Chapter V: The History of Abram and His Times

=1.= The promise that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed renders the history of Abram one of great interest, especially as recent discoveries of the monuments and literature of ancient Chaldæa have given us more correct knowledge of those early ages than had been acquired for more than 3,000 years. In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, beginning at the tenth verse, is given the =ancestry of Abraham=, the father of the Hebrews. Abram, afterward called Abraham, for reasons stated in chapter 17:5, was the ninth from Shem. Until the birth of Abram his ancestors appear to have lived in the region known as Chaldæa. Abram’s birthplace was Ur, 150 miles southeast of Babylon and a few miles west of the Euphrates. The ruins of Ur include, at the present day, a part of an ancient temple dedicated to the moon. This temple seems to have been erected many years before the days of Abram. A vast number of tombs surround it and the city, in the times of Abram, must have been a place for burial and considered sacred. Eupolemus, a Greek writer who is quoted by Eusebius, speaks of it in his time, about 446 B. C., as “the place of the Chaldees.”[43] Its ruins on a vast mound are so largely cemented with bitumen that this fact has given rise to its present name, Mugheir, which means “bitumen.” The tablets and bricks bear the ancient name of Ur as well as the names of its earliest kings and the builder of its temples.

=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.... The fifteenth 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.

=10. Shechem= is almost exactly half way between Dan on the north and Beersheba on the south. It was therefore not till Abram arrived in the midst of the land that he erected an altar to Jehovah after the Lord had promised that to his seed He would give this land, Gen. 12:7. Various tribes of Canaanites occupied the whole future land of Israel, Gen. 10:19.

=11. The plain of Moreh= was a mile east of the city, or town, of Shechem. It is evident that both Moreh and Shechem were names of Canaanites, as Shechem is seen in Gen. 33; 34; Num. 26:31; Josh. 17:2, and other places, as a personal name.

=12.= The word translated “plain” is equally applicable to a grove of trees, and it may be that Abram chose this grove as a shelter from the heat. Twenty-seven miles north of Shechem is probably the hill called in Judg. 7:1, after the same person, the hill of Moreh. The city of Shochen, which exists at the present time, is between the high hills of Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north.

For the reasons why the word “plain” should be rendered “oak” see Josh. 24:26 and Judg. 9:6, wherein it is evident that a pillar by the oak is meant. Also see that the word “oak” is in the Hebrew exactly the same as that translated “plain” in the text referred to above, Gen. 12:6, and this identical oak seems to have been used for an important purpose many years after. In Deut. 11:30 the name is in the plural, leading us to suppose that it was a grove continuing through many centuries. Groves always were important and sometimes sacred, as it appears from the action of Abraham, for in Gen. 21:33 it is stated that “Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.”

=13. The next place visited= by Abram was an unknown place between Bethel and Hai.[47] Bethel was not so named until 160 years afterwards, by Jacob, Gen. 28:19. Hai and Ai[48] are the same, and this place was probably a Canaanitish town at this time. The distance south of Shechem was 20 miles to the place occupied by the patriarch, where he seems to have remained only to build an altar and then moved on, evidently seeking pasture for his flocks and herds.

EGYPT FIRST MENTIONED.

=14. The name of Egypt= occurs now for the first time in Scripture, and we may judge of its importance from the fact that the name occurs six hundred and thirteen times, twenty-four of which number are to be found in the New Testament. In this instance the mention is made about 1920 B. C.,[49] and the kingdom is referred to as fully established and well known.

The occasion of Abram’s visit was the famine existing in the land of Canaan. Abram journeys southward with the intention of entering Egypt to provide sustenance for himself and his retinue against this famine.

=15. The condition of Egypt= at or just before the time of Abram’s first visit was one of great prosperity. The reigning Pharaohs, generally called those of the twelfth dynasty, were most probably the Usertesens and the Amen-emhats. Under this dynasty the sceptres of Upper and Lower Egypt were united. All the kings were powerful and prosperous and art flourished, the Sun temple at Heliopolis (six miles northeast of the present Cairo) was magnificently restored, and in the Fayum on the west of the Nile (about 50 miles southwest of Cairo) the practice of building pyramids was revived. Here was the vast lake or inland sea made by Amen-emhat III., to receive the overplus waters of the annual overflow of the Nile and to distribute them in case of need. This king also built the great labyrinth in the Fayum, the latter name being an alteration of the Egyptian word for “sea,” namely “_Piom_.”

=16.= During this period fortifications were erected on the northeastern frontier of Egypt, which appear to have extended across the whole of the present isthmus of Suez (_Socin_). The term Shur used six times in Scripture is now supposed to refer to this “wall.”[50]

=17. As the pyramids of Gizeh= were built in the fourth dynasty (the most recent date of which is given by Wilkinson as 2450 B. C.), they had been in existence more than 400 years before Abram’s visit. The Sphinx was then existing also, as seems probable from an inscription found by M. Mariette, which indicates that there was a “temple of the Sphinx” in the time of Cheops,[51] the builder of the great pyramid. It seems also probable that the rule of the foreigners, called the Shepherd Kings, had begun before Abram’s visit.

=18. These foreigners= took possession of Lower Egypt and drove the original rulers up the Nile to Thebes and other parts of Upper Egypt. Long before this period emigrants from the East had been admitted to Egypt and had settled in various places upon the rich lands of the Delta, until, finding themselves sufficiently powerful, they usurped all authority without a battle. They were called the Shepherd kings, or Hyksos, from what was supposed to be their employment. They governed Lower Egypt for about five hundred years, until they were finally driven out by the Egyptian royal family.

=19. Abram’s first visit= seems to have been made at or near the beginning of the Hyksos era. The most recent date of the beginning of the rule of the Shepherd Kings is that of Wilkinson, 2091 B. C., and if the date usually given for the visit of Abram was 1920 B. C., then these invaders had already had possession of the land for over 170 years. Egypt was therefore renowned and its rulers were of a race acquainted with the employments to which Abram was not a stranger. They spoke the dialect of Canaan, as it is very evident that many came from the region of Canaan.

=20. In this age the horse= is not mentioned as in Egypt. Oxen and asses and sheep are found depicted upon the walls and tablets, but the horse does not appear in Egypt till the reign of Thothmes I., who met with them in his wars in Assyria. This king was the third Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty.[52] This dynasty began immediately after the expulsion of the Hyksos. So that while it is probable that the horse might have been known only as a foreign animal, it was introduced into Lower Egypt by Thothmes I., and Egypt became known after this for its fine breed of horses, which took the place of the asses previously used throughout the land. It is for this reason that Abram’s list of animals excludes the horse, Gen. 12:16.

THE FIRST BATTLE.

=21. The next important occurrence= in the history of Abram is that of the =first battle= mentioned in Scripture. Abram had returned to Canaan with large additions to his herds. This increase brought about a necessary separation between Abram and Lot. Abram settled in Hebron, while Lot chose his residence in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plain. Soon after four kings from Chaldæa approached Canaan on a tour of conquest, and passing to the south and east of the Dead Sea went down to Mt. Seir and thence to Kadesh, then called En-mishpat, and thence north to Hazezon-tamar. They then met the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah in battle, defeated them, and carried off Lot and others captives. Upon knowledge of this captivity Abram set out to overtake the invaders. He was joined by the forces of the three Amorites confederate with him, and found the kings at Dan, about 140 miles from Hebron northward, as they were leaving the country on their way home to Chaldæa. A battle now took place at night, and the four kings were defeated, and Lot and other captives, together with the stolen goods, were all retaken and brought back in safety.

SODOM AND GOMORRAH.

=22. The exact location= of these cities has not yet been discovered. They were, with the other cities of the plain, situated very near the Dead Sea, and the traditions place them at the western part of the southern end, where there is a salt hill five miles long, called the hill of Sodom, _Jebel Usdum_. There are good reasons for supposing that when Abram and Lot stood overlooking the land from the heights near Bethel, Lot chose the region north of the Dead Sea, which was visible, in preference to the southern part, which was more than forty miles distant. But from the Scripture account, considered in view of the evident volcanic nature of this part of Palestine and the fearful earthquakes which have happened in the vicinity in recent times, there is reason to believe that some terrible convulsion not only buried the cities, but submerged the plain at the south end of the sea, and no other interpretation seems to suit the history, which definitely states that the plain and all that grew upon it were destroyed, the water system of the plain being all entirely changed. The submerged plain at the south, therefore, which is covered for the area of about fifty square miles with water only a few feet deep, has given occasion for the theory that the cities of the plain are to be sought beneath these waters, which are by some supposed to cover the vale of Siddim.

=23. Hazezon-tamar is the same= as En-gedi, 2 Chron. 20:2. It is upon the west shore of the Dead Sea, twenty-three miles south of the mouth of the Jordan. Hobah, whither Abram pursued the kings, is two miles north of Damascus.

=24. Abram was near Hebron=, twenty miles west of the Dead Sea, when the news reached him of the defeat of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the capture of Lot. Hebron is almost equidistant from the north and south ends of the Dead Sea, at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet above the Mediterranean, while the waters of the Dead Sea are 1,293 feet below those of the Mediterranean.

=25. The recent discoveries in Chaldæa= and the surrounding countries show that the names of these four kings――Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations, are names which have in large part been found on the tablets and in the history of the countries mentioned. Amraphel is the same in the Hebrew as Amarphal, and it was so translated in the Septuagint made more than 250 B. C. This name was that of a viceroy of Sumir, the district around and south of Babylon, called Shinar in Genesis, and the name Amar-pal has been found “borne by private persons on two cylinders of ancient workmanship” (Lenormant). The Septuagint has for Tidal, Thargal, which seems to be the proper spelling; the difference between the two spellings in the original Hebrew is only that between an _r_ and a _d_, which in that language is exceedingly small. In the Akkadian (same as Accadian), which was the language used in the ancient Chaldæan times, Turgal meant “great chief.”[53] This king was chief of a people called the Gutium in the monumental inscriptions, and this tribe or small nation has been identified with the Goim of the Hebrew text, which in our English version is translated “nations.” So that the “Tidal king of nations,” of the text in Genesis, is shown to be the “great chief” of a tribe living in Northern Babylonia, of which one part became afterwards the nation of the Assyrians.[54]

Chedorlaomer, the monuments show us, was truly an Elamite name, Chedor, or Kudur, forming part of several names of the early kings of that district, and Laomer, or Lagamar, being the name of a most important Elamite god. The name Arioch is very similar to that of the son of an Elamite king who was king of Larsa, which itself is similar to the Hebrew name Ellasar, and the circumstances have led the best Assyriologists to believe that they are the very same.

=26. The monumental records show= that this king of Elam, on a previous occasion, when Abram was still at Haran, had passed over the Euphrates and conquered Phœnicia and a country to the south. He is called both king of Elam and king of Phœnicia, as the land of Canaan was called by name “Martu,” “the land of the setting sun,” or Phœnicia. So that 14 years before, at the time when Chedorlaomer crossed the Euphrates on his first expedition, Abram may have beheld the troops of that king whom he afterward conquered, with his viceroys, when they came on their second invasion of Canaan. At that time Abram was with his father Terah at Haran, as we may see from the dates in the context, Gen. 16:3; 14:5.

THE ISHMAELITES.

=27. Some years after this battle= we have the account of the birth of Ishmael, the son of Abram by Hagar. As the descendants of Ishmael exerted great influence in years afterward, it is well at this point to study the early history of this son of Abram. When Isaac was born Ishmael was about 16 years of age, Gen. 17:21, 25; 21:1, 8, and until the day of the divine promise to Abram, at which time his name was changed to Abraham, he was evidently, from the context, greatly attached to Ishmael. Moreover, Abram was considered by his neighbors as “a mighty prince among them,” Gen. 23:6. Under these circumstances this only son must have been allowed privileges and attentions at the hands of the hundreds of Abram’s servants such as an heir apparent to all the wealth of Abram would be certain to receive. When, however, Sarah became the mother of Isaac a change necessarily transpired. Ishmael was no longer the expected heir. Hagar’s spirit of self-importance, which showed itself before so positively that she was forced to leave the family, was now repeated in some disagreeable actions of her son Ishmael, and, despite the persistent love of Abraham, Ishmael and his mother were summarily dismissed from the family.

=28. There can be no reasonable doubt= that the action of Abraham in sending Hagar and her son out upon the desert with only sufficient food to support them for a time was greatly or almost entirely influenced by the direct revelation to Abraham that the divine interference would be exerted on behalf of the exiles. That had been assured, as we see in verses 12 and 13 of chapter 21. At the same time both the mother and son, after all the preceding years of privilege, would naturally imagine that a great wrong had been done them, and Ishmael readily became a wild wanderer upon the vast deserts east of Egypt.

He was the progenitor of twelve great tribes whose names in part are recognized among some of the tribes existing at the present day and whose characters are accurately represented in the description of what they were to be, as it occurs in Gen. 16:12, and the expression “he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren” simply alludes to the fact that his race should be wanderers upon the desert without any fixed habitation, this being the life of all the most pleasurable to the desert Arabs.

=29. As Abraham was 99 years= of age when Ishmael was 13, Gen. 17:24, 25, and died at 175, it is plain that Ishmael must have been about 90 years of age at Abraham’s death. The love and reverence which Ishmael had for the patriarch were apparent after this long time in the fact that at the death of the latter, Isaac and Ishmael united to perform the burial at the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Gen. 25:9.

HEBRON AND MACHPELAH.

=30. Hebron= is a very old city, having been founded long before Abram’s time, and it is in existence at present. It is south of Jerusalem eighteen miles, and is unlike nearly all the cities in Palestine in that it is situated in a valley. The cave of Machpelah is on the east side of the valley, which runs nearly north and south.

This city becomes important in Biblical history at the time when Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died, and then this cave was purchased by Abraham as a family burying-place. It was the first spot possessed by any of the ancestors of the Hebrew race in Palestine. Here Sarah and Abraham were buried and in after times Leah and Isaac, and Jacob’s remains were, by his desire, removed from Egypt and placed by the side of his wife Leah.

Although Hebron has suffered several attacks and partial destruction, it is probable that the sacredness of the place may have protected it so that the actual remains of some of the bodies deposited there may yet be there, under Moslem guardianship.

=After the birth of Isaac=, Abraham remained in the region of Gerar, whose precise location is not known, although it must have been in the southwest of Canaan and in the land of the Philistines. From thence he removed to Beersheba.[55]

BEERSHEBA AND GERAR.

=31. Beersheba= bears, at the present day, the same name and contains two wells, one about 12 feet in diameter, the other about 5 feet. The larger appears to be very old and may well have existed since the days of the patriarch. It is about 40 feet deep to the water and is still used daily by the Arabs. The exact distance from Hebron to Beersheba is twenty-six and a half miles southwest. There are some ruins 24 miles southwest by south from Beersheba, called Umel Jerar, which possibly may indicate where the ancient Gerar was.

=32.= From Beersheba Abraham travelled with Isaac to =Mt. Moriah=, which was at the present site of Jerusalem and distant in an air line 45 miles northeast. Here his obedience and faith were severely tried in the command to offer up, as a burnt-offering, his only son Isaac. This act might have been more trying to the faith of Abraham because it was the practice of the Canaanites at that time. That the immolation of children was practised by the Phœnicians at that age and in the land of Chaldæa is proved by an Accadian text which expressly states that sin may be expiated by the vicarious sacrifice of the eldest son.[56] In after times it was practised by the Moabites, 2 Kings 3:27. But Abraham’s faith never failed him, and the offering was accepted, though the act was arrested.

=33. Abraham after this purchased= the cave of Machpelah, of which we have spoken, where Sarah was buried, and he himself was laid away in the same place at his death, having given all his possessions to his son Isaac, except some smaller gifts to his other children by his second wife Keturah, when he sent them away from Isaac his son “unto the east country.”

=34. The character of Abraham= has been revered among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians alike in all ages and parts of the world. His tomb now existing at Hebron is among the very few places in the East about which there has never been any doubt. The structure, now a mosque, is a Mohammedan addition to a building which was in part erected near the beginning of the Christian era.