Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/338

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dealing with the life of Abraham. That is wholly improbable. It is likely enough that a heading ((Symbol missingHebrew characters)) has been somewhere omitted (so We. Bu. Ho. al.); but the truth is that from this point onwards no consistent principle can be discovered in the use of the formula. The hypothesis that an originally independent book of Tôledôth has been broken up and dislocated by the redaction, is as plausible a solution as any that can be thought of. See, further, on 2519.


27. On the name Abram, see on 175; on Nāḥôr, v.22 above.—Haran begat Loṭ] A statement to the same effect must have been found in J (see 124a). Haran has no significance in the tradition except as expressing the relationship of Lôṭ above and Lot below], Milkah, and Yiṣkah within the Hebraic group.


That (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is formed from (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (v.i.) by a softening of the initial guttural (We. Pr.6 313) is an improbable conjecture (see Bu. 4432). The name occurs elsewhere only in (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (Nu. 3236: cf. (Symbol missingHebrew characters), Jos. 1327)[1] in the tribe of Gad: this has suggested the view that (Symbol missingHebrew characters) was the name of a deity worshipped among the peoples represented by Lot (Mez: cf. Wi. AOF, ii. 499).—The name (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is also etymologically obscure (? Ar. lāṭ = 'cleave to'). A connexion with the Ḥorite clan (Symbol missingHebrew characters) in Gn. 3620. 22. 29 is probable.


28. The premature death of Haran (which became the nucleus of some fantastic Jewish legends) took place in the land of his nativity; i.e., according to the present text, Ur of the Chaldees, where his grave was shown down to the time of Josephus (Ant. i. 151; Eus. OS], 285, 50 ff.).


(Symbol missingHebrew characters) (v.31 157, Neh. 97: G (Symbol missingGreek characters)) is now almost universally identified with the ancient S Babylonian city of Uru, whose remains have been discovered in the mounds of 'el-Muḳayyar, on the right bank of the Euphrates, about 25 miles SE from Erech and 125 from Babylon (see Hilp. EBL, 172 ff.). The evidence for this view is


28. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] is coram (G (Symbol missingGreek characters)), rather than ante (V: so Tu.), or 'in the lifetime of' (S (Symbol missingSyriac characters); cf. Nu. 34: see BDB and G-B. s.v. (Symbol missingHebrew characters).—(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] so 247 (J), 3113 (E); cf. Jer. 2210 4616, Ezk. 2315, Ru. 211. A commoner phrase in Pent. is (Symbol missingHebrew characters), 121 244 313 3210, Nu 1030 (all J). From the way in which the two expressions alternate, it is probable that they are equivalent; and since (Symbol missingHebrew characters) alone certainly means 'kindred' (437 [J], cf. Est. 210. 20 86), it is better to render 'land of one's parentage' than 'land in which one was born' [S here and 121] (cf. Bu. 4192). P has the word, but only in the sense of 'progeny' (486, Lv. 189 [H]).

  1. Though Wi. (AOF, ii. 499) contends that both names are corruptions of (Symbol missingHebrew characters).