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| Why, in the Account of Terah’s Emigration, on His Forsaking the Chaldeans and Passing Over into Mesopotamia, No Mention is Made of His Son Nahor.
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Chapter 13.—Why, in the Account
of Terah’s Emigration, on His Forsaking the Chaldeans and Passing
Over into Mesopotamia, No Mention is Made of His Son
Nahor.
Next it is related how Terah with
his family left the region of the Chaldeans and came into
Mesopotamia, and dwelt in Haran. But
nothing is said about
one of his sons called Nahor, as if he had not taken him along with
him. For the narrative runs thus: “And Terah took Abram his
son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarah his
daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and led them forth out of
the region of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and he
came into Haran, and dwelt there.”890
Nahor and Milcah his wife are
nowhere named here. But afterwards, when Abraham sent his servant
to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it thus written: “And
the servant took ten camels of the camels of his lord, and of all
the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and went into
Mesopotamia, into the city of Nahor.”891
This and other testimonies of
this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham’s brother, had also
left the region of the Chaldeans, and fixed his abode in
Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why, then, did
the Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his family went
forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it
mentions that he took with him not only Abraham his son, but also
Sarah his daughter-in-law, and Lot his grandson? The only reason
we can think of is, that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of
his father and brother, and adhered to the superstition of the
Chaldeans, and had afterwards emigrated thence, either through
penitence, or because he was persecuted as a suspected person.
For in the book called Judith, when Holofernes, the enemy of the
Israelites, inquired what kind of nation that might be, and whether
war should be made against them, Achior, the leader of the
Ammonites, answered him thus: “Let our lord now hear a word
from the mouth of thy servant, and I will declare unto thee the
truth concerning the people which dwelleth near thee in this hill
country, and there shall no lie come out of the mouth of thy
servant. For this people is descended from the Chaldeans, and
they dwelt heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow
the gods of their fathers, which were glorious in the land of the
Chaldeans, but went out of the way of their ancestors, and adored
the God of heaven, whom they knew; and they cast them out from the
face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and dwelt there
many days. And their God said to them, that they should depart
from their habitation, and go into the land of Canaan; and they
dwelt,”892
etc., as
Achior the Ammonite narrates. Whence it is manifest that the
house of Terah had suffered persecution from the Chaldeans for the
true piety with which they worshipped the one and true
God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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