Call of Abraham (12:1–9)

Leave your country, your people and your father’s household (12:1). Why does God ask Abram to leave these behind? One reason may be that it is by these three connections that one related to deity. The gods one worshiped tended to be national or city gods (country), the clan god (family), or ancestral gods, that is, ancestors who have taken a place in the divine world (father’s household). As Yahweh severed the ties Abram would have had with other deities, he then filled the resulting void as the only God Abram would need.

Great nation (12:2). This offer is unique in the ancient world. One can certainly find offers by deities to make someone king and to prosper their line—or even a promise that a particular individual would have many offspring. But the prospect that an individual would grow into a great nation is not broached in any other literature from the ancient world.

I will make your name great (12:2). This offer stands in contrast to the desire of the city and tower builders in Genesis 11 (see comment on 11:4). They had embarked on an initiative to establish their name, whereas here it is Yahweh’s initiative that will result in Abram’s name being magnified. Every aspect of this offer explains the ways that Abram’s name will be magnified because a person’s name is exalted through remembrance. All peoples will call Abram their ancestor and will recognize him as the one through whom their blessing has come.

Canaan (12:5). Canaan is a broad geographical description whose boundary, through the middle of the second millennium, is roughly designated on the south as extending from the Wadi el-Arish (brook of Egypt), dipping south to include Kadesh, then northeast to the bottom tip of the Dead Sea. On the north it follows a line from the coast just north of Byblos to the Syrian desert. Its eastern boundary encompasses most of what eventually became Aramaean territory under the control of Damascus as well as the area known as Gilead east of the Sea of Galilee. South of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River and Dead Sea become the eastern boundary.284

In Egyptian and Hittite texts of the mid-second millennium, the area of Canaan (kinaḫḫi) is similar (with the inclusion of Transjordan) and is used in contrast to the land of Amurru, just to the north.285 The specifics of territorial identification get much more complex.286

Canaan

Tree of Moreh (12:6). No hint is given that the trees themselves were worshiped, but notable trees became places where various sacred rituals were performed. The significance given to certain trees in the biblical text suggests that they designated sacred space (cf. 13:18; 35:4, 8; Deut. 11:30; Judg. 4:5; 6:11; 9:37).287 Note the eventual indictment of the Israelites that they set up sacred stones and Asherah poles “under every spreading tree” (2 Kings 17:10).

The name given to the oak here has been interpreted as suggesting that oracular information was gained here (“Diviner’s Oak”).288 Of all of the divination procedures known from the ancient world, there is no suggestion of trees used as divinatory mechanisms; thus, we conclude that the tree had significance as a locale rather than as a mechanism.

Shechem (12:6). Shechem has been identified with modern Tell Balatah, just east of modern Nablus and thirty-five miles north of Jerusalem. It is strategically located at the east entrance to the pass between the twin hills, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Its proximity to these mountains and its location on a trade route both contributed to its nearly continuous occupation in the second and first millennia. As early as the Middle Bronze I period, Shechem is mentioned in the Egyptian texts of Pharaoh Sesostris III (1880–1840 B.C.). Excavations have revealed an apparently unwalled settlement in Middle Bronze IIA (about 1900 B.C.) with the development of fortifications in Middle Bronze IIB, about 1750 B.C. No settlement is referred to here in Genesis, though one is mentioned in Genesis 35.

Shechem

Bible Scene Multimedia/Maurice Thompson

Sacred stone at Shechem

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

Canaanites were in the land (12:6). This verse has at times been interpreted as suggesting that at the time of the author or editor of Genesis, Canaanites were no longer living in the land. The Hebrew particle used here, however, is not usually used to indicate a situation that existed at one point but not any longer. The background question here, nevertheless, is through which periods Canaanites were in the land.

It must first be noted that there is some question whether “Canaanite” is more properly understood as an ethnic designation or as a geographical designation. Recent studies have leaned toward the latter, understanding the term as referring to the multiethnic people living in the region at this time who shared a common culture and were the ancestors of first millennium peoples such as the Phoenicians.289 Though that may offer an adequate reflection of the material culture, it is problematic in regard to the biblical text. When the Pentateuch and Joshua refer to the inhabitants of the land, many groups are mentioned alongside the Canaanites (see, e.g., 15:21; Ex. 3:8; Deut. 7:1; Josh. 9:1); thus “Canaanites” does not appear as a word for just anyone living within the geographical boundaries of Canaan.

Nevertheless, assuming an ethnic identification, we have no information about where they may have come from or when they entered the land. The earliest clear reference to Canaanites is in the Mari letters of the mid-eighteenth century B.C.290 Archaeologically, most of the material remains of the Middle and Late Bronze periods in this region are associated with Canaanite populations. The Iron Age (beginning about 1200) evidences early the disappearance of the Canaanites from both the written and archaeological records. They are displaced by the Philistines as the great enemy of Israel and are not among the enemies fought by Saul or David, and there is only a brief mention of them in the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 9:16). As a result, the time “when the Canaanites were in the land” is roughly equivalent to the second millennium B.C.

Built an altar (12:8). We usually think of altars in terms of raised platforms used for offering sacrifices. Here, however, there is no mention of sacrifices. Furthermore, sacrifices usually (though admittedly not always) took place in the vicinity of a temple and were serviced by a priesthood. No ancient Near Eastern document refers to altars used for anything other than sacrifices in the presence of deity; they were pointless if not offered where a deity was believed to be present.291 In fact, the only sacrifice by Abram described in the text is the near-sacrifice of Isaac.

If Abram is not using the altar for sacrifice in a place where God’s presence was established, what is he using it for? One option is for a land claim marker. This use of “altar” is attested in the Old Testament in Joshua 22:26–28, but nothing in Genesis indicates this function. The only activity that Abram is involved in at altars is to “call on the name of the LORD” (12:8; 13:4). This phrase can be understood as invoking God’s presence, thus anticipating his presence rather than assuming it. Support for this interpretation is that several of the altars are built at potentially sacred sites (trees, 12:7; 13:18; hills, 12:8).

Bethel (12:8). Bethel is usually identified with Tell Beitin just over ten miles north of Jerusalem, about a mile and a half west of et-Tell, the traditional site of Ai. There was a major fortified city on the site during the Middle Bronze Age that was built up through the first half of the second millennium. Kelso reported a destruction at the end of Middle Bronze (about 1550 B.C.), but the evidence is sketchy, and opinions vary.292 After an apparent occupation gap in Late Bronze I, it was grandly rebuilt in the Late Bronze II (about 1400). Another destruction level is identified by Kelso at the end of the Late Bronze period (1200), though, again, the reports offer little help for those who want to assess his findings.293 Some have questioned whether Beitin is Bethel because it has been difficult to find a satisfactory adjoining site for Ai (cf. Josh. 7:2).294

Beitin, commonly believed to be Bethel, with modern town built on ancient site

Todd Bolen/www.BiblePlaces.com

Negev (12:9). The Negev is the geographical area located south of the hill country of Judah. It is bordered on the south by a steppe region called the “wilderness.” The focal point of the Negev is the valley to the east of Beersheba over to Arad. The region in biblical terms extends about ten miles north and south of Beersheba.295

Negev east of Beersheba

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com