A Class-Book of Biblical History and Geography / with numerous maps

by H. S. Osborn

2. Although at the present day the Persian Gulf is about 140 miles distant from Ur, only the deposits from the rivers Euphrates and Tigris have removed the waters of the gulf to this distance. Certain coast marks show that the sea must have sent its waters up the river to a distance of nearly, if not quite, 124 miles, and in the time of Abram Ur must have been a maritime city.

3. From this city Terah, Abram’s father, removed with his family to Haran. This city was 580 miles northwest of Ur on the banks of a small tributary stream which runs seventy miles southward before it joins the Euphrates. Both Ur and Haran were the seats of the Moon-god, called “Sin” in the Chaldee language. This deity was masculine in the same language and the Sun-god was feminine,as is apparent from the omens of that day as seen in the following translations of certain priestly utterances and directions by Prof. Sayce.[44]

Of the month Elul it is said: He shall make his free-will offering to the Sun, the mistress of the world, and to the Moon, the supreme god.... Thefifteenth day is sacred to the Sun, the Lady of the House of Heaven.... The Moon the Lord of the month.

4. In this age we read that the seventh day was “a day of rest,” and the very ancient name for “rest” was very similar to the word Sabbath used in the Hebrew, and special observance of the day was ordered by the priests; thus“the shepherd of mighty nations (king) must not eat flesh cooked on the fire or in the smoke. He must not drive a chariot. He must not issue royal decrees; the lifting up of his hands finds favor with the god,” etc.[45]

5. It is plain therefore that the seventh day was a day of rest, a sacred day, in the time of ancient Babylonish kings. It was so in the era of earliest Chaldæan records, and it was not an institution derived only from the Jewish nation, but the day was regarded as a Sabbath among the Chaldæans in the time and long before the days of Abram, for the records above translated and preserved in the library of Assur-bani-pal, King of Assyria, as we have said, page 26, were derived from far more ancient records, existing even before the Deluge, of which latter event they give a history. So that the Chaldæan records of the Creation, the Deluge, and the Sabbath may very reasonably have been derived from one and the same source.

6. The name Abram is of Babylonish-Assyrian derivation, but was changed by the Lord into Abraham,which was a purely Hebrew name, as is recorded in Gen. 17:5.[46]

7. It is not stated how long Terah remained in Ur after the birth of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, but the removal was not made until Lot was born to Haran and until the death of the latter. Then Terah left Ur for Haran, six hundred miles northwest, where they remained probably many years (see Gen. 12:5).

8. The fact that Abram’s name occurs first in the mention of the three is no proof, judging from the Scripture method of naming sons, that Abram was the oldest, but only that he was the most important character, for Shem is mentioned first in the three Shem, Ham, and Japheth, although Japheth is called the elder, Gen. 10:21, Shem being the most important as the head of the Hebrew race.

Abram was probably born when Terah was 130 years old, for it must be remembered that there is no good reason for supposing that the three sons of Terah were born in the same year, but only that one of the three mentioned (Gen. 11:26) was born when Terah was 70 years of age and the two others at some time after. If Abram was born when Terah was 130 and lived to be 75 years old at the death of his father, his father’s age would have been 205 as given in the text. It seems that Haran was the elder of the three, though mentioned last as in the case of Noah’s three sons.

9. Abram, at the call of the Lord, left with a large retinue of servants and crossed the Euphrates and came into Canaan, probably by the way of Damascus. He immediately entered into the land known then as Canaan, and the first place named on his way is “Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh.” Sichem is the place also called Shechem, and the word Sichem is in the Hebrew precisely the same as Shechem, the variation being one due only to the translator of the Hebrew name into English.