3:19-31
• 6 Sept. Romans 4:1-16
• 7 Sept. Romans 5:1-11
• 8 Sept. Romans 6:1-14
• 9 Sept. Romans 7:1-6
• 10 Sept. Romans 8:5-17
• 11 Sept. Romans 8:18-30
• 12 Sept. Romans 8:31-39
• 13 Sept. Romans 10:1-13
• 14 Sept. Romans 12:1-21
• 15 Sept. Romans 13:1-10
• 16 Sept. Romans 14:1-12
• 17 Sept. Romans 15:1-33
• 18 Sept. Romans 16:1-27
• 19 Sept. Ephesians 1:1-10
• 20 Sept. Ephesians 1:11-22
• 21 Sept. Ephesians 2:1-10
• 22 Sept. Ephesians 2:11-22
• 23 Sept. Ephesians 3:1-13
• 24 Sept. Ephesians 3:14-21
• 25 Sept. Ephesians 4:1-16
• 26 Sept. Ephesians 4:17-32
• 27 Sept. Ephesians 5:1-20
• 28 Sept. Ephesians 5:21-33
• 29 Sept. Ephesians 6:1-9
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• 1 Oct. Ephesians 6:18-24
• 2 Oct. Colossians 1:1-14
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• 4 Oct. Colossians 2:1-15
• 5 Oct. Colossians 2:16-23
• 6 Oct. Colossians 3:1-17
• 7 Oct. Colossians 3:18-4:6
• 8 Oct. Colossians 4:7-18
• 9 Oct. Philemon 1:1-7
• 10 Oct. Philemon 1:7-25
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• 12 Oct. Philippians 1:12-26
• 13 Oct. Philippians 2:1-18
• 14 Oct. Philippians 3:1-21
• 15 Oct. Philippians 4:1-23
• 16 Oct. 1 Timothy 1:1-7
• 17 Oct. 1 Timothy 1:12-20
• 18 Oct. 1 Timothy 2:1-15
• 19 Oct. 1 Timothy 3:1-13
• 20 Oct. 1 Timothy 4:1-16
• 21 Oct. 1 Timothy 5:1-22
• 22 Oct. 1 Timothy 6:3-21
• 23 Oct. Titus 1:1-14
• 24 Oct. Titus 2:1-15
• 25 Oct. Titus 3:1-15
• 26 Oct. 2 Timothy 1:1-18
• 27 Oct. 2 Timothy 2:1-26
• 28 Oct. 2 Timothy 3:1-17
• 29 Oct. 2 Timothy 4:6-22
• 30 Oct. James 1:1-21
• 31 Oct. James 2:14-19,4:11-12
• 1 Nov. Jude 1:1-24
• 2 Nov. 1 Peter 1:1-11
• 3 Nov. 1 Peter 2:1-10
• 4 Nov. 2 Peter 1:1-19
• 5 Nov. 2 Peter 3:1-16
• 6 Nov. 1 John 1:5-9
• 7 Nov. 1 John 1:1-4
• 8 Nov. 1 John 2:7-17
• 9 Nov. 1 John 2:18-19
• 10 Nov. 1 John 2:20-29
• 11 Nov. 1 John 3:11-24
• 12 Nov. 1 John 4:7-20
• 13 Nov. 2 John 1:1-13
• 14 Nov. 3 John 1:1-15
• 15 Nov. Revelation 1:1-11
• 16 Nov. Revelation 2:1-7
• 17 Nov. Revelation 2:8-11
• 18 Nov. Revelation 2:12-17
• 19 Nov. Revelation 2:18-27
• 20 Nov. Revelation 3:1-6
• 21 Nov. Revelation 3:7-13
• 22 Nov. Revelation 3:14-22
• 23 Nov. Revelation 4:1-11
• 24 Nov. Revelation 5:1-14
• 25 Nov. Revelation 6:1-17
• 26 Nov. Revelation 7:1-17
• 27 Nov. Revelation 12:1-9
• 28 Nov. Revelation 17:1-18:19
• 29 Nov. Revelation 20:1-15
• 30 Nov. Revelation 21:1-27
• 1 Dec. Luke 1:5-20
• 2 Dec. Luke 1:26,39-56
• 3 Dec. Luke 1:57-80
• 4 Dec. Luke 3:1-16
• 5 Dec. Luke 3:15-20
• 6 Dec. Mark 1:1-8
• 7 Dec. Matt 3:13-17, John 1:28-34
• 8 Dec. Mark 6:14-29
• 9 Dec. Matthew 11:2-15
• 10 Dec. Luke 1:26-38
• 11 Dec. Luke 2:1-5
• 12 Dec. Luke 2:6-7
• 13 Dec. Matthew 1:1-17,22-23
• 14 Dec. Luke 2:8-14
• 15 Dec. Luke 2:15-20
• 16 Dec. Luke 2:21-24
• 17 Dec. Luke 2:25-35
• 18 Dec. Matthew 2:1-6
• 19 Dec. Matthew 2:7-9
• 20 Dec. Matthew 2:10-12
• 21 Dec. Matthew 2:13-14
• 22 Dec. Matthew 2:14-15
• 23 Dec. Matthew 2:16-18
• 24 Dec. Matthew 2:19-23
• 25 Dec. John 1:1-14
• 26 Dec. Luke 2:40-43
• 27 Dec. Luke 2:43-52
• 28 Dec. Hebrews 1:1-4
• 29 Dec. Hebrews 3:1-4:1
• 30 Dec. Hebrews 4:14-5:6
• 31 Dec. Hebrews 9:1-5,11-15
• 1 Jan. Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
• 2 Jan. Genesis 2:4-24
• 3 Jan. Genesis 2:8-17
• 4 Jan. Genesis 3:1-23
• 5 Jan. Genesis 4:1-16
• 6 Jan. Genesis 4:17-26
• 7 Jan. Genesis 6:5-22
• 8 Jan. Genesis 7:11-24
• 9 Jan. Genesis 8:1-17
• 10 Jan. Genesis 9:1-16
• 11 Jan. Genesis 10:11-12,32
• 12 Jan. Genesis 11:1-9
• 13 Jan. Genesis 11:27&37,12:1-7
• 14 Jan. Genesis 12:6,8-20
• 15 Jan. Genesis 13:1-18
• 16 Jan. Genesis 14:8-20
• 17 Jan. Genesis 15:1-11,17-21
• 18 Jan. Genesis 16:1-16
• 19 Jan. Genesis 17:1-16
• 20 Jan. Genesis 18:1-16
• 21 Jan. Genesis 19:1-26
• 22 Jan. Genesis 21:1-21
• 23 Jan. Genesis 22:1-18
• 24 Jan. Genesis 23:1-19
• 25 Jan. Genesis 24:1-61
• 26 Jan. Genesis 24:61-67
• 27 Jan. Genesis 25:1-11
• 28 Jan. Genesis 25:19-21,24-34
• 29 Jan. Genesis 26:1-9,12-15,23-25
• 30 Jan. Genesis 27:1-23,30-33,42-45
• 31 Jan. Genesis 28:10-22
• 1 Feb. Genesis 29:1-30
• 2 Feb. Genesis 29:31-35,30:1-12,17-24
• 3 Feb. Genesis 30:25-43
• 4 Feb. Genesis 31:1-21
• 5 Feb. Genesis 31:25-55
• 6 Feb. Genesis 32:1-8,13,22-30
• 7 Feb. Genesis 33:1-11
• 8 Feb. Genesis 33:12-20
• 9 Feb. Genesis 35:1-7
• 10 Feb. Genesis 35:9-15
• 11 Feb. Genesis 35:16-21,27-29
• 12 Feb. Genesis 37:1-11
• 13 Feb. Genesis 37:12-24
• 14 Feb. Genesis 37:25-34
• 15 Feb. Genesis 39:1-6
• 16 Feb. Genesis 39:6-22
• 17 Feb. Genesis 40:1-23
• 18 Feb. Genesis 41:1-14
• 19 Feb. Genesis 41:15-37
• 20 Feb. Genesis 41:39-57
• 21 Feb. Genesis 42:1-38
• 22 Feb. Genesis 43:1-33
• 23 Feb. Genesis 45:1-28
• 24 Feb. Genesis 46:1-7,28-30
• 25 Feb. Genesis 47:1-7,11-12,27-31
• 26 Feb. Genesis 50:1-26
• 27 Feb. Exodus 1:1-14
• 28 Feb. Exodus 1:15-22
• 1 Mar. Exodus 2:1-10
• 2 Mar. Exodus 2:11-15
• 3 Mar. Exodus 2:16-22
• 4 Mar. Exodus 3:1-10
• 5 Mar. Exodus 3:11-20
• 6 Mar. Exodus 4:1-17
• 7 Mar. Exodus 4:18-31
• 8 Mar. Exodus 5:1-21
• 9 Mar. Exodus 5:22-6:9
• 10 Mar. Exodus 7:14-21
• 11 Mar. Exodus 11:1-10
• 12 Mar. Exodus 12:1-17
• 13 Mar. Exodus 12:21-30
• 14 Mar. Exodus 12:29-40
• 15 Mar. Exodus 13:17-14:4
• 16 Mar. Exodus 14:5-31
• 17 Mar. Exodus 15:1-27
• 18 Mar. Exodus 16:1-18,31
• 19 Mar. Exodus 17:1-7
• 20 Mar. Exodus 17:8-16
• 21 Mar. Exodus 18:1-27
• 22 Mar. Exodus 19:1-11,14-19
• 23 Mar. Exodus 20:1-20
• 24 Mar. Exodus 21:1-23:17
• 25 Mar. Exodus 24:12-18
• 26 Mar. Exodus 25:1-26,33
• 27 Mar. Exodus 32:1-20
• 28 Mar. Exodus 32:21-35
• 29 Mar. Exodus 34:1-22,27-29
• 30 Mar. Exodus 40:1-21,33-36
• 31 Mar. Leviticus 1;1-14:4
• 1 Apr. Numbers 1:1-2:34
• 2 Apr. Numbers 10:11-11:35
• 3 Apr. Numbers 12:1-16
• 4 Apr. Numbers 13:1-33
• 5 Apr. Numbers 14:1-38
• 6 Apr. Numbers 14:41-45
• 7 Apr. Numbers 16:1-40
• 8 Apr. Numbers 16:41-17:11
• 9 Apr. Numbers 20:1-13
• 10 Apr. Numbers 20:14-21:4
• 11 Apr. Numbers 21:4-9
• 12 Apr. Numbers 21:10-20
• 13 Apr. Numbers 21:21-35
• 14 Apr. Numbers 22:1-24:25
• 15 Apr. Numbers 25:1-18
• 16 Apr. Numbers 26:1-65
• 17 Apr. Numbers 27:12-23
• 18 Apr. Numbers 31:1-16,25-31
• 19 Apr. Numbers 32:1-38
• 20 Apr. Numbers 34:1-18,35:1-12
• 21 Apr. Deuteronomy 8:1-11
• 22 Apr. Deuteronomy 34:1-12
• 23 Apr. Joshua 1:1-18
• 24 Apr. Joshua 2:1-24
• 25 Apr. Joshua 3:1-17
• 26 Apr. Joshua 4:1-24,5:1
• 27 Apr. Joshua 6:1-27
• 28 Apr. Joshua 7:1-26
• 29 Apr. Joshua 8:1-29
• 30 Apr. Joshua 8:30-35
• 1 May. Joshua 9:1-27
• 2 May. Joshua 10:1-28
• 3 May. Joshua 10:29-43
• 4 May. Joshua 11:1-14
• 5 May. Joshua 13:1-8,14:1-4,18:1
• 6 May. Joshua 20:1-9
• 7 May. Joshua 22:1-16,21,28,30-34
• 8 May. Joshua 23:1-16,24:14-16,22-27
• 9 May. Joshua 24:29-33
• 10 May. Judges 1:1-11,17-19
• 11 May. Judges 2:1-5,10-15
• 12 May. Judges 2:16-23
• 13 May. Judges 3:5-11
• 14 May. Judges 3:12-30
• 15 May. Judges 4:1-24,5:31
• 16 May. Judges 6:1-27
• 17 May. Judges 6:33-40
• 18 May. Judges 7:1-25
• 19 May. Judges 8:4-28
• 20 May. Judges 8:29-9:21
• 21 May. Judges 9:22-49
• 22 May. Judges 9:50-57
• 23 May. Judges 10:1-16
• 24 May. Judges 10:17-11:33
• 25 May. Judges 11:30-31,34-40
• 26 May. Judges 12:1-6
• 27 May. Judges 12:7-15,13:1
• 28 May. Judges 13:2-25
• 29 May. Judges 14:1-11
• 30 May. Judges 14:12-20
• 31 May. Judges 15:1-8
• 1 June Judges 15:9-20
• 2 June Judges 16:1-3
• 3 June Judges 16:4-15
• 4 June Judges 16:16-31
• 5 June Judges 17:1-13
• 6 June Judges 18:1-31
• 7 June Judges 19:1-30
• 8 June Judges 20:1-48
• 9 June Judges 21:1-23
• 10 June Job 1:1-22
• 11 June Job 2:1-13
• 12 June Job 3:11-13:8
• 13 June Job 38:1-42:17
• 14 June Ruth 1:1-22
• 15 June Ruth 2:1-23
• 16 June Ruth 3:1-18
• 17 June Ruth 4:1-17
• 18 June 1 Samuel 1:1-20
• 19 June 1 Samuel 1:21-2:2
• 20 June 1 Samuel 2:11-12,18-26
• 21 June 1 Samuel 3:1-21
• 22 June 1 Samuel 4:1-18
• 23 June 1 Samuel 5:1-12
• 24 June 1 Samuel 6:1-21,7:1
• 25 June 1 Samuel 7:2-17
• 26 June 1 Samuel 8:1-22
• 27 June 1 Samuel 9:1-27,10:1
• 28 June 1 Samuel 10:1-11
• 29 June 1 Samuel 10:13-25
• 30 June 1 Samuel 11:1-15
• 1 July 1 Samuel 12:1-25
• 2 July 1 Samuel 13:2-7
• 3 July 1 Samuel 13:8-15
• 4 July 1 Samuel 14:1-23
• 5 July 1 Samuel 14:24-46
• 6 July 1 Samuel 14:47-15:9
• 7 July 1 Samuel 15:10-31
• 8 July 1 Samuel 16:1-13
• 9 July 1 Samuel 16:14-23
• 10 July 1 Samuel 17:1-52
• 11 July 1 Samuel 17:57-58,18:1-16
• 12 July 1 Samuel 18:17-29
• 13 July 1 Samuel 19:1-18
• 14 July 1 Samuel 20:1-47
• 15 July 1 Samuel 21:1-9
• 16 July 1 Samuel 21:10-11,22:1-5
• 17 July 1 Samuel 22:6-19
• 18 July 1 Samuel 23:1-13
• 19 July 1 Samuel 24:1-22
• 20 July 1 Samuel 25:1-44
• 21 July 1 Samuel 26:1-25
• 22 July 1 Samuel 27:1-12
• 23 July 1 Samuel 28:1-20
• 24 July 1 Samuel 29:1-11
• 25 July 1 Samuel 30:1-31
• 26 July 1 Samuel 31:1-13
• 27 July 2 Samuel 1:1-16
• 28 July 2 Samuel 2:1-7
• 29 July 2 Samuel 2:8-17
• 30 July 2 Samuel 3:1,6-21
• 31 July 2 Samuel 3:22-32
• 1 Aug. 2 Samuel 4:1-12
• 2 Aug. 2 Samuel 5:1-12
• 3 Aug. 2 Samuel 5:17-25
• 4 Aug. 2 Samuel 6:1-23
• 5 Aug. 2 Samuel 7:1-17
• 6 Aug. 2 Samuel 8:1-14
• 7 Aug. 2 Samuel 9:1-13
• 8 Aug. 2 Samuel 10:1-14
• 9 Aug. 2 Samuel 11:1-17,26-27
• 10 Aug. 2 Samuel 12:1-18
• 11 Aug. 2 Samuel 12:24-31
• 12 Aug. 2 Samuel 13:1-39
• 13 Aug. 2 Samuel 14:21-33
• 14 Aug. 2 Samuel 15:1-12
• 15 Aug. 2 Samuel 15:13-37
• 16 Aug. 2 Samuel 16:1-22
• 17 Aug. 2 Samuel 17:1-29
• 18 Aug. 2 Samuel 18:1-33
• 19 Aug. 2 Samuel 19:1-18
• 20 Aug. 1 Kings 1:5-27
• 21 Aug. 1 Kings 1:28-53
• 22 Aug. 1 Kings 2:1-12
• 23 Aug. 1 Kings 2:13-46
• 24 Aug. 1 Kings 3:1-15
• 25 Aug. 1 Kings 3:16-28
• 26 Aug. 1 Kings 4:7,20-34
• 27 Aug. 1 Kings 5:1-18
• 28 Aug. 1 Kings 6:1-22,38
• 29 Aug. 1 Kings 7:1-12
• 30 Aug. 1 Kings 7:13-30,37-38,45-46
• 31 Aug. 1 Kings 8:1-11
• 1 Sept. 1 Kings 8:22-34,54-57,62-63
• 2 Sept. 1 Kings 9:1-9
• 3 Sept. 1 Kings 10:1-10,13
• 4 Sept. 1 Kings 11:1-13
• 5 Sept. 1 Kings 11:14-40
• 6 Sept. 1 Kings 11:42-12:20
• 7 Sept. 1 Kings 12:25-33
• 8 Sept. 1 Kings 14:1-20
• 9 Sept. 1 Kings 14:21-31
• 10 Sept. 1 Kings 15:1-16
• 11 Sept. 1 Kings 15:25-29,17-24
• 12 Sept. 1 Kings 16:1-22
• 13 Sept. 1 Kings 16:23-28
• 14 Sept. 1 Kings 16:29-33
• 15 Sept. 1 Kings 17:1-16
• 16 Sept. 1 Kings 17:17-24
• 17 Sept. 1 Kings 18:1-9,15-21
• 18 Sept. 1 Kings 18:22-40
• 19 Sept. 1 Kings 18:41-46
• 20 Sept. 1 Kings 19:1-18
• 21 Sept. 1 Kings 19:19-21
• 22 Sept. 1 Kings 20:1-22
• 23 Sept. 1 Kings 21:1-16
• 24 Sept. 1 Kings 21:17-29
• 25 Sept. 1 Kings 22:1-40
• 26 Sept. 2 Kings 1:1-18
• 27 Sept. 2 Kings 2:1-15
• 28 Sept. 2 Kings 3:1-27
• 29 Sept. 2 Kings 2:19-22,4:1-7
• 30 Sept. 2 Kings 4:8-37
• 1 Oct. 2 Kings 4:38-44
• 2 Oct. 2 Kings 5:1-15
• 3 Oct. 2 Kings 6:8-23
• 4 Oct. 2 Kings 8:7-15
• 5 Oct. 2 Kings 9:1-25
• 6 Oct. 2 Kings 9:30-37
• 7 Oct. 2 Kings 12:1-12
• 8 Oct. 2 Kings 13:1-9
• 9 Oct. 2 Kings 13:14-21
• 10 Oct. 2 Kings 14:23-29
• 11 Oct. 2 Kings 15:19-20,16:15-18
• 12 Oct. 2 Kings 17:1-18
• 13 Oct. 2 Kings 17:24-34
• 14 Oct. 2 Kings 18:1-8
• 15 Oct. 2 Kings 18:13-21,28-31,36
• 16 Oct. 2 Kings 19:1-10,19-20,32-36
• 17 Oct. 2 Kings 20:1-11
• 18 Oct. 2 Kings 20:12-21
• 19 Oct. 2 Kings 22:1-13
• 20 Oct. 2 Kings 23:1-4,8-11,21-25
• 21 Oct. 2 Kings 23:29-37
• 22 Oct. 2 Kings 24:1-7
• 23 Oct. 2 Kings 24:8-18
• 24 Oct. 2 Kings 25:1-21
• 25 Oct. Daniel 1:1-17
• 26 Oct. Daniel 3:9-15,19-20,24-30
• 27 Oct. Daniel 5:1-13,16-18,20-31
• 28 Oct. Daniel 6:1-11,16-17,19-23
• 29 Oct. Daniel 7:1-9,11-14,16-18
• 30 Oct. Daniel 11:1-9
• 31 Oct. Daniel 12:1-13
• 1 Nov. Ezra 1:1-11
• 2 Nov. Ezra 2:1-70
• 3 Nov. Ezra 3:1-13
• 4 Nov. Ezra 4:1-13,19-21
• 5 Nov. Ezra 5:1-9,6:1-4.13-22
• 6 Nov. Ezra 7:1-6,11-23,8:31-36
• 7 Nov. Nehemiah 1:1-4,2:1-10
• 8 Nov. Nehemiah 2:11-20
• 9 Nov. Nehemiah 4:1-23
• 10 Nov. Nehemiah 5:1-16,6:1-3,15-16
• 11 Nov. Nehemiah 8:1-12
• 12 Nov. Nehemiah 12:27-43
• 13 Nov. Esther 2:1-18
• 14 Nov. Esther 2:19-23
• 15 Nov. Esther 3:1-13
• 16 Nov. Esther 4:1-16
• 17 Nov. Esther 5:1-14
• 18 Nov. Esther 6:1-14
• 19 Nov. Esther 7:1-10
• 20 Nov. Esther 8:1-14
• 21 Nov. Esther 9:1-17,24-28
• 22 Nov. Amos 1:1-15,2:1-2
• 23 Nov. Amos 5:1-7,10-15
• 24 Nov. Hosea 1:1-11
• 25 Nov. Hosea 9:1-9
• 26 Nov. Micah 1:1-9
• 27 Nov. Micah 4:1-5,5:1-5
• 28 Nov. Isaiah 1:1-7,11-20
• 29 Nov. Isaiah 7:1-17,8:3-4
• 30 Nov. Isaiah 9:1-7
• 1 Dec. Isaiah 10:28-34,11:1-10
• 2 Dec. Isaiah 40:1-11
• 3 Dec. Isaiah 44:1-11
• 4 Dec. Isaiah 45:1-7,13-17
• 5 Dec. Isaiah 52:13-15,53:1-12
• 6 Dec. Isaiah 60:1-14
• 7 Dec. Nahum 2:1-13
• 8 Dec. Jeremiah 6:1-8,13-23
• 9 Dec. Jeremiah 7:1-11
• 10 Dec. Jeremiah 18:1-12
• 11 Dec. Jeremiah 19:1-13
• 12 Dec. Jeremiah 23:1-8
• 13 Dec. Jeremiah 26:1-15
• 14 Dec. Jeremiah 29:1-12
• 15 Dec. Zephaniah 1:1-13
• 16 Dec. Habakkuk 1:1-13
• 17 Dec. Ezekiel 1:1-17,22-28
• 18 Dec. Ezekiel 10:1-19,11:22-24
• 19 Dec. Ezekiel 17:1-10
• 20 Dec. Ezekiel 33:21-26,34:1-24
• 21 Dec. Ezekiel 37:1-14
• 22 Dec. Ezekiel 40:1-31
• 23 Dec. Ezekiel 43:1-12
• 24 Dec. Obadiah 1:1-11
• 25 Dec. Haggai 1:1-15
• 26 Dec. Zechariah 1:1-6
• 27 Dec. Zechariah 9:9-17
• 28 Dec. Zechariah 14:1-11
• 29 Dec. Malachi 3:1-5,4:1-6
• 30 Dec. Joel 2:1-11
• 31 Dec. Joel 2:25-32
• Bible Journey 2
• 22. The World of the Old Testament Journeys
• 23.The Journeys of Adam, Enoch, Noah & Abraham
• 24. The Journeys of Isaac, Jacob & Joseph
• 25. The Israelites journey from Egypt to Mt Sinai
• 26. The Journey continues from Sinai to Moab
• 27. The Israelites move into Canaan
• 28. The Israelites face continuing opposition
• 29. The Journeys of Ruth and Samuel
• 30. Israel becomes a kingdom under Saul and David
• 31. The Golden Age of Israel under King Solomon
• 32. The Divided Kingdom & Journey into Exile
• 33. Judah after the fall of Israel
• 34. Judah in exile in Babylonia
• 35. The Exiles return to Judah
• 36. Songs, Prayers & Memorable Sayings
• 37. The Philosopher, the Lover & the Mourner
• 38. Amos, Hosea & Micah criticize Israel
• 39. Isaiah predicts the fall of Israel & Judah
• 40. Isaiah offers comfort to those in exile
• 41. Jonah goes to Nineveh & Nahum condemns it
• 42. Jeremiah warns of the destruction of Jerusalem
• 43. Zephaniah & Habakkuk foretell Judah's fall
• 44. Ezekiel warns of the conquest of Jerusalem
• 45. Obadiah foretells the punishment of Edom
• 46. Haggai & Zechariah encourage re-building
• 47. Malachi & Joel await the Day of the LORD
• 48. The Jewish World of the Old Testament
• 49. Judaism and Christianity compared

Gen 11:10-26  The Book of Genesis lists many generations of Shem’s descendants including Terah and Abram (later called Abraham).  

The story then recommences nearly a thousand years after the building of the Tower of Babylonia when Abram is born in the Amorite kingdom of Mesopotamia , in c.1900BC.

Gen 11:28  Terah and his family (including his sons Abram and Nahor, and his grandson Lot) live at Ur in Mesopotamia (see Map 38 ).

Map 38  Abram's Journey to Canaan

Ur developed during the reign of the Sumerian kings (c.3000 – 2300BC) and had been a major city for hundreds of years when Abram was born. A ‘ziggurat’ (a stepped temple platform) about 70 feet / 21 metres high, surmounted by a temple and shrine to the Akkadian moon god Sin, was built by King Ur-Nammu in c.2100BC, using a solid mud brick core covered with waterproof baked mud bricks.

Archaeologists in the 1920s discovered thousands of graves dating back to the first dynasty of the Sumerian kings, including several so-called ‘death-pits’ where royal harpists and members of the royal court had taken poison before being buried above the tomb of their dead monarch. One of these ‘Royal Tombs’, contained the queen’s exquisite jewellery as well as a harp, a lyre, gold bowls and silver jugs.

Modern-day travellers to the site of Ur in southern Mesopotamia (near Basra in modern-day southern Iraq ) can visit the archaeological remains of the Royal Tombs of the Sumerian Kings (dating from c.2600BC), excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, together with the partially reconstructed remains of the Ziggurat of Ur . Many items from the tombs are on display at the British Museum in London .

Queen Pu-abi's gold pendant from the Royal Tombs of Ur

Gen 11:31-32  Terah and his family decide to move from Ur and follow the River Euphrates upstream for about 600 miles / 950km to Haran (see  1 on Map 38 ). Haran is the name of Abram's brother (see Genesis 11:27) so Terah apparently re-named the place  Haran in memory of his son, Lot's father, who had died before the family left Ur (Genesis 11:28).

Haran is one of the oldest cities on earth that is still inhabited today. Founded by settlers migrating west from Mesopotamia in the 18 th century BC, the city was at its peak during the Hittite Empire, based on Central Anatolia in the 12 th century BC. It was already centuries old when the Hittites fought Ramesses II of Egypt at the Battle of Kadesh in 939 BC.

Modern travellers to Harran ( Haran ), near AltinbaÅŸak in eastern Turkey , can sense the antiquity of the settlement when they encounter its decaying walls, the ruins of the ancient 11 th century citadel, and the remains of the Old Mosque. Haran is famous for its unique beehive-shaped mudbrick houses that originated in the 3 rd century BC and which have been rebuilt in the same style many times during the intervening centuries.

Traditional bee-hive shaped houses at Harran  (Glumik)

Gen 12:1-3  God calls Terah’s son Abram to “Leave your country… and go to the land I will show you.” God establishes a covenant agreement with Abram to give his family the ‘promised land’ of Canaan (later called Palestine ). This solemn agreement – which is renewed on many occasions – becomes the recurring theme of the Old Testament (‘testament’ means ‘covenant’ or solemn agreement).

Gen 12:4-5  In c.1855BC, Abram and his nephew Lot set out for Canaan , about 400 miles / 640km away, with their tents and flocks (see 2 on Map 38 ).

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Abraham’s Journey: Map of Travels from Ur to Canaan

Abraham's journey : tracing the path from ur to canaan.

Abraham's journey is a significant narrative in both biblical and historical contexts. This remarkable journey marks the beginning of a story that would shape the foundation of monotheistic religions and reverberate through centuries. Let's explore the map of Abraham's travels, tracing his remarkable odyssey from Ur to Canaan.

Journey of Abraham Map : Traversing the Ancient Landscape

The journey of Abraham , a pivotal figure in the Bible, commenced in the city of Ur, situated in present-day Iraq . Guided by his unwavering faith in a higher power, Abraham embarked on a transformative expedition. His path led him through the heart of Mesopotamia, across vast deserts, and over rugged terrain.

Map of Abraham's Travels From Ur to Canaan

The map of Abraham's travels vividly illustrates his route, showcasing the challenges and triumphs he experienced. From Ur, he set forth towards the land of Canaan , a region associated with divine promises. This journey wasn't solely a physical one; it represented a spiritual quest driven by his deep belief in the divine command.

Embracing the Unknown: Faith and Obedience

Abraham's journey exemplifies his remarkable faith and unwavering obedience. His willingness to leave behind familiarity, family, and comfort, based solely on his trust in a divine promise, is a testament to his character. As he traversed through unknown lands, he carried with him a legacy that would shape the course of history.

Legacy of Abraham: Father of Many Nations

The journey of Abraham culminated in Canaan, where he continued to fulfill his calling. His story doesn't end with his arrival; it marks the beginning of a legacy. Often referred to as the " Father of Many Nations ," Abraham's descendants would become the foundation of monotheistic faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Reflecting on the Journey: Significance for Today

Abraham's journey remains relevant today as a symbol of faith, courage, and the power of divine guidance. It teaches us that embracing the unknown, guided by faith and obedience, can lead to transformative experiences and lasting impact.

In retracing the steps of Abraham's journey through the map of his travels, we gain a deeper understanding of his profound impact on the course of history and the development of monotheistic beliefs. His journey serves as an inspiration for all those who seek to navigate life's uncertainties with faith and purpose.

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Abraham’s Journey: Tracing the Path from Ur to Canaan

Embark on a remarkable journey through history as we trace the path of Abraham , a central figure in the Abrahamic religions, and his voyage from Ur to Canaan. This transformative journey is vividly depicted in the " Journey of Abraham Map ," offering a visual narrative of his travels. As a pivotal figure in the Book of Genesis , Abraham's story is deeply intertwined with his faith and obedience to a divine call.

The " Map of Abraham's Travels " provides a comprehensive portrayal of his arduous journey from the city of Ur , located in modern-day Iraq, to the land of Canaan , which holds significant religious and historical importance. This epic voyage is not just a geographical movement but a spiritual odyssey, symbolizing faith, trust, and obedience to a higher calling.

By exploring this map, we gain insights into the challenges and triumphs that shaped Abraham's character and faith. His journey from Ur to Canaan marks a pivotal moment in the narrative of monotheistic religions , as well as a testament to the enduring power of faith and the enduring legacy of a man who became known as the father of many nations.

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Abraham’s Long Journey to Canaan, Trusting God:

Has God ever taken you on the long route to a promised blessing or leading?  You could see a faster way, but instead off you went in almost the opposite direction. Maybe you are in the middle of one now.

Below is a quick summary of Abraham’s long-way-round journey from Ur to Canaan.

Let us know about your long journey (or journeys) in a comment, please.

The 11th chapter of Genesis tells us the story of the Tower of Babel and the journey of Terah along with his son Abraham with his wife Sarai and Terah’s grandson Lot . For reasons not specified in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible , they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans (present-day southern Iraq) to Canaan on the Mediterranean coast. We can only speculate as to why Terah did this but a peek at the location and political situation in Mesopotamia at that time would give us clues why he would take his family elsewhere.  (For a better picture of Bible events and location, refer to the Holy Land Map in conjunction with this article.)

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Ur was a place of upheavals and it was under constant attack from hostile neighbors during the time of the patriarchs, so leaving the city for a more peaceful land would have been a more feasible choice for Terah and his family. Another possibility is that Terah may have recognized and worshiped the true God while Ur was a city full of people who were devoted to the Sumerian moon god Nanna (or Sin in Akkadian). We can see a problem in their beliefs if this is the case which may have driven Terah and his family to leave Ur.

Shorter Desert Route versus Longer River Route

Whatever the reason, Terah never reached his original destination of Canaan and they settled instead in Haran (present-day southern Turkey) where he died.

If we look at the map of modern day Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Israel , a journey from east to west through the Arabian desert would have been the shorter route. Terah and his family, however, took the longer route by following the Euphrates river upstream towards Haran. This makes more sense rather than making the journey across a perilous desert.

External factors that may put their life at risk during the desert journey include a lack of reliable sources of water, intense heat, constant temperature changes, and unpredictable sandstorms. Lack of food can also be a problem in a sparsely vegetated land while dangerous insects and animals also pose a threat. Bandits preying on passing vulnerable caravans also endangered their lives. There may have also been established routes throughout Mesopotamia that followed the Euphrates, so northwards to Haran is the better and safer choice.

Onward to Canaan

Abraham’s family settled in Haran for many years until Terah died at the age of 205, then God called Abraham to go and continue the journey to Canaan. We can only surmise as to what drove their family to settle in Haran temporarily (whether it’s the town’s prosperity or relative peace), but to uproot himself and his family from a familiar land to live in another which was inhabited by people whose customs and gods differ from his can be unsettling.

He was 75 years old at that time and moving was not an easy task especially in his age. But this time, the command to move to Canaan came with a blessing explicitly stated in Genesis 12:2-3. So he packed all their belongings and journeyed again, reaching Shechem in Canaan first, then the hills of Bethel, and finally south to the Negev.

Our Own Long River Route

Abraham was often held as one whose faith and obedience shined brightly among the other characters in the Bible. The material and spiritual blessings that followed his obedience were well-documented, and he is recognized as someone Christians should emulate in faith.

We also take journeys, literally and spiritually (just like Abraham) and make hard decisions that will significantly impact our lives. Making the right choices (such as who to marry or whether to move to another city to pursue a leading) takes a lot of faith in God. The question is do we trust God enough to lead us out of our Ur of the Chaldeans and take us to a better place which He promised us? Do we take the shorter yet perilous desert route or do we have the patience to take the longer river route? Do we trust in our own intelligence or do we seek God first for His word in our decision-making process?

In your life, has God led you to the longer river route and how did it become a blessing?  Comment below, please.

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14 thoughts on “ abraham’s long journey to canaan, trusting god: ”.

thank you. Very good.

I’ve always felt a pull towards God. But instead I injured my back and got addicted to pain killers I lost my family and everything I hold dear in my life . That consumed me for 18 years. After living on the streets and hitting my rock bottom. I immediately went into treatment. I then had a friend that asked me to an Alpha course. Where I did the best thing. I asked Jesus into my life. I’ve been clean for almost three years. And my heart is in the Lord praise be to there.

Wow ! What a testimony. Praise GOD! Trust that GOD who has pulled you out of the pit of addiction will continue to LIFT you UP day by day and you will be VICTORIOUS in YESHUA! Shalom, David, Perth, WA.

My Dear Brother Defnitely you will be see Miracles if youstay for god still

Praise God he is great and greatly to be praised

Thanks for your testimony. You are God’s child, and He will do anything to save you. Sometimes we choose the path which appears shorter, but it is indeed longer and we wonder why we have to struggle so much. But God never left us. He’s was always there waiting on us to follow Him for the blessings. Please continue in the faith and may the lives of many be touched by your post. God bless you Sir.

After submitting to God I knew I had a lot to learn. I didn’t have to go far like Abram, but the lessons I learn about myself was something I would not wish on even the worst of mine enemies. Of course hind sight is 20/20. I didn’t realize how selfish I was throughout my youth and how my sins didn’t go unnoticed by God like I had thought. It had to be ,like Abraham, that I should trust God and now life is so much better. We should all be as Abram and go forward in faith, for God does provide and equip those who hear his ” STILL SMALL VOICE”.

Good news. God bless you.

Was saved at 10 years old and then led into the wilderness of the world for 40 years. At age 50, the Lord called me out of the world and then out of the church. The Lord allowed me to loose everything and ended up.living in a van and traveling the country for 18 months on His provision alone. Broken ball joints, blown tires, weeks without food and then onto where I am now…awaiting direction for the next leg. Patience and truat…trust in the unbelievable have been the lessons so far.

You’re right on. Every believer has to go through the fire when trusting God. Then we have a good witness.

Abram was called out of Ur to go to a land he did not know according to Acts 7:2. Perhaps when he told his father, Terah, that the One true God had called him, his father took the reins and led them out of Ur. Terah was worshipping many gods at that time so it’s possible that he thought this was one of those many gods. We don’t know why God waited until Terah died to call Abram again but perhaps it was because Terah did not believe in the One True God. Abram is called a second time after his father dies in Harlan with promises of blessing given.

I have always been making choices on my own, and notice that I keep making the same mistakes. However, regardless of my mistakes I have always felt that God has a special place in His heart for me. He always catches me when I’m about to fall. In October 2016 I decided to let go and let God, and I notice that I’m getting closer to the blessings He has for me. Following God’s instructions is indeed the safest and surest way to His blessings.

God led me to retire early from my job. We were then forced to move from our hometown to an hour away. These 2 changes were some of the hardest things I’ve done in my entire life but God has definitely been in them. We’ve been here 4 years now and even though I still miss living at our old place, God is accomplishing incredible stuff in my life. We attend a great church, good friends and good fellowship. Now if covid would just end.

In May 2020 on a Saturday morning I was getting into my car to go to the liquor store and I heard someone telling into my ears…DONT DRINK..GO HOME.The 4 words made me U turn..Was stunned,.clueless ..whats going on me..I’m a daily consumer alcohol last 54 years and suffering from parkinson and anxiety attacks which led me suicidal attempts few times.I did not drink that day and called my friend next day and explained also I said I’ve no cravings towards alcohol now.He said the holy spirit in you and you will never consume alcohol anymore.As he said I’m clean from that day onwards and my parkinson and anxiety attacks gone.Now I can write even draw paintings and helping people suffering from anxiety.Thanks Jesus my saviour.I ask jesus to teach me patience, humble,love and forgive others. I spend 2-3 hrs.with jesus daily praying and singing.Its a great joy. I regret wasted 54 years Thanks for giving me an opportunity to give my testimony. ….Glory to the father who has created me…Glory to the son who has Redeemed me…Glory to the Holy Spirit who has sanctified me………….Thanks in Jesus

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Life of Abraham Timeline

Why did Abraham and his entire household fight in the Bible's first war? How old was the patriarch when Isaac was born? When was he severely tested by having to sacrifice his own son? How many children did he ultimately produce?

1960 B.C. Abraham (Abram) is Born

Abram (his birth name before being renamed Abraham) is the third son born to a man named Terah living in Ur of the Chaldees. At the time of his birth his older brother Haran is 60 years old (Genesis 11:26) with second brother Nahor at an unknown younger age. Terah is 130 years old at the time of Abraham's birth. The family into which he is born was known to worship pagan deities (Joshua 24:2).

Modern archeology dates the city of Ur, located in ancient Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River, to around 3,800 B.C. It was resettled, after the great flood took place in 2313, by Noah's son Shem and his descendants.

1890 B.C. Leaving Ur of the Caldees

Terah, at the age of 200, decides to move his entire family out of Ur after the death of Haran (Genesis 11:28). Those leaving include Abraham, now 70, his wife Sarah (Sarai), Abraham's brother Nahor and his wife, as well as Lot (Haran's son) and his wife (Genesis 11:29 - 31). The family migrates northwest to a city named Haran located in a region of ancient Syria named Padanaram.

1885 Called by God

Terah, at the ripe old age of 205, dies in the city of Haran (Genesis 11:32). God then calls Abraham, now age 75, and commands he leave the city for the land of Canaan.

And the Lord said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house into a land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1, HBFV).

Abraham, Sarah, Lot, as well as their slaves, leave Haran for the Promised Land. Nahor and his family, however, although they stay in the city (Genesis 12:4 - 5), will play a major role in the lives of the patriarch's descendants. Abraham's future son Isaac will end up marrying Rebekah, the daughter of Nahor's son Bethuel (22:20 - 23, 24:15). Bethuel's son Laban (28:5) will employ Isaac's son Jacob for many years and provide him two of his own daughters, Rachel and Leah, as wives.

1885 - 1880 Famine and Fleeing

Abraham's travel to Canaan takes him first to Shechem (Genesis 12:5 - 7). After arriving in the city, God appears to him and promises his descendants the land of Canaan. The travelers continue their journey south, staying for an unknown time near Bethel before continuing their journey (verses 8 - 9).

A severe famine, the first one mentioned in the Biblical record, then strikes Canaan. This grievous event forces the weary sojourners to Egypt in search of relief.

Abraham, ever since leaving Haran, has feared his wife's beauty would get him killed. He therefore arranged for her to deceive those they met by stating he was her brother.

When God told me to leave my father’s house and wander in many different places, I told Sarah, "You must do a special favor for me. Everywhere we go tell people I am your brother" (Genesis 20:13, NCV).

Sarah, when the group enters Egypt, continues the practice of lying about her relationship with the patriarch. The ruse works for a short time until Pharaoh discovers the deception and casts the travelers out of the country (Genesis 12:11 - 20)!

The group, after being tossed out of Egypt, heads north to Bethel and settles in the area. Abraham's herdsmen, however, soon begin to have arguments with Lot's herdsmen over grazing rights. The disagreements end when Lot moves his family and livestock near the city of Sodom (Genesis 13:1 - 13). Abraham, after separating from Lot, moves his family to near Hebron (verse 18).

c. 1880 - 1875 The First War

King Chedorlaomer of Elam, in the Bible's first series of wars, leads a coalition of three other monarchs in a campaign that seeks to conquer and pillage. Battling while they travel south down the King's Highway, they end up at the southern end of the Dead Sea where they fight the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 14). Chedorlaomer's forces soundly defeat the Sodom-led army, taking Lot and his family as prisoners.

Abraham gathers up his 318 male servants, along with several allies, and pursues Chedorlaomer as he travels north. He soon catches up with him at Dan and defeats him, saving the life of Lot. Upon his return he is greeted by Melchizedek, a physical manifestation of Jesus Christ, to whom he gives a tithe (Genesis 14:13 - 24).

1875 Promise of a Son

God promises Abraham (Abram), at age 85, that he will produce a son in his old age. The Eternal also makes a covenant with him and reveals his descendants will be afflicted for many years before being released with great wealth (Genesis 15).

1874 A Man-Made Solution

Abraham agrees to Sarah's proposal of him having a child through her Egyptian servant Hagar (Genesis 16:1 - 4). Hagar, however, after becoming pregnant, begins to disparage and despise Sarah. This earns her a harsh response from her mistress that forces her to flee while still pregnant. The Lord steps in and, through an angel, commands her to go back (verses 4 - 14).

Hagar gives birth, when the patriarch is 86 years old (Genesis 16:16), to a son named Ishmael.

1861 Name Changes, Sodom Destroyed

At the age of 99 Abram is contacted by the Lord (Genesis 17). The Eternal makes a unilateral covenant with him, promising to bless him exceedingly through a child he will produce with Sarai. His named is changed to Abraham while Sarai's is changed to Sarah to reflect the blessings they will receive.

Abraham, as a sign of the covenant, circumcises himself, Ishmael (now 13) and his entire household (Genesis 17:7 - 14).

God, a short time later, decides to visit Abraham in the form of a physical manifestation of Jesus Christ accompanied by two angels (Genesis 18). The Lord reiterates his promise of a son and reveals he has come to investigate Sodom and Gomorrah’s alleged sins. Abraham then negotiates with the Eternal not to destroy Sodom if only ten righteous are found (verses 20 - 32).

Ten righteous are not found in Sodom, however, and it along with several other sinful cities of the plain is cauterized from the earth through heavenly fire. Although Lot and his family are saved from this destruction, his wife is turned to salt for disobeying the Eternal’s instructions (Genesis 19).

Abraham journeys to Gerar and, once again, has Sarah lie about their relationship. The patriarch, although once again caught in a deception, is saved by God's intervention and allowed to live in the area.

1860 Birth of Isaac

Abraham's wife Sarah gives birth to Isaac when he is 100 years old (Genesis 21:5).

1858 - 57 Isaac Weaned, Hagar Cast Out

Isaac is weaned when he is between 2 and 3 years old (Bible Knowledge Commentary). Sarah, when Abraham has a great feast celebrating this event, notices that Ishmael (around 16 - 17 years old) is mocking Isaac (Genesis 21:8 - 9). Sarah, angered by what she sees, tells the patriarch to permanently cast out Hagar and her son. This action, approved by God, leads to the mother and son being sent into the wilderness of Beersheba. The pair is then miraculously saved from dehydration and death by the angel of God (verses 10 - 19).

Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech, the leader of the Philistines, then lives for a time in Beersheba (Genesis 21:22 - 34).

1845 A Severe Test

God tests Abraham, now 115 years old, by commanding he sacrifice his fifteen-year-old son Isaac. After the patriarch passes this severe test, the Lord affirms that he will surely bless him.

And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice (Genesis 22:18, HBFV).

c. 1823 Sarah Dies

Sarah, at age 127, dies in Hebron. Abraham buries his wife of more than 67 years in a cave upon land purchased from its Hittite owner (Genesis 23). In the future, this burial location will be considered one of the holiest sites of Judaism and Islam.

1820 A Wife for Isaac

Abraham, now 140, sends his most trusted servant to find a wife for his forty-year-old son Isaac. The servant, told to search for a wife among relatives living in Nahor (Haran), is led by God to Rebekah whom he brings back to Canaan. Isaac and Rebekah marry soon after they meet (Genesis 24).

1820 - 1785 B.C. Remarriage and Death

Abraham, at an unknown time after Sarah's death, decides to marry again. He takes as his wife Keturah, who produces sons named Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Genesis 25). The patriach, during his life, ultimately produces eight sons through three women.

Abraham, the father of the faithful, lives to see Isaac turn 75 and grandson Jacob grow to the age of 15. He is buried by Isaac and Ishmael, upon his death at age 175, next to his beloved wife Sarah.

Abram Travels to Canaan

C. 2091 b.c..

Abram was born in Ur, a powerful city in southern Babylonia. Abram’s father, Terah, eventually led the family toward the land of Canaan but decided to settle in Haran (see Gen. 11:27–31 ). After Terah’s death, the Lord called Abram to go “to the land that I will show you” (Canaan), which he promises to give to Abram’s descendants.

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THE JOURNEYS OF ABRAHAM

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Abraham’s journey to canaan | genesis 12 | the incredible father of faith.

Abraham’s Journey to Canaan is the beginning of the restoration of the original mandate given to humanity by God Almighty.

This is the start of the story of the “Father of Faith” Abram and his wife Sarai, who lived in the city of Ur in the Chaldeans (modern-day Iraq). The Almighty God asked Abram to leave the city and travel to an undesignated land that he later learned was Canaan. God promised that he would bless him and make him the father of a great nation. Abram faithfully obeyed God and started his journey to the Promised Land, which his “seed” would inherit.

Abraham’s Journey to Canaan

Read the most well-known Bi ble Stories with Pictures and learn life lessons that will empower you and restore your faith .

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FOOTSTEPS OF ABRAHAM

FOOTSTEPS OF ABRAHAM; BY MALACHI MARTIN

The heavy curtains of far-distant time part upon an unlikely stage whose name is Ur. Today, Ur is a desert scrubland with miserable ruins jutting from terrain of sand and mud. It is about 120 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf, in the country we now call Iraq. Unlikely or not, however, very nearly 40 centuries ago, here began a journey that transcended history, and whose arc etched a crescent of hope and faith so indelibly that it determined the motive and course of events for centuries down to this day and far beyond the borders of the nations that were in its path - places we know as Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan.

The traveler who undertook that momentous journey was Abraham, claimed today as physical ancestor and as archpatriarch of faith and unity by great peoples who, though scattered wide, have long memories. He was claimed earliest by Jews, as tenaciously by Christians, belatedly by Moslems. Each religion claims priority, and, largely because of their different faiths, members of all three are locked in a blood-stained struggle that rages intermittently over the lands he crossed.

From Ur, Abraham traveled 700 miles to the borders of present-day Iraq, another 700 miles into Syria, another 800 down to Egypt by the inland road, and then back into Canaan - what is now Israel. It is a journey that today's pilgrim, for reasons of international polity, cannot easily replicate. But even though much of the route is difficult of access, and although many of the cities Abraham knew are now only ruins, there are nonetheless rewards for today's traveler, spiritual monuments to the man and his faith. Begin, then, in the Ur of history and imagination, and end at Hebron, where, under Israeli protection, the faiths, however briefly, meet.

When Abraham strode upon the stage at Ur, he was by Semitic reckoning already a man of 75. And Ur was then a capital city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, a place of beauty, graced with towers, palaces, temples, law courts, market squares, statues, shrines, gardens, mosaics, friezes, reliefs and monuments. It was divided into rectangular blocks by paved streets lined with two-story houses. It had its own seaport and man-made canal giving access to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, opening it up to lucrative foreign markets in the areas we call Africa, India, Malaysia and the Arabian peninsula. Ur was, in fact, part of an empire ruled by a written code of law drawn up by King Hammurabi. The civic order and public glory of that empire, Babylonia, were legendary.

We know some personal details about Abraham. He belonged to a race of Semites who traced their ancestry back to the dawn of human existence, and who had settled at Ur some 1,000 years before his time, a race the local Sumerians called Chaldeans. His was probably a family of merchant traders, buying and selling in Ur's rich markets. All his long life, Abraham loved one woman, Sarah. He spoke four or five of the main languages of his time. He was a skilled rider, hunter and fighter. Fiercely independent and an inveterate haggler (he even bargained with God), he had one central quality: faithfulness. And, if even one quarter of the words ascribed to him are authentic, he must have had as large a mind as any man ever born.

By the same Semitic reckoning of age, we are told that when Abraham was 75, his father, Terah, was over 200 years old. Yet it was Terah, the Bible records, whom God rather suddenly impelled to move on with his son and family toward an ancient promise of land and blessing for his race. That promise would not be found at Ur, where more than 500 different gods and goddesses were worshiped. Terah and Abraham and their fellow Semites worshiped one god - the only god, they said. God.

If not at glorious Ur, then where? To the west, in the land named after its marvelous purple dye: Canaan. Terah and Abraham knew their route. Then, as now, there was only one way by land to Canaan, an arc of fertile terrain, a long finger of rice and cotton and citrus and melon, corn and dates, figs and grapes, a curving miracle of green, arching its way in the midst of impassible desert wastes: the Fertile Crescent.

And so, one fine day, when the winter rains were almost over, they packed all their goods and chattels onto a few dozen four-wheeled carts drawn by oxen. They liquidated their merchandise, or most of it probably, and converted it into chits of value and exchange, made of baked clay. All along their route they could obtain funds and food and every material necessity with those chits.

We, in our unpeaceful world, are apt to imagine all sorts of dangers that Terah and Abraham must have faced - bands of roving robbers, murderous cave-dwellers, ravenous wild beasts. What is hard for us to understand is the reality: the remarkable security in which they actually made the trek. In fact, they traveled every inch of the long way by established trade routes complete with milestones, armed patrols, river fords, guardhouses, food depots and secure cities. The only serious enemies they might face were disease and the dreaded dust storm, the idyah, that came every spring and summer from the western desert, bearing a fine powder that blocked eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth, ultimately choking the unprotected. It was the same idyah that helped doom the effective use of helicopters in the abortive American attempt to rescue the Embassy hostages in the Ayatollah's Iran.

When he left Ur, then, and traveled up through the territory of modern Iraq, Abraham set out upon a ''royal highway'' through an area governed by civil law, bristling with trade and communications, inhabited by populations who enjoyed music and painting and sculpture and a written literature of plays, poems, epics, songs and novels. And, as he passed slowly on the road northward, at the sufferance and under the protection of great imperial authorities, he was carrying destiny away with him in his very person, as surely as he was carrying his worldly possessions in his ox-drawn carts.

As long as the caravan was on the first leg of its journey north over what is called Mesopotamia, the travelers never lost sight of the works of man. Apart from cities, they could always see at least one of those most visible objects in that land, the zigurrats. Each zigurrat soared skyward from a gigantic broad-based pedestal of brick and asphalt, rising sometimes to hundreds of feet, and always topped with a shrine to a god upon its pinnacle. Traveling through what we know as the Iraqi provinces of Muntafiq, Diwaniya, Hilla, Baghdad and Mosul, Abraham passed at least 35 of these monuments gleaming in the sun on either side of his route. Today, only squat piles of ruins are to be seen.

Their first important stop after leaving Ur was Babylon. Abraham knew it as Bab-Ilu, the most renowned of ancient royal cities. Its site lies just north of the town of Hilla in southern Iraq. Rectangular in shape, it was protected then by moated walls with nine gates. It was bisected by the great Euphrates River. It had eight urbann and seven suburban districts whose paved streets were everywhere enlivened with many-colored friezes and reliefs and lined with palaces, temples and luxurious houses. Abraham and Terah led the way through the Litamu suburb and, as all northbound travelers did, entered central Babylon through Urash Gate. They went up Nabu Street, turned east at the temple of Ninurta, then north by the main street and past the sacred area of Esagila where the royal palace stood. There, two extraordinary buildings loomed: the Temple of Marduk, with its frightening gold-sheathed, winged statues of that god, and the Eteme-an-ki (House-of-the-Foundations-of-Heaven-and-Earth ) zigurrat, which rose to a height of 296 feet. All of Abraham's descendants down to our day would remember it as the Tower of Babel.

Most of Abraham's Babylon lies buried today beneath a deep bed of silt, some of it beneath the water table. Of the original zigurrat, only one small island of worn brick surrounded by a moat remains. But you can still see enough to imagine the glory, and a smaller-scale reconstruction stands nearby. You will marvel even today at the remains of the huge fortifications, the skillful use the Babylonians made of water channels to enclose the city, the still awe-inspiring remains of temples and palaces and statuary. Even the piles of rubble mixed with sand and broken mudbrick set the imagination whirring.

After Babylon, there would have been nothing remarkable for many weeks of travel. Some 50 miles north, they might have stopped just beyond a wide curve of the Tigris River, at a little village of mud huts called Baghdad; but that place became a great city only some 2,500 years later; and it is far more likely that the caravan paused at such big, busy, prosperous cities as Sippar, Agade, or Tikrit, now in ruins. About 90 miles from Babylon, Abraham and his family tramped over a spot in the road where the pipeline now passes, bringing oil from the Iraqi fields of Kirkuk south and west to Dulaim and beyond.

It was not until they reached Ashur that they saw another extraordinary city. Ashur, on the bank of the Tigris, was as holy in the eyes of the Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian people of Abraham's day as Rome, Mecca and Jerusalem are for modern Catholics, Moslems and Jews. Abraham would have entered the city by Gurgurri Gate, and ridden over paved streets through rich bazaars, past glorious temples and the huge royal palace. His progress would have been interrupted by nearly constant religious processions. But, tradition tells us, he refused even to dismount from his camel there, for in the 34 temples dedicated to the god Ashur, and in the 16 dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, abominations were taking place daily: sacred male and female prostitution; sexual orgies in honor of Ishtar. Abraham ate and drank briefly, always in the saddle, and left the city as quickly as he could.

Within another four or five weeks, by overnighting at such minor cities as Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta and Nimrud, Abraham's family would have arrived at the most northern reaches of today's Iraq, and entered the city of Nineveh on the east bank of the Tigris. Travelers along the trade route that followed the Fertile Crescent, as surely as a river flows its course, had to pass through Nineveh to replenish supplies of food, water and medicines, because the next leg of the journey was the hardest.

It was inevitable, therefore, that Nineveh grew later to be the capital of the Assyrian empire - a place so large that the prophet Jonah reckoned three days to cross it on foot. Today, its site is near the small town of Kuyunjik. And, even though most of the old city is now mounds of dust and sand with some remaining brickwork and soaring walls, the restoration of the original gate, with its fearful winged guardian deity, instills an immediate sense of the whole's original greatness.

From Nineveh, Abraham's little band at last took a westward turn, for a trek of 200 miles. Along this stretch, the vegetation was thinner, the water scarcer, the road bleaker and rougher and less well protected. Sixty miles along the way, the route left what we call Iraq, passing into Turkey. There was only one adequate restingpoint, the city of Gozan - modern Tell el Halaf in Turkey -before Haran. Gozan covered 150 acres, was guarded by high mudbrick walls on three sides and by the River Khabur on the fourth. You can walk around the city limits today, noting the remains of houses and streets, and the remnants of a once beautiful building that rested on pillars fashioned in the shapes of divinities mounted on lions. You can still see samples of Gozan's painted pottery, decorated with animal and geometric designs - Abraham and his party surely traded for some of it, for it was renowned all through the Middle East. Gozan was welcoming; but still, having rested there, when travelers made it across from Nineveh to Haran, even the hardiest were generally as much in need of rest as of supplies.

It was at Haran that old Terah died, at the age of 205. The family mourned him and buried him there; and, tradition tells us, the caravan spent the winter there. But, as soon as the monsoon rains were finished, early in the new year, it was to Abraham that God spoke now: ''Get thee out of this country ...into a land that I shall show thee.''

The way was still westward from Haran, and it was 50 miles to the high-walled, 250-acre city of Carchemish, near a place in modern Syria called Jerablus. There were huge defense towers in the walls of Carchemish. The city had a powerful police and security force, and a monopoly in the transshipment of copper and timber; merchants from all over the north willingly paid the upkeep for that protection. Pausing at Carchemish today, we can admire still the statuary of lions, the reliefs of wild boars, of charioteers and archers, of soldiers in battle; and we can trace the outlines of the ancient sawmills and warehouses and examine the remains of Carchemish's great palace and temple, its citadel surrounded by moat, fosse and towers.

Carchemish was a dual turning-point in Abraham's journey. From here, the way was south. And from here, the caravan traveled among Semites.

Some time in the late spring or early summer, the caravan entered a long descending valley. Whoever leaves Syria for the south must pass through this valley. From remotest antiquity, it had been called The Womb, and so it is called today: the Bekka. One spring season, a shade less than 4,000 years ago, the Bekka valley, where in recent months Israelis and Syrians have fought with missiles, supersonic jets and tanks, was happier witness to the caravan of carts and camels that bore Abraham and his household southward.

Their first important stop was Aleppo, where Abraham grazed his herds of cows. Today, the Islamic citadel sits on the central hill, and beneath it are the streets where Abraham walked. On the spot where now you see the minaret of Jami Zakariyah mosque, named after a descendant of Abraham, there once stood a zigurrat. After Aleppo, it was on to Kadesh, today called Tell Nabi Mand. When Abraham entered this fortress-city, Kadesh was the center for all the throbbing, hyperactive Syrian confederacies of his day. The buildings he saw were made of basalt; there are now few traces of them. After Kadesh, he traveled in a south-easterly direction; and so he reached Damascus.

Damascus was the home of warrior-princes and rich merchants who lived in buildings of fairy-land architecture, enjoying the plethora of food and luxury goods that poured into this place from every direction. The city (its name means Sackful of Blood) grew to glory on waves of perpetual strife and war. Then, as now, the city appeared suddenly in the middle of the desert, beckoning to the traveler like a distant jewel glistening on brown velvet. In Abraham's day, it was almost 3,000 years old. Buildings we moderns regard as ancient marvels - the 7th-century Ummayad Mosque, the 16th-century Suleimanieh Mosque, the 18th-century Azem palace - had of course not yet been built, nor the reasons for their existence even dreamed of. Still, Abraham made both dreams and buildings possible by his obedient journey of hope and belief.

Abraham and his caravan would have stayyed in Damascus for some time, even wintering there. The old city, where Abraham tarried, lies south of the Barada River; its center - containing citadel and palace and temple - was on the escarpment overlooking the river. Take some time to walk along Suk al-Tawilah (The Long Bazaar) until you come to that street called Darb al-Mustakin (Straight Street). Beneath the stones your feet tread lies an older street, but with the same name; Abraham walked that more ancient street called Straight - it existed in his time - where, centuries later, his fiery descendant, Paul of Tarsus, was cured of his blindness. The squat houses and archways and tiny shops of today stand above those Abraham saw and perhaps entered.

God is patient; but still Abraham would have left Damascus at the end of the rains, passing over the Bashan road, across the Golan Heights that are today manned by watchful Israeli troops, east of the Sea of Galilee, covering terrain that, it seems, has never been unknown or unimportant in the destinies of men and nations.

Slowly, Abraham led the way down the eastern bank of the River Jordan, past the place where the fortress-city of Beth-Shan peered across the water; 1,000 years later, on its walls the bodies of King Saul and his son Jonathan would be nailed as trophies by the Philistines. Finally, where the River Yarmuk joins the Jordan, an ancient ford carried the caravan across to the land of Abraham's very great destiny: Canaan.

The Canaan of that time corresponded very closely to the present boundaries of Israel and the territories it controls. The land was 50 miles at its broadest points, and stretched almost 120 miles south, from The Wheel of Galilee's mountains to The Bag of Sand - the Sinai.

It was at Shechem that Abraham first stopped, and he made of it the most venerated shrine of his race. He built an altar - his first, but far from his last in that land. Five centuries later, Joshua stood where Abraham had; he built another altar from a pile of stones, and spoke his final words of commendation and exhortation to the gathered tribes of Israel. And, after 15 centuries more, not far from there, Jesus met the woman of Samaria at the well dug by Abraham's grandson, Jacob. Today, it is the remnant - only the merest signs are visible - of Joshua's pile of stones that marks the place where Abraham's altar had stood. Surely, though, it is not stones, but Shechem, the place itself, that will speak to you of all of Israel's dreams, all of its promise, all of its pain.

Though he had entered Canaan at last, Abraham's traveling was not yet over. In a sense, it had only begun. He was in the promised land, but not yet of it. This land did not possess him, nor he it. ''Walk through this land in its length and its breadth.'' the Ancient Voice told him. ''All of it will be yours.'' Early on, he judiciously picked out a spot as his permanent home: Hebron, in the fertile, sunny south. And then he did again as God said; he traveled his land, as if the very condition of its belonging to him and his descendants was that he cover every square inch of it, live in every quarter of it, journey to the lands bordering it -Egypt, the territories of modern Jordan, of the Gaza strip, of Lebanon, of Syria.

Nowhere can you travel there that he didn't. Nowhere do modern Israelis live that he didn't. Nowhere do they fight today for survival that he didn't. He talked with God, with angels, with Pharaoh, with kings, with princes, with bedouins, in palaces, in towns, in huts, in tents, in the open fields. He could use honeyed words, the subtle understatement of bargaining, the diplomatic lie, the threat. He arbitrated the division of vast properties. He accumulated gold, silver, copper, real estate, herds of cattle. He led his own army, fought pitched battles, asked for no quarter from lethal enemies and gave them none, although he pleaded naggingly with God to have compassion on men whose vile wickeness he deplored. For he hated human waste. At the age of 100, he fathered a famous son, Isaac, and fetched a bride, Rebecca, for him from 2,000 miles away. When his own wife, Sarah, died, for the sake of more children he took a second wife and fathered whole tribes that still live on today in Jordan, Syria, Libya and North Africa.

Yet there are no monuments or shrines of the usual sort to Abraham along the route he followed from Ur to the land of Canaan. There are several wadis - dried-up river beds - named after him. One of the Anatolian foothills in modern Turkey bears his name. An ancient mosque in Aleppo and a very old synagogue in Damascus were named after him, but they were both destroyed in the latter-day hostilities between Arab and Israeli. All through Iraq and Syria and Lebanon, there are certain places where local tradition has it that Abraham rested, or fought a battle, or built an altar, or spoke with God.

But the realization that overtakes you finally is that Abraham's ''shrine'' is of a different sort: Every place he built an altar to God, there some of his illustrious descendants would later plant a memory still living today for us - Joseph in Egypt, Joshua in Shechem, Samson in Philistia, Ruth and Naomi and Booz in Jordan, Samuel at Shiloh, Jacob and Saul at Bethel, David on Moriah, Solomon in Jerusalem, Jesus at Sichar, Paul at Damascus - as if he had presanctified all these places for all of them, for Israelite holy man and warrior, for modern kibbutznik and sabra and pilgrim.

For Sarah's burial, Abraham had purchased an expensive plot of land, the field of Mamre, in the shade of the immemorial oak trees at Machpelah near his chosen Hebron. When he, too, finally died at age 175, there beside the wife he had loved uniquely they buried this man who had never made a mistake with God, and who had traveled so far, so long, so boldly, to seal promises and blessing, land and destiny, race and religion.

Should you visit Hebron today, appraching from the north, you will pass through a ring of Israeli settlements surrounding what is now a densely populated city of 70,000 people, most of them Arab Moslems. The Israelis who live in the city itself -about 100 of them - are in the old Jewish quarter where they returned in 1967 for the first time since they were expelled in the bloody riots of 1929, when 67 of their number were killed and many more were wounded. Whether in settlements or in the old quarter, Israelis are protected now round the clock by armed reservists.

To the east, you will find the Capital Vista, as it is called, and it is a perfect place from which to get your bearings, to survey in a moment of relative serenity, and in one sweep, the monuments of Hebron that you came here to see. They are scattered over tens of acres that seem to breathe history as we breathe the air. From the vantage point of the Vista, you can see Ramath el-Khalil's oak trees where Abraham pitched his tent. The oak where Abraham accosted the Three Angels -the Moslems say that the Holy Family rested in its shade during the flight into Egypt. The pool of Hebron over which King David hanged the murderers of Ishbosheth, the son of his beloved Jonathan. Eshtemoa village, where the probable remains of David's treasure were found not long ago. And there, straight ahead of you, the deceptively plain limestone walls that enclose Hebron's central monument. It is in reality a magnificent shrine - compound would be a better word -built over the caves where three patriarchal couples are buried: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah.

If Israel and Judaism have a central shrine anywhere on the face of this earth, surely it is here. It is the only standing structure that exhibits today the Herodian architecture of some 2,100 years ago. Later, when you enter, you will be in the only religious edifice in this world within whose walls Jews and Moslems worship at their respective synagogues and mosques. The great Isaac and Rebecca Hall is an ornate mosque often filled with Moslems, barefoot, kneeling on prayer-mats, facing Mecca, eyes closed, hands outstretched, barely audible Arabic syllables pouring from their lips. The Abraham and Sarah Chamber and the Jacob and Leah Chamber are synagogues where modern bronze Arks house the Torah Scrolls and Jews come in endless numbers to stand, heads covered, bodies bending and bending, over and over again, in reverence, as their lips move to the rhythm of Torah verses and their faces seem misted over with ancient memories and the ever-present hope. Dark steps lead to the cave where Abraham and Sarah are buried; one imagines descending into a space hallowed by the intangible and eternal sleep of Abraham, but reverence and tradition bar the visitor and pilgrim alike from penetrating there.

Discreetly behaved but well-armed Israeli guards and Moslem overseers keep a sharp eye at every turn and tourists shuffle through, gathering in all there is to see. But for worshipers, those jarring elements seem not to be there at all as they lose themselves in prayer to the God who called their common father, Abraham, out of distant Ur of the Chaldeans to claim this land for his faith and for his race of believers.

When, from the Capital Vista, you have surveyed all the monuments and are ready to descend to visit each one in turn, pause for just a moment more. Raise your eyes. Gaze in any direction - and you will be looking where Abraham walked. He didn't merely cover the territory as a matter of course. He stamped it indelibly by an activity that was as dazzling in its variety and prodigious in its extent as his hopes and ambitions had been far-reaching and unstoppable. For he had not quit his beloved Ur and come all of 2,000 miles to see any obstacle overturn his God-given destiny to be the father of millions in this land. ''Look up!'' God commanded him once in the silence of a far-off midnight. ''Count the stars in the sky! As numerous will be your progeny in this land!''

And, still today, be they Israeli or Arab, Christian or Moslem or Jew, whether living in Israel or in its surrounding countries from Algiers in the west to Iran in the east and beyond, all claim Abraham as their prophet, their archpriest, their patriarch. Indeed, we all do. And that is Abraham's enduring shrine.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS Although borders and politics impede the casual traveler who wishes to follow the whole of Abraham's route today, Hebron, the historic and cultural culmination of the journey, is easily accessible. Here is the shrine of all the People of the Book, the common heritage of Jew, Christian and Moslem. GUIDANCE

Hebron is not noted for touristic comforts, and visitors will prefer to make their base in Jerusalem. Several companies in that city can supply chaffeur-driven cars and English-speaking guides for the excursion to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Three of these are Eschcolot Tours, 36 Keren Hayesod Street (telephone: 665-555); Travex, 8 Shamai Street (223-211), and Yehuda Tours, 23 Hillel Street (227-740). All charge a rate of about $86 for a five-hour trip for four people, or about $145 for ten hours. It is about a 45-minute drive from the heart of Jerusalem to Hebron. LODGINGS FIT FOR A KING

Jerusalem's most opulent hotel is the King David, with its huge lobby and decor reminiscent of a Cecil B. de Mille epic, overlooking the walls of the Old City. Rates range from about $98 for a standard double to about $122 for a deluxe room with a view of the Old City, breakfast included. Telephone: 221-111.

The more modest American Colony Hotel on Nablus Road was once a pasha's palace; double rooms, with breakfast, are about $46 to about $97; the former are merely adequate but the latter are enormous, high-ceilinged chambers facing a cool and verdant courtyard. Telephone: 285-171. SHIRT-SLEEVE DINING

Most Jerusalem restaurants are casual; the local cuisine reflects its Middle Eastern origins, and fresh fish is always a good bet. Some recommended establishments, in addition to hotel restaurants, are:

For seafood, especially the local St. Peter's fish, the Dolfin Restaurant, Alrashid Street (reservations: 282-788), is open daily for lunch and dinner, with entrees in the $8 range.

For dinner only (and never on Fridays), try Fink's, at 2 Histradrut Street in West Jerusalem (reservations: 234-523), which features seafood and steaks (beginning at about $10). The atmosphere is informal, even for Israel, and there is a bar popular with visiting journalists.

The view of the Old City is the thing at Mishkenot Sha'ananin, just below Montefiore's Windmill on King David Street (reservations: 233-424). Open daily; closed Friday evening and mid-day Saturday. A la carte specialties with a Continental accent include beef stroganoff and veal with mushrooms; dinner for two with wine averages about $60.

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Map of Middle East: Abram/Abraham's journey from Ur to Canaan

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This is my map of the Middle East, showing the route Abram took, going from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran and then on to Canaan, into Egypt and finally back to Canaan again. The red arrowed lines show the route he took.

The first part of the journey involved Terah (Abram’s father), Abram, Sarai (Abram’s wife), Lot (Terah’s grandson) and all their goods and servants, travelling from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, a northern Mesopotamian commercial city (Genesis 11:27-32) (for all Bible reference, see bottom of page). We know from verse 32 that Abram’s father Terah died in Haran.

Some time later God spoke to Abram (when he was 75 years old) and he continued the migration from Haran to near Shechem, in Canaan (Genesis 12:1-6). He then camped between Bethel and Ai and built an altar to the Lord there (Genesis 12:8) and then moved in stages into the Negev desert (Genesis 12:9). Next a severe famine in Canaan drove Abram and his company into Egypt (Genesis 12:10).

Genesis 13:1-4 tells of Abram’s journey from Egypt back through the Negev to the same camp between Bethel and Ai, where he had built an altar to the Lord. Genesis 13:5-13 records the separation of Lot from Abram as the land of Canaan couldn’t support all their flocks and herds living so close together.

Distances I thought it might be interesting to try to calculate how far Abram, Sarai, Lot and their company walked, on all their travels. Using the line/path drawing function in Google Earth I calculated the following:

01) In straight lines from Ur to Babel/Babylon, to Accad, to Mari, to Rezeph, to Haran it is about 641 miles (1031 Km).

02) In straight lines from Haran to Carchemesh, to Aleppo, to Hamath, to Damascus, to Shechem it is about 426 miles (686 Km).

03) In a straight line from Shechem, to Bethel, to Egypt it is about 254 miles (409 Km). This is assuming Abram went via Beersheba and walked “The Way to Shur” (an ancient road) into Egypt and that he stopped at Raamses. If Abram went to On (aka Heliopolis) we’d have to add another 60 miles (97 Km) to that trek!

04) The return to Canaan, in a straight line from Raamses (in Egypt) to Bethel, via Beersheba on “The Way to Shur”, is about 230 miles (368 Km).

As an absolute minimal then, Abram, Sarai, Lot and all their herds, livestock, servants, etc must have walked 1551 miles (2494 Km) and it was probably MUCH more than that!

Date According to The Chronological Life Application Study Bible, Abraham was born in 2166 B.C., during the Early Bronze Age, and the migration of Abram from Haran to Canaan occurred around 2091 B.C.

Notice the figures on the border of the map. If you look carefully at the map border you will see I have included some little black and white figures. I will add different figures to the borders of each map, adding characters that relate to the map subject.

Bible References Genesis 11:27-32 ( NLT ) The Family of Terah 27 This is the history of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran had a son named Lot. 28 But while Haran was still young, he died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the place of his birth. He was survived by Terah, his father. 29 Meanwhile, Abram married Sarai, and his brother Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of their brother Haran. (Milcah had a sister named Iscah.) 30 Now Sarai was not able to have any children. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But they stopped instead at the village of Haran and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years [1] and died while still at Haran.

[1] Some ancient versions read 145 years. Compare 11:26, 12:4.

Genesis 12:1-6 ( NLT ) The Call of Abram 1 Then the LORD told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people who had joined his household at Haran—and finally arrived in Canaan. 6 Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I am going to give this land to your offspring.” And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the LORD ’s visit. 8 After that, Abram traveled southward and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and worshiped the LORD . 9 Then Abram traveled south by stages toward the Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt 10 At that time there was a severe famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to wait it out.

Genesis 13:1-13 ( NLT ) Abram and Lot seperate 1 So they left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev—Abram with his wife and Lot and all that they owned, 2 for Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. 3 Then they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where they had camped before. 4 This was the place where Abram had built the altar, and there he again worshiped the LORD . 5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also very wealthy with sheep, cattle, and many tents. 6 But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together. There were too many animals for the available pastureland. 7 So an argument broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. At that time Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land. 8 Then Abram talked it over with Lot. “This arguing between our herdsmen has got to stop,” he said. “After all, we are close relatives! 9 I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want that area over there, then I’ll stay here. If you want to stay in this area, then I’ll move on to another place.” 10 Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the LORD or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 Lot chose that land for himself—the Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. 12 So while Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom, among the cities of the plain. 13 The people of this area were unusually wicked and sinned greatly against the LORD .

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Gary Rendsburg

Ur Kasdim: Where Is Abraham’s Birthplace?

TheTorah.com

APA e-journal

Ur-Kasdim is generally identified with the great Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq. And yet, a look at the geography in Genesis 11 points to a different location much farther north.

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Şanlıurfa/Urfa skyline, 2006. Damien Halleux Radermecker Wikimedia. cc 2.0

Abram’s Departure from Ur

The scene in which Abram is first introduced to the reader—a genealogical record about his father Teraḥ—tells us the name of his hometown:

בראשית יא:כז ‎וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת תֶּ֔רַח תֶּ֚רַח הוֹלִ֣יד אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָ֑ן וְהָרָ֖ן הוֹלִ֥יד אֶת־לֽוֹט׃ יא:כח ‎וַיָּ֣מָת הָרָ֔ן עַל־פְּנֵ֖י תֶּ֣רַח אָבִ֑יו בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מוֹלַדְתּ֖וֹ בְּא֥וּר כַּשְׂדִּֽים׃

Gen 11:27 And these are the generations of Teraḥ. Teraḥ begot Avram, Naḥor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. 11:28 And Haran died before Teraḥ his father, in the land of his birthplace, in Ur-Kasdim ( ʾur kaśdim, “Ur of the Chaldeans”).

After a brief notice about Abram and Nahor’s marriages, the text, without offering a reason, explains that Terah moved his family out of Ur:

בראשית יא:לא ‎וַיִּקַּ֙ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֙וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃

Gen 11:31 And Teraḥ took Avram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, the son of his son, and Saray his daughter-in-law, the wife of Avram his son; and they went-out with them from Ur-Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan, and they came until Ḥarran, and they dwelt there.

The name of Abraham’s hometown is mentioned again in the opening to the Covenant between the Parts (ברית בין הבתרים), when God says to Abram:

בראשית טו:ז ‎וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑יו אֲנִ֣י יְ־הוָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר הוֹצֵאתִ֙יךָ֙ מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֔ים לָ֧תֶת לְךָ֛ אֶת־הָאָ֥רֶץ הַזֹּ֖את לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃

Gen 15:7 I am YHWH who brought you forth from Ur-Kasdim, to give to you this land [sc. Canaan], to inherit it.

This claim is echoed in the prayer recited by the Levites in the book of Nehemiah (part of which is recited in the Jewish daily morning prayers):

נחמיה ט:ז ‎אַתָּה־הוּא֙ יְ־הוָ֣ה הָאֱלֹהִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר בָּחַ֙רְתָּ֙ בְּאַבְרָ֔ם וְהוֹצֵאת֖וֹ מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֑ים וְשַׂ֥מְתָּ שְּׁמ֖וֹ אַבְרָהָֽם׃

Neh 9:7 You are YHWH God, who chose Avram, and you brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans; and you changed his name to Avraham.

Again, the text credits Abraham’s leaving Ur-Kasdim to God, and it speaks as if Abraham went straight from there to Canaan. The account in Genesis 11, however, provides a slightly different story with some additional details. According to this pericope, Abram’s father Teraḥ, for an unspecified reason, heads to Canaan, taking with him his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Saray, and his orphaned grandson Lot.

Moreover, this journey does not take them forthwith to Canaan. Instead, when the group reaches Ḥarran, they interrupt their journey and dwell there; Teraḥ dies in that city and never ventures to Canaan (Gen 11:32). Abram himself, accompanied by Saray and Lot, will arrive in Canaan in the next chapter, after God specifically tells him to leave Ḥarran and go to the land that God will show him.

Ḥarran is a city in southeastern Turkey, 16 kilometers north of the Turkish-Syrian border; it is still called by that name today. The city is well known from cuneiform sources, in both Eblaite and Akkadian, reaching back to the 3rd millennium B.C.E., and continuing through the 2nd and 1st millennia B.C.E. as well. [1]

But where is Ur-Kasdim?

Ur in Southern Mesopotamia (Woolley)

The most common identification of Ur-Kasdim is with the great city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia (located at modern Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq), which flourished especially during Sumerian times. This identification was first proposed by Henry C. Rawlinson (1810–1895), [2] but Sir Leonard Woolley (1880‒1960) was the one who established it as standard doctrine. [3]

Woolley excavated the site during the years 1922‒1934, where he uncovered one of the largest cities of the ancient world, replete with the great ziggurat, beautiful gold objects, and thousands of cuneiform tablets. [4] Woolley assumed, given the spirit of the time, including an effort to uncover biblical connections, that Abraham must have come from as great a city as Ur of Sumer. [5]

Moreover, this appeared to fit with the term Ur-Kasdim, “Ur of the Chaldees.” [6] We know that the Chaldeans were indeed resident in southern Mesopotamia during the 1st millennium B.C.E., and in fact the terms Babylonia and Chaldea become virtually interchangeable during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E., including during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. [7]

The identification of the birthplace of Abraham with Ur of Sumer in southern Iraq is standard teaching, present in almost all introductory textbooks of the Bible and the ancient Near East. Even the Vatican made this assumption when Pope John Paul II visited Ur in southern Iraq, believing it to be the birthplace of Abraham. [8] There are several problems with this identification, though.

Beyond the River?

First, Joshua 24 describes Teraḥ as living בְּעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר bə-ʿevɛr han-nahar “beyond the River.”

יהושע כד:ב כֹּה אָמַר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר יָשְׁבוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם מֵעוֹלָם תֶּרַח אֲבִי אַבְרָהָם וַאֲבִי נָחוֹר וַיַּעַבְדוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים. כד:ג וָאֶקַּח אֶת אֲבִיכֶם אֶת אַבְרָהָם מֵעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר וָאוֹלֵךְ אוֹתוֹ בְּכָל אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן...

Josh 24:2 Thus said YHWH, the God of Israel: In olden times, your forefathers—Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor—lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. 24:3 But I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through the whole land of Canaan… [9]

In the Bible, when the phrase ‘beyond the River’ appears without further designation, it refers to the Euphrates River. [10] But the Sumerian city of Ur is not “beyond the Euphrates,” but rather on the Euphrates, and on its western side, thus not “beyond” it from the perspective of Israel. In theory, Joshua 24 could be referring to Ḥarran, which is north of the Euphrates River, but recall that this city was simply a way-station, as it were, on the journey from Ur-Kasdim to Canaan.

Furthermore, the implication of the phrase בְּעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר יָשְׁבוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם מֵעוֹלָם “your forefathers dwelt beyond the River in olden times” implies that the original homeland, which was Ur-Kasdim according to Genesis 11 and 15, was also beyond the Euphrates. In light of all this, Sumerian Ur cannot be the referent, as it is on the same side of the Euphrates as Canaan.

Ḥarran is the Wrong Direction

Moreover, a serious geographical problem plagues the story: a journey from Ur to Canaan would not pass through Ḥarran. We know the trade-routes. Anyone travelling from Ur of Sumer to Canaan would first have traveled upstream on the Euphrates, since no one would travel due west from Ur in southern Mesopotamia through the Arabian desert; even with camels the journey would be too arduous and too dangerous to allow such a crossing.

Instead, people on such a journey either would stop at Mari and then head west across the Syrian Desert, using the great oasis of Palmyra as the way-station before reaching Damascus, or they would continue further north along the Euphrates, to the Great Bend (location of present-day Lake Assad, created by the presence of the Tabqa Dam), and then head west and south via such cities as Aleppo, Ḥama, Ḥoms, etc., en route to Damascus, from which it was a relatively easy jaunt to Canaan.

But this is not what Teraḥ and family do, according to those who would identify Ur-Kasdim with Ur of Sumer in modern-day southern Iraq. These scholars would have one believe that, rather than heading towards Canaan, Terah and company instead continue north (the wrong [!] direction), by traveling upstream on the Baliḫ River, one of the tributaries of the Euphrates, to reach Ḥarran. If Ḥarran was not the destination, but rather only a way-station on the route from Ur to Canaan (as per Gen 11:31), it makes little or no sense for Teraḥ to have gone there.

Urfa in Turkey (Gordon)

One scholar who noted these problems, and disagreed with Woolley’s identification, was Cyrus Gordon (1908–2001). Although, Gordon dug with Woolley at Ur in the 1930s, [11] he could not accept the great archaeologist’s conclusion. Instead, he noted that if Teraḥ and family left Ur-Kasdim to travel to Canaan, but stopped en route in Ḥarran, then the location of Ur-Kasdim should be to the north of Ḥarran.

Considering these data points, a more attractive suggestion is that Abraham’s hometown is the city of Ur in northern Mesopotamia = modern-day Urfa in southeastern Turkey, 44 km north of Ḥarran. [12] Most likely, this city is the one mentioned as Ura in cuneiform tablets from Ugarit (14th–13th centuries B.C.E.), where it is associated with the Hittite realm. [13] A journey from Urfa to Canaan would indeed pass directly through Ḥarran.

Local (Turkish) Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tradition identifies this city as biblical Ur, the birthplace of Abraham. In fact, this notion was commonly accepted in 19th-century biblical scholarship. For example, George Bush (1796‒1859), [14] a leading biblical scholar of the day, noted regarding biblical Ur-Kasdim:

As to the city here mentioned, some difficulty has been experienced by commentators in fixing its site, but in the East it is generally identified with the present town of Orfah in Upper Mesopotamia Two days’ journey east of the Euphrates, sixty-seven miles north-east of Beer. The Jews, according to Mr. Wolff, still call the place by the name in the text, אור כשדים Oor Kasdim , or Ur of the Chaldees, and it is a place of pilgrimage as the birth-place of Abraham, in whose honour the Moslems have a fine mosque in the court of which is a lake teeming with fish which are held sacred to the patriarch’ and not permitted to be caught. [15]

Notably, the names of Teraḥ’s father Naḥor and his grandfather Serug are actually the names of cities in the general region of Urfa: a) Naḫur, known from Akkadian sources (even if its precise location in upper Mesopotamia is unknown), and b) Serug, well known from later Syriac sources, whose name persists in modern Turkish Suruç, 46 km southwest of Urfa.

The Chaldeans of Northern Mesopotamia

How, then, does one explain the latter part of the expression, namely Kasdim? As noted, the Chaldeans lived in southern Mesopotamia, but they were not native to the land, having migrated there in the early to mid-first millennium B.C.E.

Where were they from before that? The most likely answer is northern Mesopotamia. The best evidence comes from the Greek historian Xenophon (431–354 B.C.E.), who mentions the Chaldeans as a warlike people blocking the way to Armenia ( Anabasis 4.3.4), and as neighbors of the Armenians but at war with them ( Cyropaedia 3.1.34). Xenophon further mentions the Chaldeans in connection with the Carduchi (that is, the ancient Kurds) ( Anabasis 5.5.17). In fact, to this day, the term lives on within the Chaldean Christian community, which inhabits the region.

An Aramean Area

Further support for the claim that Abraham’s hometown of Ur should be located in northern Mesopotamia comes from the Aramean connection. Deuteronomy 26:5 describes Israel’s ancestors as wandering Arameans: אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי “A wandering Aramean was my father”. [16] The Aramean heartland is located in northern Mesopotamia. In fact, the Bible refers to the region in which Urfa is found as Aram Naharaim, lit. ‘Aram of the Two Rivers’ (Gen 24:10, etc.), namely the Tigris and the Euphrates. Genesis 22:21‒22 juxtaposes Aram and Chesed (~ Chaldea) as scions of the family of Naḥor, suggesting their location in northern Mesopotamia in close proximity to one another.

Finally, the great Ur required no further appellation; the expression Ur of the Chaldees implies that we are not speaking of the famous city. In fact, northern Ur was likely established as a colony of the metropolis of Ur in the south and would thus naturally have been given a further appellation. A comparable case is how we say simply “London” for the great city of England, while we must state “London, Ontario” (named and founded during the years 1793‒1826) to refer to one of its outposts.

Urfa of the Chaldees

In short, various lines of evidence converge to support the tradition of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims of Turkey, as well as the scholarly arguments put forward by Bush and Gordon: Ur-Kasdim is north of Ḥarran and should be identified with the city of Urfa. Almost a century ago, Woolley pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes (sorry, I could not resist the pun) by identifying Ur-Kasdim with Ur of Sumer, even though there is no evidence in support of such a determination. Unfortunately, this identification persists in the minds of the authors who continue to produce maps, atlases, and textbooks with the erroneous information.

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November 6, 2019

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[1] For a comprehensive overview of the evidence, see Steven W. Holloway, Aššur Is King! Aššur Is King!: Religion in the Exercise of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 388‒399. For a more concise survey, though without reference to the abundant Eblaite evidence, see William W. Hallo, “Haran,” Encyclopaedia Judaica , 2nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan: 2007), vol. 8, pp. 343‒344.

[2] Henry C. Rawlinson, “Biblical Geography,” The Athenaeum 1799 (April 19, 1862): 529‒531. Rawlinson explored the entire Near East during the Victorian period and is one of the key figures in the story of the decipherment of Mesopotamian cuneiform, used to write diverse languages such as Sumerian, Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian), Elamite, Hurrian, Urartian, Hittite, and more. An adapted form of this writing system was used to record Old Persian, which (since Persian is a known language) served as the key to the decipherment of the other languages.

[3] Woolley was a great archaeologist during the 20th century, who excavated not only at Ur but also at Carchemish, where he was assisted by T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”).

[4] For a survey of Woolley’s work, see Manuel Molina Martos, "The Royal Tombs of Ur Revealed Mesopotamia's Golden Splendor," National Geographic (May 22, 2019). At a later point, archaeologists working both at Ur and at nearby Nippur discovered the world’s oldest law code, that of Ur-Nammu, king of Sumer (r. 2047‒2030 B.C.E.), who ruled from Ur.

[5] Woolley also pointed to something more specific, the so-called “Ram in the Thicket,” two identical gold-leaf wooden sculptures, housed today (one each) in the British Museum and at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the co-sponsors of Woolley’s expedition and excavation. Woolley connected these objects to the “ram in the thicket” in Gen 22:13, in the story of the Aqedah (the binding of Isaac), which culminates the Abraham narratives in the book of Genesis. As more recent scholars have observed, however, there are manifold problems with this leap to a biblical connection, not the least of which is that the animals are not rams, but rather goats! Sheep do not get up on their hind legs and eat leaves from trees, but goats certainly do (in fact, they sometimes climb trees). Moreover, the horns are not caught in the thicket, but are perfectly free.

[6] The question of how the śin in Hebrew kaśdim becomes an /l/ in English “Chaldeans” (via Greek Χαλδαῖος, etc.) is an interesting one unto itself. The answer lies in the quality of the ancient Hebrew (and more broadly Semitic) consonant śin , known as a lateral fricative (IPA [ɬ]), incorporating traits of both /l/ and /s/. Note the manner in which Hebrew בֹּשֶׂם bośɛm “spices” enters into English as “balsam” (via Greek βάλσαμον, etc.), with śin transcribed as /ls/. Semitic śin [ɬ] still may be heard in the modern South Arabian languages (Mehri, Jibbali, Soqotri, etc.).

[7] This identification of the area as Chaldean in the Neo-Babylonian period fits with the view of those who date the book of Genesis to the exilic or post-exilic periods. These scholars read Abraham’s journey from Ur to Canaan as a piece of “(proto-)Zionist propaganda,” if you will: to serve as a model for the Jews in the Babylonian Exile (most of whom were settled in southern Mesopotamia/Chaldea) to return to the ancestral homeland following the decree of Cyrus the Great in 538 B.C.E. This view, however, is problematic both on linguistic grounds (the Torah is not written in Late Biblical Hebrew) and literary grounds, as it does nothing to alleviate the geographic problems that we will discuss in the next section.

[8] See Hershel Shanks, “Abraham’s Ur—Is the Pope Going to the Wrong Place?” BAR 26:2 (March/April 2000), pp. 62‒63.

[9] See also vv. 14–15

[10] See Deut 11:24 for an explicit expansion of the word “the River” with the phrase “the River Euphrates.” For a long list of passages in which הַנָּהָר han-nahar “the River” refers specifically to the Euphrates, see David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew , vol. 5 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 632.

[11] Decades later, Gordon was my teacher at New York University in the 1970s, and thus his views on the matter became part of my teaching and research, as reflected in this essay.

[12] Its official Turkish name is Şanlıurfa. During Greco-Roman-Byzantine times, the city was called Edessa, one of the great centers of Syriac Christianity.

[13] For the most relevant study, see Cyrus H. Gordon, “Abraham and the Merchants of Ura,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 17 (1958), pp. 28‒31. See also Cyrus H. Gordon, “Where Is Abraham’s Ur?” Biblical Archaeology Review 3.2 (June 1977), pp. 20–21, 52.

[14] George Bush is distantly related to the two scions of the presidential family bearing the same name. He taught at New York University (alma mater of the present writer) and advocated for the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. A fascinating character to be sure, whose story now has been told in lively fashion in, Shalom Goldman, God’s Sacred Tongue: Hebrew and the American Imagination (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 199‒207, 314‒15.

[15] George Bush, Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Genesis (New York: Gould, Newman & Saxton, 1839), 189.

[16] Editor’s note: For a discussion of this passage and its reception, see Martin Lockshin, "Did an Aramean Try to Destroy our Father?" TheTorah (2015); Naomi Graetz, "Arami Oved Avi: The Demonization of Laban," TheTorah (2018).

Prof. Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His Ph.D. and M.A. are from N.Y.U. Rendsburg is the author of seven books and about 190 articles; his most recent book is How the Bible Is Written .

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The Story of Abraham

The travel patterns described in Genesis are consistent with what historians and archaeologists have uncovered from the Near East in ancient times.

The story of Abraham starts with a journey. Abraham lived in a very interactive society. Wandering clans, or tribes, of extended families were never far from settled urban areas. These traveling clans consisted of many different levels of family, servants, slaves, livestock, animals, and all other possessions. Some of these clans were very wealthy and powerful, and contained large populations.

They bought and sold goods with local merchants and peoples, then picked up and moved on to the next location. These wandering clans tended to travel along routes with ample water. These routes ran near rivers, brooks, streams, lakes, etc. 

However, caravan routes also ran East to West, leading directly through the heart of the Arabian desert. These routes connected Mesopotamia directly to Canaan.

Though much shorter in distance, these caravan routes were much more dangerous and less traveled than the routes leading northward, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The book of Genesis describes the story of Abraham and his father,  Terah  , as traveling along one of the northward routes along the Euphrates.

Abraham was not a settled man, nor was he a wanderer. Rather, he was a combination. This fact is alluded to in the terms that are associated with Abraham.

He is called an Aramean, Hebrew, Aramu and Habiru. These terms are commonly used to describe seminomads; people that live outside the typical structure of settled civilization.

Over time, these terms merged together to form the catch all word, Arab. Many linguists are quick to point out the similarities between the word Habiru and Hebrew. While direct links may not be readily available, the similarity in these words all point to a link, a connection, between the ancient peoples of the Late Bronze Age and the peoples of the Old Testament. 

The  book of Joshua  tells how the Israelites ancestors - Terah, Nahor, Abraham - lived  "beyond the Euphrates" , and served other gods.

It has already been noted that Terah was a known idolater. The narrative in Genesis suggests that perhaps Terah was the initial receiver of God's call to leave Mesopotamia.

Yet, Terah failed to obey God, and stopped in Haran. Terah could not break from his idolatrous beliefs, and clung to the polytheistic system of religion in Babylon.

His settlement in Haran is seen by God as a sign that Terah will not step out in faith and obey. Thus, the next chapter of the story of Abraham begins with God's call for him to leave his  "father's household" , and head for the  land of Canaan. Share Your Thoughts On the Story of Abraham

What insights do you have into the lives of Terah and Abraham? Please give us your thoughts, opinions, questions, and comments by clicking on the link above!

Dating Abraham & the Patriarchs

Even the most prolific of the Bible Archaeologists, William F. Albright, struggled with dating the story of Abraham.

Much of the ancient dating rests on the Egyptian Pharaoh lists, provided by such historians and scholars as Manetho, an Egyptian priest whom wrote during the Hellenistic Age, circa 250 B.C. These lists allow us to trace Egyptian history as far back as 3000 B.C.

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A similar resource rests in the writings of a Babylonian priest named Berossus. Berossus gives a Mesopotamian king-list similar to the Egyptian lists, and others have been discovered throughout the course of time.

These lists, and other ancient sources, have helped scholars and Bible historians date the story of Abraham with relative certainty. Though the exact date of his life is still unknown, the general time of his life is widely agreed upon.

It is interesting to note that similar records are found in Genesis . Two lists are given; one containing names from the antediluvian world, the second containing names from the post-diluvian world. Each list contains ten names. The earliest Mesopotamian king-lists contain 8 names. However, Berossus' list contains 10. Paul Johnson argues in his book, A History of the Jews , that perhaps the connection between the two is Abraham, who brought the tradition with him.

Indeed, the story of Abraham starts in Mesopotamia. It is quite possible that many of the traditions and stories in Sumerian mythology, are parallel accounts of the Bible stories they share so much in common with. There is a clear and obvious similarity between ancient Mesopotamian stories of the flood, and the  Genesis flood .  The ancient Mesopotamian city of Eridu, near Ur, has been tied with the Biblical Eden.

Some scholars claim the Enkidu of Mesopotamian myth stories, is the same as Enoch of Genesis . It becomes clear the story of Abraham is heavily influenced by his Mesopotamian background. Abraham, as the link between the two, is not unreasonable at all.

Through the lists obtained from such scholars as Manetho and Berossus, and with archaeological finds, such as the ancient tablets from Ebla and Mari , the following dates have been prescribed to Mesopotamian kings;

Sargon, and the Old Akkadian Period from 2360-2180 B.C.; Ur-Nammu, and the Third Dynasty of Ur, from to the end of the second millennium, or start of the first; Hammurabi, dated to the exact period from 1728-1686 B.C.

Scholars have dated the story of Abraham in Genesis as occurring in the period between Ur-Nammu and Hammurabi. This period falls in the Middle Bronze Age, from between 2100-1550 B.C.E. The story of Abraham and the other Patriarchs are widely agreed upon to have happened in this window.

Albright, after years of study and wavering, finally concluded that Abraham existed between the 20th and 19th centuries B.C.

The Ussher chronology places the story of Abraham around 2000 B.C. Traditionally, his birth was placed at 2056 B.C. However, this was not widely agreed upon, and many other dates have surfaced over the course of debate.

Edward R. Thiele published a modified chronology which placed Abraham's birth in 2167 B.C. Though the date is not agreed upon unanimously, his existence is rarely denied.

The names mentioned in the Abrahamic narrative correspond with many names located throughout northwestern Mesopotamia, particularly Haran and the surrounding neighbors.

It is reasonable to make an assumption that the patriarchal narratives and traditions were born in this region.

The story of Abraham and his arrival in Canaan, along with the other Genesis patriarchs, have been associated with northwestern-speaking Semitic peoples.

These people came after the Amorites, but perhaps were Amorite in lineage. Abraham, Isaac , and Jacob are Israelite, as well as Amorite, names.

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ABRAHAM'S JOURNEYS COVERED A LOT OF GROUND. UPON  ENTERING CANAAN, HE WOULD CONTINUE TO WANDER THROUGHOUT CANAAN, LIVING IN VARIOUS PLACES, GAINING INSIGHT INTO ALL OF THE LAND YAHWEH HAD PROMISED HIM. HE EVEN JOURNEYED INTO EGYPT - AND SPENT TIME IN THE NEGEV & DESERT REGIONS. 

The Biblical Story of Abraham

Genesis 11:10-26 traces Abraham's lineage back to the ante-diluvian Patriarch Noah. Abraham is a direct descendant of Shem, Noah's son .

As stated earlier, Shem was the son of Noah through whom God's promised "seed of the woman" would be transmitted to further generations.

The story of Abraham , thus, reaches back to the time before the Biblical flood. In fact, some chronologies place Abraham's birth a mere 300 or so years after the flood. These chronologies, however, are highly debatable.

Abram, his original name, was the one through whom God would bring forth His nation of Israel. The first mention of Abram in the Bible takes place in Genesis 11:26 .

Abram has two brothers we are aware of, Nahor and Haran. Haran, verse 28 tells us, died before "his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur." Thus, we learn our first bit of background information concerning the story of Abraham.

Abram's family came from Ur, though, one can assume Haran lived elsewhere. Haran, it is reasoned by some scholars, lived in Haran, the city named after him.

The Genesis narrative tells us Haran died while Terah was still alive, and while he was visiting his father in Ur. Thus, when God calls Terah, his family includes extended members from Haran's household, left over in Ur after their father's death.

Nahor, Abram's other brother, marries Haran's daughter Milcah. Sarai, the wife of Abram, was also a daughter of Haran, yet, from another wife. She was only a half-sister to Abram.

Haran left behind one son that we are aware of, Lot. Lot became closely attached to his Uncle Abram, and left Ur for the land of Canaan as well.

Seemingly, Abram became Lot's guardian when his father died. As Terah and family left Ur behind, surely they felt a sense of loss and remorse. This was their home.

Ur, in this era of history, was a great city. Ur was an extremely popular and busy seaport in its day. It was a city of wealth and comfort. There was a magnificent library at Ur, and luxurious temples and royal palaces were found throughout the city.

It was a city of greatness. Terah and his family were leaving all of this behind, to venture into a land they knew nothing about.

This fact in itself fits with God's plan for the establishment of His people. Deuteronomy 7:7 talks about God's people.

"The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples."

Mesopotamia produced some of the greatest empires in the history of the world. The Sumerian Empire, Akkadian Empire and the Babylonian Empire left their hand prints on history.

The story of Abraham involves these empires as well. For it is out of their world which Abraham emerged. He had been shaped and influenced by these empires over the course of his life.

Yet, there was something special about Abraham, besides his lineage. God saw it, and called him.

The Amorites dominated Mesopotamia for a span of 200 years. The Egyptians had ruled for over a 1,000 years by the time Abram migrated there.

These were the powers of the ancient world. Canaan was a land of no significance. It was simply a buffer zone between Egypt and the powers to the East. The people of Canaan were truly the "fewest of all the peoples" in the ancient world.

The land of Canaan was approximately 600 miles due west of Ur. Instead of striking out westward, into the heart of the Arabian Desert, the clan travels northward, along the Euphrates.

As stated earlier, there were caravan routes, and trade routes, leading through the heart of the desert, directly into Canaan. These routes, however, were much more dangerous, and less traveled.

Terah, instead, heads northwest, up the Mesopotamian valley, along the Euphrates River.

Archaeology has shown that these migrations were common in antiquity, and most traveled along the rivers and valleys, substituting comfort and security for the more direct, yet, more dangerous route through the desert.

Genesis 11:31

It is interesting to note that Haran, like the city of Ur, was a city dedicated to the worship of the moon god Sin. Haran was located on an important trade route connecting Canaan in the west, with Syria in the east.

The city is still in existence today, and quickly became an important city of antiquity. It was here that Terah settled. It was here that Abram's family had strong ties to the land.

Haran carried the name of Abram's brother. A nearby city, Nahor, also carried the name of another of Abram's brother, Nahor.

Passages throughout Genesis imply Nahor had family still living in the region, and Abram, as well as the later Patriarchs, were fully aware of their presence.

It is interesting to note that in the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 7 , Stephen is preaching on the story of Abraham in front of the Sanhedrin.

He states that Abraham received God's call while "he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran" .

Perhaps this suggests that Abram and Terah had both received divine inspiration to leave Ur for Canaan, and both had initially responded in faith.

Terah, however, found the prosperity of Haran, and the familiar familial connections, too tempting to leave behind. He died in Haran, at the supposed age of 205. Terah's disobedience, led to the Lord's instruction to Abram in Genesis 12:1 .

The land that God would show Abram was the land of Canaan; the land settled by the descendants of Noah's cursed son, Ham. Thus, the families of Ham and Shem again were to come into contact with one another.

In the opening verses of chapter 12, God promised Abram his name would be blessed, and through him God would make a great nation.

Throughout the story of Abraham God constantly is reassuring Abraham that He will be faithful, and multiply Abraham's descendants. Abraham faced a tremendous amount of pressure and unknowns.

He needed the constant reassurance from God. God, as He always does, provided Abraham with exactly what he needed.

God also promised protection upon Abram, blessing those that blessed him, and cursing those that cursed him. So, in verse 4, Abram is said to have departed from Haran, "as the Lord had spoken unto him."

The story of Abraham was to reach its climax in the land God would show him. Accompanying Abram and Lot on the journey were Abram's wife, Sarai, ten years younger than Abram.

Along with his wife, Abraham took all of the possessions, including servants and slaves, he had gathered in Haran. Lot brought his family as well, and all of his possessions. Abram's travel party would have been fairly large.

The trek to Canaan from Haran was approximately a 400 mile journey to the southwest. Though Abram knew generally where he was heading, he knew no specifics.

Trade routes from Haran to Damascus, and from Damascus south into the Canaanite countries, had been well established by this time, so the general direction of travel was known.

The exact route Abram took from Haran to Canaan is not known. The most direct route from Haran would have led directly through the desert to Damascus, via the Tadmor Oasis. This route was a dangerous and risky venture to say the least.

A safer, alternative route followed the main branch of the International Coastal Highway. This route led through the ancient cities of Carchemish, Aleppo, Ebla, home of the Ebla Tablets, Qatna, and into Damascus. From Damascus, the King's Highway led into the Trans-jordan (Syria and Jordan).

The story of Abraham was to take on a new element in the land of Canaan. He and Sarah, together, would be called upon to establish a new nation.

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Genesis 12 New International Version

The call of abram.

12  The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household ( A ) to the land ( B ) I will show you. ( C )

2  “I will make you into a great nation, ( D )      and I will bless you; ( E ) I will make your name great,      and you will be a blessing. [ a ] ( F ) 3  I will bless those who bless you,      and whoever curses you I will curse; ( G ) and all peoples on earth      will be blessed through you. ( H ) ” [ b ]

4  So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot ( I ) went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old ( J ) when he set out from Harran. ( K ) 5  He took his wife Sarai, ( L ) his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated ( M ) and the people ( N ) they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, ( O ) and they arrived there.

6  Abram traveled through the land ( P ) as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh ( Q ) at Shechem. ( R ) At that time the Canaanites ( S ) were in the land. 7  The Lord appeared to Abram ( T ) and said, “To your offspring [ c ] I will give this land. ( U ) ” ( V ) So he built an altar there to the Lord , ( W ) who had appeared to him.

8  From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel ( X ) and pitched his tent, ( Y ) with Bethel on the west and Ai ( Z ) on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord . ( AA )

9  Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. ( AB )

Abram in Egypt ( AC )

10  Now there was a famine in the land, ( AD ) and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. ( AE ) 11  As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ( AF ) “I know what a beautiful woman ( AG ) you are. 12  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13  Say you are my sister, ( AH ) so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

14  When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ( AI ) 15  And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16  He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. ( AJ )

17  But the Lord inflicted ( AK ) serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household ( AL ) because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18  So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” ( AM ) he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ( AN ) 19  Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ ( AO ) so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20  Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

• Genesis 12:2 Or be seen as blessed
• Genesis 12:3 Or earth / will use your name in blessings (see 48:20)
• Genesis 12:7 Or seed

Cross references

• Genesis 12:1 : Ge 20:13; 24:4, 27, 40
• Genesis 12:1 : S Ge 10:19
• Genesis 12:1 : Ge 15:7; 26:2; Jos 24:3; Ac 7:3*; Heb 11:8
• Genesis 12:2 : Ge 13:16; 15:5; 17:2, 4; 18:18; 22:17; 26:4; 28:3, 14; 32:12; 35:11; 41:49; 46:3; 47:27; 48:4, 16, 19; Ex 1:7; 5:5; 32:13; Dt 1:10; 10:22; 13:17; 26:5; Jos 11:4; 24:3; 2Sa 17:11; 1Ki 3:8; 4:20; 1Ch 27:23; 2Ch 1:9; Ne 9:23; Ps 107:38; Isa 6:13; 10:22; 48:19; 51:2; 54:3; 60:22; Jer 33:22; Mic 4:7
• Genesis 12:2 : Ge 24:1, 35; 25:11; 26:3; 28:4; Ex 20:24; Nu 22:12; 23:8, 20; 24:9; Ps 67:6; 115:12; Isa 44:3; 61:9; 65:23; Mal 3:12
• Genesis 12:2 : Ge 22:18; Isa 19:24; Jer 4:2; Hag 2:19; Zec 8:13
• Genesis 12:3 : Ge 27:29; Ex 23:22; Nu 24:9; Dt 30:7
• Genesis 12:3 : Ge 15:5; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:4, 14; Dt 9:5; Ps 72:17; Isa 19:25; Ac 3:25; Gal 3:8*
• Genesis 12:4 : S Ge 11:27
• Genesis 12:4 : Ge 16:3, 16; 17:1, 17, 24; 21:5
• Genesis 12:4 : S Ge 11:31
• Genesis 12:5 : S Ge 11:29
• Genesis 12:5 : ver 16; Ge 13:2, 6; 31:18; 46:6
• Genesis 12:5 : Ge 14:14; 15:3; 17:23; Ecc 2:7
• Genesis 12:5 : Ge 11:31; 16:3; Heb 11:8
• Genesis 12:6 : Heb 11:9
• Genesis 12:6 : Ge 35:4; Dt 11:30; Jos 24:26; Jdg 7:1; 9:6
• Genesis 12:6 : Ge 33:18; 37:12; Jos 17:7; 20:7; 24:1; Jdg 8:31; 21:19; 1Ki 12:1; Ps 60:6; 108:7
• Genesis 12:6 : S Ge 10:18
• Genesis 12:7 : Ge 17:1; 18:1; 26:2; 35:1; Ex 6:3; Ac 7:2
• Genesis 12:7 : Ex 3:8; Nu 10:29; Dt 30:5; Heb 11:8
• Genesis 12:7 : Ge 13:15, 17; 15:18; 17:8; 23:18; 24:7; 26:3-4; 28:13; 35:12; 48:4; 50:24; Ex 6:4, 8; 13:5, 11; 32:13; 33:1; Nu 11:12; Dt 1:8; 2:31; 9:5; 11:9; 34:4; 2Ki 25:21; 1Ch 16:16; 2Ch 20:7; Ps 105:9-11; Jer 25:5; Eze 47:14; Ac 7:5; Ro 4:13; Gal 3:16*
• Genesis 12:7 : S Ge 8:20; 13:4
• Genesis 12:8 : Ge 13:3; 28:11, 19; 35:1, 8, 15; Jos 7:2; 8:9; 1Sa 7:16; 1Ki 12:29; Hos 12:4; Am 3:14; 4:4
• Genesis 12:8 : Ge 26:25; 33:19; Heb 11:9
• Genesis 12:8 : Jos 7:2; 12:9; Ezr 2:28; Ne 7:32; Jer 49:3
• Genesis 12:8 : S Ge 4:26; S 8:20
• Genesis 12:9 : Ge 13:1, 3; 20:1; 24:62; Nu 13:17; 33:40; Dt 34:3; Jos 10:40
• Genesis 12:10 : 12:10-20Ref — Ge 20:1-18; 26:1-11
• Genesis 12:10 : Ge 41:27, 57; 42:5; 43:1; 47:4, 13; Ru 1:1; 2Sa 21:1; 2Ki 8:1; Ps 105:19
• Genesis 12:10 : Ge 41:30, 54, 56; 47:20; Ps 105:16
• Genesis 12:11 : S Ge 11:29
• Genesis 12:11 : ver 14; Ge 24:16; 26:7; 29:17; 39:6
• Genesis 12:13 : Ge 20:2; 26:7
• Genesis 12:14 : S ver 11
• Genesis 12:16 : S ver 5; Ge 24:35; 26:14; 30:43; 32:5; 34:23; 47:17; Job 1:3; 31:25
• Genesis 12:17 : 2Ki 15:5; Job 30:11; Isa 53:4, 10
• Genesis 12:17 : 1Ch 16:21; Ps 105:14
• Genesis 12:18 : Ge 20:9; 26:10; 29:25; 31:26; 44:15
• Genesis 12:18 : Isa 43:27; 51:2; Eze 16:3
• Genesis 12:19 : Ge 20:5; 26:9

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The Journey of Abraham

This map is available as a high resolution digital download with detailed instructions. You must bring the file to an Office Depot or similar store for easy color print and lamination. For personal, church or classroom use only.

Genesis 12:1 "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee"

FOLLOW THE MAP

Map of Abraham's Journey . This map reveals the places mentioned in the Bible about the journey of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees to the Promised Land which was over 1000 miles. Abraham and his family departed up the Euphrates River to Haran . Later Abraham journeyed further around the Fertile Crescent into the land of Canaan where he built an altar to the LORD. Later a famine forced them to go to  the land of Egypt .

Abraham's Journey for Little Kids

Click here to listen if the above player does not work.

Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldees when the Lord appeared to him. Ur was a very famous place in the ancient world. It was located in the very southern portion of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the Persian Gulf. There is a great civilization there and the history goes back to the time before the flood of Noah. The reason it is called Ur of the Chaldees is because it was the capital of the Chaldean Empire. There have been many archaeological discoveries there, and the great ziggurat remains can still be seen there.

Haran . The city of Haran was an important city in Mesopotamia and located at the northern portion of the Euphrates River. it was a beautiful country at the foot of the mountains with rich soil and good farmland. Abraham had family there, and this is where his brother Nahor and his family dwelt. Abraham's father Terah died in Haran.

Canaan . The land of Canaan would be the inheritance of the descendents of Abraham. But Abraham would be a pilgrim there, and his descendents would be pilgrims in the promised land. They would not receive their inheritance until the time was ready when God would give them the land. Abraham dwelt at Shechem and God appeared to him again confirming his promises. Abraham built an altar at Shechem. Later Abraham journeyed southward and came to a mountain near Bethel where he built another altar.

Altars. Stone altars were places where men of God would offer up a sacrifice according to God's promises. Abraham understood that the only way to approach God was on the basis of a substitute. God promised that this would be temporary and one day the final sacrifice would be made and Jesus would be the substitute for all mankind.

Egypt . Abraham and his family journeyed into the land of Egypt because of a famine. God blessed Abraham while he was there in the king of Egypt fear the Lord and made sure that he was careful with Abraham because God was with him.

The study of Abraham is very important in the study of the Bible, let's pray:

Dear Jesus, we thank you for Abraham's faith which is mentioned throughout the Bible. He was truly a hero, not because he wanted to be but because he obeyed God. Help me Lord to obey you even if what you're asking me to do is difficult. I thank you that you love me and you know what is best for me. In Jesus name? Amen!

The Geography of the Bible

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