FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM TO THE DEATH OF JO SEPH, OR THE PROBATION OF THE CHOSEN FAMILY. A.M. 2008-2369. B.C. 1996-1635. CHAPTER VI. HISTORY AND CALL OF ABRAM TO HIS 99TH YEAR, AND THE CHANGE OF HIS NAME. A.M. 2008-2369. B.C. 1996-1635. 1. God's choice of a family. § 2. Genealogy of Terah-Birth of Abram. § 3. First call of Abram at Ur-Removal to Haran-Death of Terah. § 4. Abram's second call-His journey to Canaan and abode at Sichem. § 5. His removal to Bethel-Retreat to Egypt, and return to Bethel. § 6. His separation from Lot, and abode at Mamre, near Hebron-The third giving of the promise. § 7. The War of SodomAbram's rescue of Lot-MELCHIZEDEK. § 8. The promise of a sonThe faith of Abraham-The COVENANT made with him-Promise re specting his descendants and their land. § 9. Hagar the Egyptian- § 1. IN that course of God's dealing with man which is traced in the sacred narrative, a new step was taken by the choice of a FAMILY from which the promised seed of the woman was to spring, and which should meanwhile preserve the knowledge and worship of the true God. Jehovah, in the revelation of himself to man, retires, so to speak, from the whole compass of the race of Noah into the inner circle of the family of Abraham. It was a step required by the state of the world, which had relapsed into idolatry and profaneness before the death of Noah. This is clear from the story of the building of Babel, and it is implied in the subsequent history. Joshua expressly says that the family of Terah were idolaters. We can not, however, regard the rabbinical stories of Abraham's early contests with idolatry as more than curious and amusing. § 2. The patriarch whom God made the head of his cosen family was born only two years after the death of Noah (B.C. 1996): "Uno avulso non deficit alter.". His father was TERAH, the ninth of the patriarchs from Shem and the nineteenth from Adam (inclusive). His genealogy, which the subsequent history requires to be most clear ly understood, is exhibited in the annexed table (page 68). It is the more important to include the whole family of Terah in our view, as the call of God came to Abram while he was still living in the house of his father, to whose whole family, therefore, the call may be considered as in some sense addressed, and by all of whom it was in some degree obeyed. 2 In the list of the post-diluvian patriarchs it is stated that Terah, at the age of 70 (B.c. 2056), begat three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the order of dignity, as subsequently determined; but there can be little doubt that Haran was the eldest of the three, since both Nahor and Abram married his daughters; and Abram seems to have been the youngest, since he was born sixty years after the date just given; for he was seventy-five years old when his father died in Haran at the age of 205. His name AB-RAM (father of 1 Josh. xxiv. 2. "Gen. xi. 26. of the Hebrew text to be correct (Gen. xi. 32, compared with Gen. 'That is, if we assume the numbers xii. 4). elevation, i. e., exalted father), was prophetic of his calling to be the ancestor of a race chosen for an exalted destiny; but it was afterward changed into the more significant name of AB-RAHAM (father of a multitude, see § 10). 6 § 3. Terah had already lost his eldest son, Haran, whose son Lor became his heir, when God called Abram to depart into a land that he would show him. This first call came. to him while the family still dwelt in the very ancient city of "UR of the Chaldees." This is expressly stated by St. Stephen, whose speech before the Sanhedrim is of the highest authority, were it only for his profound scriptural learning. Their original abode at Ur has been identified by the most ancient traditions with the city of Orfah, in the highlands of Mesopotamia (Aram), which unite the table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates (Padan-Aram). 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.' Quitting Ur, the chosen family migrated southward, and took up their residence at Haran, more properly called in the New Testament Charran, east of the Euphrates, "the flood" which divided the old home of the family from the new land of promise.' The name is still preserved in the village of Haran, which stands on the river Belilk, a small affluent of the Euphrates.' 4 Gen. xii. 1. 5 Acts vii. 2. Patriarch." Stanley, Jewish Church, See Acts vi. 10. In Gen. xi. the part i. p. 7. But in opposition to genealogy of the post-diluvian patri- the most ancient traditions, many archs is brought down to the migra- modern writers have fixed the site of tion and death of Terah before enter- Ur at a very different position, in the ing on the history of God's call to extreme south of Chaldæa, at MugAbraham; but this is explained by heir, not very far above-and proba the pluperfect in ver. of chap. xii. bly in the time of Abraham actually Two physical features must upon the head of the Persian Gulf. have secured Orfah, from the earliest Among the ruins which are now seen times, as a nucleus for the civiliza- at the spot, are the remains of one of tion of those regions. One is a high- the great temples, of a model similar crested crag, the natural fortifications to that of Babel, dedicated to the of the crested citadel. . . . The other Moon, to whom the city was sacred. is an abundant spring, issuing in a Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies pool of transparent clearness, and of the Ancient Eastern World, vol. i. embosomed in a mass of luxuriant chap. i. and viii. verdure, which, amid the dull brown Gen. xi. 31; Acts vii. 4. The desert all around, makes, and must non-expression of the Hebrew gutalways have made, this spot an oasis, tural in our version causes a false re a paradise, in the Chaldæan wilder- semblance between the Patriarch ness. Round this sacred pool, 'The Haran (h soft) and the place Haran Beautiful Spring Callirrhoe,' as it (h guttural). was called by the Greek writers, The place is celebrated among gather the modern traditions of the the Romans, under the name of |