Vista of Haran from Crusader's castle. Haran was home for Abram for a time and remained home for his relatives like Laban.
A major era began with God's call of Abram (Gen. 12), the first Hebrew patriarch. Abram was the son of Terah, a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. (Gen. 11:27). His childhood was spent in Ur of the Chaldees, a prominent Sumerian city. He was known at the beginning as “Abram” (“father is exalted”), but this was changed subsequently to “Abraham” (“father of a multitude"— Gen. 17:5).
About 2092 BC, Terah, his father, moved to Haran with the family (Gen. 11:31) and after some years died there. God called Abram to migrate to Canaan, assuring him that he would father a vast nation. At different times he lived in Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Beer-sheba. His wife Sarai's beauty attracted the pharaoh when they moved to Egypt during a famine (Gen. 12:10), but God intervened to save her. The trouble arose partly because Abram had claimed her as his sister rather than his wife, and in fact she was his halfsister (Gen. 20:12). After returning to Palestine, Abram received further covenantal assurances from God (Gen. 15). He decided he could produce offspring by taking Sarai's handmaid Hagar as a concubine. Though the union produced a son, Ishmael, he was not destined to become Abram's promised heir. Even after another covenantal assurance (Gen. 17:1-21) in which the rite of circumcision was made a covenantal sign, Abram and Sarai still questioned God's promise of an heir.
Then Sarai, whose name had been changed to Sarah (“princess”), had her long-promised son, Isaac (“laughter”), when Abraham was 100 years old. Ishmael's presence caused trouble in the family, and he was expelled with his mother Hagar to the wilderness of Paran. Abraham's faith and obedience were tested by God in Moriah when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. God provided an alternative sacrifice, however, saving the boy's life. As a reward for Abraham's faithfulness, God renewed the covenant promises of great blessing and the growth of a mighty nation to father and son.
Isaac had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Continuing the pattern, the younger of the twins, Jacob, became the child of the promise. His 12 sons became the namesakes for the 12 tribes of Israel, but the child of the promise, Judah, was not the hero of his generation, rather Joseph became the savior of his family.
Joseph's story (Gen. 37-50) accurately reflects the history of Egypt in the 19th century BC. Joseph's story falls into three parts: Joseph and his brothers in Canaan, Joseph alone in Egypt, and Joseph in Egypt with his father Jacob (by this time renamed Israel), his brothers and their families.
One of the younger sons but favored by his father, Joseph was resented deeply by his brothers who sold him into slavery and told his father he was dead. In Egypt he repeatedly overcame great obstacles until he rose to the right hand of Pharaoh. Famine sent his brothers to Egypt for food where they came before Joseph who, after testing them, brought his father's family to live in safety in Egypt about 1875 BC. The Joseph stories exhibit an overwhelmingly Egyptian context that fits well what is known of this period. Joseph's story provides the explanation for why Jacob's family and the tribes of Israel found themselves in Egypt for the next 430 years.
Well at modern Beersheba though by some to be Abraham's well. Abraham and a nearby king, Abimelech, swore to protect Abraham's right to the water of the region (Gen. 21:22-33). Abraham then named the place “Beersheba,” meaning “well of the oath” or preferably “well of the seven,” referring to seven lambs involved in the agreement.
The date of the patriarchal period has been much discussed. A time before 2000 BC (early Bronze Age) seems too early and cannot be supported easily by reference to current archaeological evidence. The middle Bronze period (2000-1500 BC) seems more promising because of contemporary archaeological parallels and also because many of the Negev irrigation systems date from that period. Some scholars have suggested the Amarna period (1500-1300 BC) as the one in which the patriarchs lived, but this presents problems for any dating for the exodus. The same objection applies to a late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC) period for the patriarchs. The least likely date is in the judges period or the time of King David. All such dates do not allow time for the patriarchal traditions to have developed and make it impossible for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be fitted realistically into an already known chronology. A date in the middle Bronze Age seems to offer the most suitable solution to a complex problem of dating.
24 THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST IN THE TIME OF THE PATRIARCHS
25 PALESTINE IN THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE
Genesis 11:31
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Genesis 12:1,4
The LORD said to Abram: “Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
Genesis 12:10
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.
Genesis 28:12-13
And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it.
The LORD was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land that you are now sleeping on.”
Genesis 37:3-4
Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a robe of many colors for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.
And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”
God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will put his hands on your eyes.”