Genesis 11:31

They went forth. The Scriptures make it clear that Abram was the one to whom God revealed Himself in Ur of the Chaldees, and not to Terah, as might be inferred from this passage. Stephen told his hearers that Abram had left “Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,” in response to an explicit command addressed to him personally of God (Acts 7:2, 3). God later reminded Abram that He had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 15:7), not out of Haran (see also Neh. 9:7). We conclude that Abram’s call occurred in two stages. The first call, when he lived at Ur, was to leave his ancestral tribe, but the second, at Haran, was to forsake his immediate relatives, even his father’s house (see Gen. 12:1). When the first call came to Abram, he obeyed immediately and left the old environment to find a new home in the country God promised to provide for him. He must have had considerable influence over his father, Terah, his brother Nahor, and his nephew Lot, because they all chose to accompany him. Nahor is not mentioned as one of those who left Ur with Terah and Abram, but if he did not go at this time he must have followed a little later (see ch. 24:10). Although Abram was the one to whom the call came at Ur, he still lived under his father’s roof and would look to his father to take the initiative should he be willing to do so. Terah evidently consented and, as head of the house, led out in making the move. Oriental propriety would require that Terah be given credit for acting as head of his house. It would seem most inappropriate to say that Abram took his father Terah.

To go into the land of Canaan. This indicates that Canaan was their destination from the very beginning. There were two possible routes of travel from Ur in southern Mesopotamia to Canaan. One route lay directly across the great Arabian Desert, but a large caravan of flocks, herds, and many servants could not possibly traverse such terrain. The other route lay up the Euphrates, across the narrow desert of northern Syria, and then through the Orontes valley southward into Canaan. This was obviously the way by which they must travel.

They came unto Haran. Haran is situated on the Balikh river in northern Mesopotamia, halfway between Ur and Canaan. The reason for this interruption of the journey is not given, but it may have been occasioned by the attractiveness of the region, or more likely by the advancing age and feebleness of Terah. For the greater part of the family Haran became a permanent place of abode, which implies, perhaps, that the attractiveness of the region may have led to the original decision to stop there. The Balikh and Chabur valleys contain fertile pastureland. It is possible that the whole region was sparsely populated, and seemed to offer fine possibilities for increasing the wealth of the family before they proceeded on to Canaan. Whatever the reason may have been, Terah and his family camped at a place they called Haran, perhaps in honor of their son, and brother, who had died in Ur. Because of a slight difference between the Hebrew spelling of the name of Terah’s son Haran and that of the city Charan the relationship of the two is uncertain.

Evidence of how strongly the Terahites took root in their new home is plainly seen in the fact that several of their family names remained attached to cities of the region for centuries, and in some instances for millenniums. Haran, an important city during the second and first millenniums B.C., may have been named in honor of Haran, as suggested above. Peleg’s memory lived on in the name of the city Paliga, at the mouth of the Chabur River. Nahor gave his name to Nahor’s city (ch. 24:10, the later Til-Nahiri, near Haran). Serug’s name is reflected in the neighboring town of Sarugi, and the site Til-sha-turahi on the Balikh River may perpetuate the name of Terah. These place names are clear evidence of the fact that the family of Terah occupied this region in ancient times.