Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/340

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of Ištar, also worshipped there (Jen. ZA, xi. 299 f.; KAT3, 364 f.). It is needless to say that these associations, if they existed, are forgotten in the Hebrew legend.—If, as is not improbable, the tradition contains ethnographic reminiscences, v.28f. express (1) the dissolution of an older tribal group, Haran; (2) the survival of one of its subdivisions (Loṭ) through the protection of a stronger tribe; and (3) the absorption of another (Milkah) in a kindred stock.—Of (Symbol missingHebrew characters) nothing is known. The Rabbinical fiction that she is Sarah under another name (implied in Jos. Ant. i. 151; TJ, Jer. Ra. IEz. al.) is worthless. Ewald's conjecture that she was the wife of Loṭ is plausible, but baseless.


31, 32. The migration from Ur-Kasdîm to Canaan is accomplished in two stages. Teraḥ, as patriarchal head of the family, conducts the expedition as far as Ḥarran, where he dies. The obvious implication is that after his death the journey is resumed by Abram (125); although [E] alone gives a chronology consistent with this view (v. supra). Nāḥôr, we are left to infer, remained behind in Ur-Kasdîm; and in the subsequent narratives P (in opposition to J) seems carefully to avoid any suggestion of a connexion between Nāḥôr and the city of Ḥarran.


(Symbol missingHebrew characters) (with virtually doubled (Symbol missingHebrew characters): cf. G Χαρραν; Gr. Κάῤῥαι; Lat. Carræ, Charra; Ass. Ḫarrânu; Syr. and Arab. Ḥarrān) was an important centre of the caravan trade in NW Mesopotamia, 60 miles E of Carchemish, situated near the Baliḫ, 70 miles due N from its confluence with the Euphrates. Though seldom mentioned in OT (124f. [P], 2743 2810 294 [J], 2 Ki. 1912, Ezk. 2723† ), and now ruined, it was a city of great antiquity, and retained its commercial importance in classical and mediæval times. The name in Ass. appears to be susceptible of several interpretations—'way,' 'caravan' (TA Tab.), 'joint-stock enterprise' (Del. Hdwb. s.v., KAT3, 292)—any one of which might denote its commercially advantageous position at the parting of the route to Damascus from the main highway between Nineveh and Carchemish. Ḥarran was also (along with Ur) a chief seat of the worship of Sin, who had there a temple, E-ḫul-ḫul, described by Nabuna'id as "from remote days" a "dwelling of the joy of his (Sin's) heart" (KIB, iii. 2. 97), and who was known in NW Asia as the "Lord of Ḥarran" (Zinjirli inscr.: cf. Lidzbarski, Hb. 444, An.). See, further, Mez, Gesch. d. St. Ḥarran; Tomkins, Times of Abraham, 55 ff. etc. This double connexion of Abraham with centres of lunar religion is the most


31. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (Syr. (Symbol missingSyriac characters), Ar. kannat) means both 'spouse' and 'daughter-in-law': in Syr. and Ar. also 'sister-in-law,'—a fact adduced by Rob. Sm. as a relic of Baal polyandry (KM2, 161, 2091).—(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] gives no sense. Read with [E]G (καὶ ἐξήγαγεν αὐτούς) V, (Symbol missingHebrew characters), or S, (Symbol missingHebrew characters).—32. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] G + ἐν Χαῤῥάν.