Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

12:4, 5 GENES1
storied ziggurat (cf. Gen. 10:10, 1.P:l-9). Other writers
think they followed the Tigris rat -than the Euphrates.
Thus Kraeling writes (BA, J7): ehh is said to have
started his renewed trek with a more distant objective in
mind-to go to the land of Canaan. . . .. But since he goes
to Haran, we may imagine him as taking the familiar
migration route back to the home dea: Perhaps his herds
had not crossed the Euphrates at all to the southern shore
of which Ur lay, for the river wajl certainly a formidable
obstacle. In returning he would have gone up the west side
of the Tigris. We may imagine him as passing mighty
Asshur, the capital of Assyria, and eighty miles beyond he
would have seen Nineveh across the river, a city of yet
lesser consequence, but destined to become the seat of an
empire that was to trample his descendants under its feet.
Leaving the Tigris, Terah would have taken the westward
track to Nisibis, and crossing the headwaters of the Khabur
River would soon have come to Haran on the upper
Balikb River, another tributary of the Euphrates.” Sig-
nificant archeological discoveries were made at Haran in
the nineteen-fifties under the direction of D. S. Rice.
From these discoveries it seems evident that the moon-
temple of Haran lay at the site occupied by the later great
mosque. Kraeling (ibid.) : “We here stand on the spot to
which Joshua refers when he says to the assembled tribes
that their fathers lived of old beyond the river and served
other gods (Josh. 24:2). First among these gods was Sin
of Haran. It was near here that the divine revelation
calling Abraham to a land of promise was given. Truly
at Haran one stands at the source of the River of Life.”
Payne (OHH, 36, 37): “Haran, Gen. 11:31-12:4.
Terah knew the destination was Canaan, 11:31; but he
settled in Haran, which was likewise a center for the
worship af Sin, and permeated with Hurrian customs,
where he died. This was a tragedy: lost faith? Relapse
into idolatry? God then called Abram again, this time to
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