Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 11:27 - 11:32

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 11:27 - 11:32


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The Generations of Terah

v. 27. Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Haran may have been the oldest son, and his son Lot was nearer to Abraham's age.

v. 28. And Haran died before,
that is, during the lifetime of, his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. This, then, was the ancestral home of this family of the descendants of Shem.

v. 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.
Marriages of comparatively close relatives were still the rule at that time, for Nahor married his niece, and Abram his half-sister, Gen_20:12.

v. 30. But Sarai was barren;
she had no child, a fact which was, among the Jews, considered a great calamity, almost a curse, just as the fruitfulness of the mother was considered a great blessing.

v. 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.
These all went forth together, or with one another, under the leadership of Terah and Abram. In the case of Abram, he had, even now, received God's command to journey forth, Act_7:3, while in the case of Terah the migration was a part of God's dispensation, the first step of the journey which would bring Abram to the land of his inheritance.

v. 32. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
This notice rounds out the story of Terah, for he evidently died after Abram had gone forth to Canaan. Thus the less important personage is disposed of before the main history proceeds. It is the story of Abraham which now follows, for it was his generation and people that the Lord chose for His own; and from the seed of Abraham, in the fullness of time, the salvation which had been promised to the patriarchs before the Flood was to come upon the whole world.