Terah
(station), the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran, and through them the ancestor of the great families of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites, Moabites and Ammonites. (Genesis 11:24-32) The account given of him in the Old Testament narrative is very brief.
We learn from it simply that he was an idolater, (Joshua 24:2) that he dwelt beyond the Euphrates in Ur of the Chaldees, (Genesis 11:28) and that in the southwesterly migration, which from some unexplained cause he undertook in his old age, he went with his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot, “to go into the land of Canaan, and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.” (Genesis 11:31) And finally, “the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
” (Genesis 11:32) (B.C. 1921.)
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Terah
The father of Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, Gn ll"-*^, 1 Ch P«, Lk 3". Along with his three sons he is said to have migrated from Ur of the Chaldees to ^arran, where he died. In Jos 24^ it is said that he ' served (nay) other gods,' a statement which gave rise to some fanciful Jewish hagqaduth about Terah as a maker of idols (see, e.g., Bereshith rabba, § 17, and cf. Bk. of Jubilees, chs. 11. 12). The question whether Terah is to be taken as a personal name is involved in the same uncertainty as arises in con- nexion with the names of all the patriarchs (see art. Abraham, and esp. art. Jacob, vol. ii. p. 533(1'.). Knobel compares the name with Tharrana, south of Edessa. W. R. Smith makes Terak = ' wild goat ' as totem, comparing Syriac ].k>)Z, to which Frd. Delitzsch (Prolcqom. 80) adds Assvr. turdhu with same meaning [liut see ZDMG xl. [1886] 167 f. (where Nold. points out not only that pj5Z in the passage quoted is an error for the correct (jjOjZ, but also that the root is n-iK, of which in Heb. the K would not be readily elided) ; cf. Gray, HPN 110]. Jensen {ZA vi. 70, cf. Hittiter,…
Fausset's Bible Dictionary on Terah
Tenth from Noah through Shem; father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gen 11:27). Accompanied Abram from Ur on the way to Canaan (an act of faith on the part of one so very old; persuaded by his godly son), but died at Haran when 205 years old. He was 70 when Haran his oldest son was born, 130 when ABRAM was born (Gen 11:26; Gen 11:32; Gen 12:4; Act 7:2-4). (See ABRAHAM)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia