Genesis 11:26

26 Terah lived seventy years, and became ¹the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Genesis 11:26 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 11:26

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and
Haran.
] Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Haran; nay, it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the one hundred and thirtieth year of his father's life, for Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, ( Genesis 11:32 ) and Abram was but seventy five years of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, ( Genesis 12:4 ) and that was as soon as his father died there; and so that if seventy five are taken out two hundred and five, there will remain one hundred and thirty, in which year and not before Abram must be born: the wife of Terah, of whom Abram was born, according to the Jewish writers ^F24, her name was Chamtelaah, the daughter of Carnebo, or as others ^F25 call her, Amthalai; but by the Arabic writers

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 she is called Juna: the Jews say ^F1 Terah was the first that found out the way of coining money, and that in his days men began to worship images, and that he was the chief of their priests, but afterwards repented; and that he was an idolater appears from ( Joshua 24:2 ) .

F24 Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 2. 1. & Bathra in ib.
F25 Pirke Eliezer, c. 26.
F26 Elmacinus, p. 31. Patricides, p. 17. apud Hottinger. p. 281.
F1 Shalshalet, fol. 76. 1.

Genesis 11:26 In-Context

24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah;

25 and Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.

26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

27 Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot.

28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Cross References

• 1. Joshua 24:2