abraham Summary and Overview

father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred in his native country of Chaldea. He then, with his father and his family and household, quitted the city of Ur, in which he had hitherto dwelt, and went some 300 miles north to Haran, where he abode fifteen years. The cause of his migration was a call from God (Acts 7:2-4). There is no mention of this first call in the Old Testament; it is implied, however, in Gen. 12. While they tarried at Haran, Terah died at the age of 205 years. Abram now received a second and more definite call, accompanied by a promise from God (Gen. 12:1,2); whereupon he took his departure, taking his nephew Lot with him, "not knowing whither he went" (Heb. 11:8). He trusted implicitly to the guidance of Him who had called him. Abram now, with a large household of probably a thousand souls, entered on a migratory life, and dwelt in tents. Passing along the valley of the Jabbok, in the land of Canaan, he formed his first encampment at Sichem (Gen. 12:6), in the vale or oak-grove of Moreh, between Ebal on the north and Gerizim on the south. Here he received the great promise, "I will make of thee a great nation," etc. (Gen. 12:2,3,7). This promise comprehended not only temporal but also spiritual blessings. It implied that he was the chosen ancestor of the great Deliverer whose coming had been long ago predicted (Gen. 3:15). Soon after this, for some reason not mentioned, he removed his tent to the mountain district between Bethel, then called Luz, and Ai, towns about two miles apart, where he built an altar to "Jehovah." He again moved into the southern tract of Israel, called by the Hebrews the Negeb; and was at length, on account of a famine, compelled to go down into Egypt. This took place in the time of the Hyksos, a Semitic race which now held the Egyptians in bondage. Here occurred that case of deception on the part of Abram which exposed him to the rebuke of Pharaoh (Gen. 12:18). Sarai was restored to him; and Pharaoh loaded him with presents, recommending him to withdraw from the country. He returned to Canaan richer than when he left it, "in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Gen. 12:8; 13:2. Compare Ps. 105:13, 14). The whole party then moved northward, and returned to their previous station near Bethel. Here disputes arose between Lot's shepherds and those of Abram about water and pasturage. Abram generously gave Lot his choice of the pasture-ground. (Compare 1 Cor. 6:7.) He chose the well-watered plain in which Sodom was situated, and removed thither; and thus the uncle and nephew were separated. Immediately after this Abram was cheered by a repetition of the promises already made to him, and then removed to the plain or "oak-grove" of Mamre, which is in Hebron. He finally settled here, pitching his tent under a famous oak or terebinth tree, called "the oak of Mamre" (Gen. 13:18). This was his third resting-place in the land. Some fourteen years before this, while Abram was still in Chaldea, Israel had been invaded by Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, who brought under tribute to him the five cities in the plain to which Lot had removed. This tribute was felt by the inhabitants of these cities to be a heavy burden, and after twelve years they revolted. This brought upon them the vengeance of Chedorlaomer, who had in league with him four other kings. He ravaged the whole country, plundering the towns, and carrying the inhabitants away as slaves. Among those thus treated was Lot. Hearing of the disaster that had fallen on his nephew, Abram immediately gathered from his own household a band of 318 armed men, and being joined by the Amoritish chiefs Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, he pursued after Chedorlaomer, and overtook him near the springs of the Jordan. They attacked and routed his army, and pursued it over the range of Anti-Libanus as far as to Hobah, near Damascus, and then returned, bringing back all the spoils that had been carried away. Returning by way of Salem, i.e., Jerusalem, the king of that place, Melchizedek, came forth to meet them with refreshments. To him Abram presented a tenth of the spoils, in recognition of his character as a priest of the most high God (Gen. 14:18-20). In a recently-discovered tablet, dated in the reign of the grandfather of Amraphel (Gen. 14:1), one of the witnesses is called "the Amorite, the son of Abiramu," or Abram. Having returned to his home at Mamre, the promises already made to him by God were repeated and enlarged (Gen. 13:14). "The word of the Lord" (an expression occurring here for the first time) "came to him" (15:1). He now understood better the future that lay before the nation that was to spring from him. Sarai, now seventy-five years old, in her impatience, persuaded Abram to take Hagar, her Egyptian maid, as a concubine, intending that whatever child might be born should be reckoned as her own. Ishmael was accordingly thus brought up, and was regarded as the heir of these promises (Gen. 16). When Ishmael was thirteen years old, God again revealed yet more explicitly and fully his gracious purpose; and in token of the sure fulfilment of that purpose the patriarch's name was now changed from Abram to Abraham (Gen. 17:4,5), and the rite of circumcision was instituted as a sign of the covenant. It was then announced that the heir to these covenant promises would be the son of Sarai, though she was now ninety years old; and it was directed that his name should be Isaac. At the same time, in commemoration of the promises, Sarai's name was changed to Sarah. On that memorable day of God's thus revealing his design, Abraham and his son Ishmael and all the males of his house were circumcised (Gen. 17). Three months after this, as Abraham sat in his tent door, he saw three men approaching. They accepted his proffered hospitality, and, seated under an oak-tree, partook of the fare which Abraham and Sarah provided. One of the three visitants was none other than the Lord, and the other two were angels in the guise of men. The Lord renewed on this occasion his promise of a son by Sarah, who was rebuked for her unbelief. Abraham accompanied the three as they proceeded on their journey. The two angels went on toward Sodom; while the Lord tarried behind and talked with Abraham, making known to him the destruction that was about to fall on that guilty city. The patriarch interceded earnestly in behalf of the doomed city. But as not even ten righteous persons were found in it, for whose sake the city would have been spared, the threatened destruction fell upon it; and early next morning Abraham saw the smoke of the fire that consumed it as the "smoke of a furnace" (Gen. 19:1-28). After fifteen years' residence at Mamre, Abraham moved southward, and pitched his tent among the Philistines, near to Gerar. Here occurred that sad instance of prevarication on his part in his relation to Abimelech the King (Gen. 20). (See ABIMELECH T0000040.) Soon after this event, the patriarch left the vicinity of Gerar, and moved down the fertile valley about 25 miles to Beersheba. It was probably here that Isaac was born, Abraham being now an hundred years old. A feeling of jealousy now arose between Sarah and Hagar, whose son, Ishmael, was no longer to be regarded as Abraham's heir. Sarah insisted that both Hagar and her son should be sent away. This was done, although it was a hard trial to Abraham (Gen. 21:12). (See HAGAR T0001583; ISHMAEL T0001903.) At this point there is a blank in the patriarch's history of perhaps twenty-five years. These years of peace and happiness were spent at Beersheba. The next time we see him his faith is put to a severe test by the command that suddenly came to him to go and offer up Isaac, the heir of all the promises, as a sacrifice on one of the mountains of Moriah. His faith stood the test (Heb. 11:17-19). He proceeded in a spirit of unhesitating obedience to carry out the command; and when about to slay his son, whom he had laid on the altar, his uplifted hand was arrested by the angel of Jehovah, and a ram, which was entangled in a thicket near at hand, was seized and offered in his stead. From this circumstance that place was called Jehovah-jireh, i.e., "The Lord will provide." The promises made to Abraham were again confirmed (and this was the last recorded word of God to the patriarch); and he descended the mount with his son, and returned to his home at Beersheba (Gen. 22:19), where he resided for some years, and then moved northward to Hebron. Some years after this Sarah died at Hebron, being 127 years old. Abraham acquired now the needful possession of a burying-place, the cave of Machpelah, by purchase from the owner of it, Ephron the Hittite (Gen. 23); and there he buried Sarah. His next care was to provide a wife for Isaac, and for this purpose he sent his steward, Eliezer, to Haran (or Charran, Acts 7:2), where his brother Nahor and his family resided (Gen. 11:31). The result was that Rebekah, the daughter of Nahor's son Bethuel, became the wife of Isaac (Gen. 24). Abraham then himself took to wife Keturah, who became the mother of six sons, whose descendants were afterwards known as the "children of the east" (Judg. 6:3), and later as "Saracens." At length all his wanderings came to an end. At the age of 175 years, 100 years after he had first entered the land of Canaan, he died, and was buried in the old family burying-place at Machpelah (Gen. 25:7-10). The history of Abraham made a wide and deep impression on the ancient world, and references to it are interwoven in the religious traditions of almost all Eastern nations. He is called "the friend of God" (James 2:23), "faithful Abraham" (Gal. 3:9), "the father of us all" (Rom. 4:16).

(father of a multitude) was the son of Terah, and founder of the great Hebrew nation. (B.C. 1996-1822.) His family, a branch of the descendants of Shem, was settled in Ur of the Chaldees, beyond the Euphrates, where Abraham was born. Terah had two other sons, Nahor and Haran. Haran died before his father in Ur of the Chaldees, leaving a son, Lot; and Terah, taking with him Abram, with Sarai his wife and his grandson Lot, emigrated to Haran in Mesopotamia, where he died. On the death of his father, Abram, then in the 75th year of his age, with Sarai and Lot, pursued his course to the land of Canaan, whither he was directed by divine command, #Ge 12:5| when he received the general promise that he should become the founder of a great nation, and that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. He passed through the heart of the country by the great highway to Shechem, and pitched his tent beneath the terebinth of Moreh. #Ge 12:6| Here he received in vision from Jehovah the further revelation that this was the land which his descendants should inherit. #Ge 12:7| The next halting-place of the wanderer was on a mountain between Bethel and Ai, #Ge 12:8| but the country was suffering from famine, and Abram journeyed still southward to the rich cornlands of Egypt. There, fearing that the great beauty of Sarai might tempt the powerful monarch of Egypt and expose his own life to peril, he arranged that Sarai should represent herself as his sister, which her actual relationship to him, as probably the daughter of his brother Haran, allowed her to do with some semblance of truth. But her beauty was reported to the king, and she was taken into the royal harem. The deception was discovered, and Pharaoh with some indignation dismissed Abram from the country. #Ge 12:10-20| He left Egypt with great possessions, and, accompanied by Lot, returned by the south of Israel to his former encampment between Bethel and Ai. The increased wealth of the two kinsmen was the ultimate cause of their separation. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan near Sodom, while Abram pitched his tent among the groves of Mamre, close to Hebron. #Ge 13:1| ... Lot with his family and possessions having been carried away captive by Chedorlaomer king of Elam, who had invaded Sodom, Abram pursued the conquerors and utterly routed them not far from Damascus. The captives and plunder were all recovered, and Abram was greeted on his return by the king of Sodom, and by Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who mysteriously appears upon the scene to bless the patriarch and receive from him a tenth of the spoil. #Ge 14:1| ... After this the thrice-repeated promise that his descendants should become a mighty nation and possess the land in which he was a stranger was confirmed with all the solemnity of a religious ceremony. #Ge 15:1| ... Ten years had passed since he had left his father's house, and the fulfillment of the promise was apparently more distant than at first. At the suggestion of Sarai, who despaired of having children of her own, he took as his concubine Hagar, her Egyptian main, who bore him Ishmael in the 86th year of his age. #Ge 16:1| ... [HAGAR; ISHMAEL] But this was not the accomplishment of the promise. Thirteen years elapsed, during which Abram still dwelt in Hebron, when the covenant was renewed, and the rite of circumcision established as its sign. This most important crisis in Abram's life, when he was 99 years old, is marked by the significant change of his name to Abraham, "father of a multitude;" while his wife's from Sarai became Sarah. The promise that Sarah should have a son was repeated in the remarkable scene described in ch. 18. Three men stood before Abraham as he sat in his tent door in the heat of the day. The patriarch, with true Eastern hospitality, welcomed the strangers, and bade them rest and refresh themselves. The meal ended, they foretold the birth of Isaac, and went on their way to Sodom. Abraham accompanied them, and is represented as an interlocutor in a dialogue with Jehovah, in which he pleaded in vain to avert the vengeance threatened to the devoted cities of the plain. #Ge 18:17-33| In remarkable contrast with Abraham's firm faith with regard to the magnificent fortunes of his posterity stand the incident which occurred during his temporary residence among the Philistines in Gerar, whither he had for some cause removed after the destruction of Sodom. It was almost a repetition of what took place in Egypt a few years before. At length Isaac, the long-looked for child, was born. Sarah's jealousy aroused by the mockery of Ishmael at the "great banquet" which Abram made to celebrate the weaning of her son, #Ge 21:9| demanded that, with his mother Hagar, he should be driven out. #Ge 21:10| But the severest trial of his faith was yet to come. For a long period the history is almost silent. At length he receives the strange command to take Isaac, his only son, and offer him for a burnt offering at an appointed place Abraham hesitated not to obey. His faith, hitherto unshaken, supported him in this final trial, "accounting that God was able to raise up his son, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure." #Heb 11:19| The sacrifice was stayed by the angel of Jehovah, the promise of spiritual blessing made for the first time, and Abraham with his son returned to Beersheba, and for a time dwelt there. #Ge 22:1| ... But we find him after a few years in his original residence at Hebron, for there Sarah died, #Ge 23:2| and was buried in the cave of Machpelah. The remaining years of Abraham's life are marked by but few incidents. After Isaac's marriage with Rebekah and his removal to Lahai-roi, Abraham took to wife Keturah, by whom he had six children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbok and Shuah, who became the ancestors of nomadic tribes inhabiting the countries south and southeast of Israel. Abraham lived to see the gradual accomplishment of the promise in the birth of his grandchildren Jacob and Esau, and witnessed their growth to manhood. #Ge 25:26| At the goodly age of 175 he was "gathered to his people," and laid beside Sarah in the tomb of Machpelah by his sons Isaac and Ishmael. #Ge 25:7-10|

A'BRAM or A'BRAHAM the greatest, purest, and most venerable of the patriarchs, held in equal reverence by Jews. Abram means (father of elevation), and Abraham means (father of a multitude) Mohammedans, and Christians. Gen 11:27. The leading trait in his character is unbounded trust in God ; hence he is called "the friend of God" and " the father of the faithful." He was the son of Terah, born at Ur, a city of Chaldea, which has been identified with Mugheir. The family was probably idolatrous, but all trace of monotheism may not have been lost. Abram would seem always to have been the consistent servant of the one God. While he was dwelling in his father's house at Ur, God directed him to leave his country and kindred and go to a land which should be shown him; promising, at the same time, to make of him a great nation, and to bless him, and to make his name great, and that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed.
Obedient to the heavenly calling, Abram took Sarai his wife, and, with Terah his father and other members of the family, left Ur to remove to Canaan, and stopped at Haran in Mesopotamia. There Terah died. Abram, who was then seventy-five years old, with his wife and Lot, his nephew, pursued his journey to Canaan; and having reached Shechem, one of the oldest cities of Palestine (see Shechem), the Lord appeared to him, and repeated his promise to give him the land. Gen 12:7.
A grievous famine soon visited the country, and Abram was obliged to go into Egypt. Fearful that Sarai's beauty might attract the notice of the Egyptians, and that, if they supposed her to be his wife they would kill him to secure her, he proposed that she should pass for his sister. It happened as he expected. The servants of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, commended her beauty so much that he sent for her, and took her into his house, and loaded Abram with tokens of his favor; but the Lord punished him (Pharaoh) severely, so that he sent away Abram and his wife, and all that he had. His stay in Egypt was probably very brief.
Having become very rich in cattle, silver, and gold, he returned from Egypt to Canaan, and encamped between Bethel and Ai, in Southern Palestine. Lot, his nephew, had been with him, and shared his prosperity ; and it happened that his servants fell into some strife with the servants of Abram. Their property being too great for them to dwell together, Abram generously proposed to his nephew to avoid controversy by an amicable separation. He offered Lot his choice of the territory, on the right or left, as it pleased him -- a rare illustration of meekness and condescension. Lot chose to remove to the eastward, and occupy that part of the fertile plain of Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, having, perhaps, a desire to quit the wandering life.
Then the Lord appeared again to Abram, and renewed the promise of the land of Canaan as his inheritance in the most explicit manner. He thence removed his tent to the oak-groves of Mamre in Hebron. In an invasion of the cities of the plain by several of the petty kings of the adjoining provinces, under the leadership of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Sodom was taken and Lot and his family carried captive. When Abram received intelligence of it he armed his trained servants, born in his house (three hundred and eighteen in number), defeated the kings, and brought Lot and his family back to Sodom ; restoring to liberty the captives who had been taken, with all their property, of which he generously refused to take any part as the reward of his services or as the spoils of victory. On his return he was met by Melchisedek, king of Salem and priest of the most high God, to whom he gave a tenth of all that he had. Gen 14. See MELCHISEDEK.
While in Hebron the Lord appeared again to Abram in a vision, repeated to him the promises, and accompanied them with the gracious declaration of his favor. He appointed a certain sacrifice for him to offer, and toward night caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, attended by a horror of great darkness, during which there were revealed to him some of the most important events in his future history and in that of his posterity, which were all accomplished in due time and with wonderful exactness. The revelation related -- 1. To the captivity of Israel by the Egyptians and their severe and protracted bondage ; 2. To the judgments which Egypt should suffer because of their oppression of God's chosen people, and the circumstances under which they should leave Egypt; 3. To Abram's death and burial; and, 4, to the return of his posterity to the promised land.
In the same day the covenant respecting the land of promise was renewed and confirmed with the strongest expressions of divine favor. Sarai, however, was childless, and she proposed to Abraham that Hagar, an Egyptian woman living with them, should be his concubine ; by whom he had a son, called Ishmael. He was then in his eighty-sixth year. Gen 16.
At ninety-nine years of age he was favored with another remarkable vision. The Almighty was revealed to him in such a manner that he was filled with awe and fell upon his face, and we are told that "God talked with him." The promise respecting the great increase of his posterity and the possession of Canaan was repeated in the most solemn and explicit terms; his name was changed from Abram (a high father) to Abraham (father of a great multitude), and the circumcision of every male child at eight days old was established as a token of the covenant between him and God. See CIRCUMCISION. At the same time the name of Sarai (my princess) was changed to Sarah (the princess), and a promise was given to Abraham that Sarah should have a son and be the mother of nations and kings.
It seemed so entirely out of the course of nature that they should become parents at their advanced age that Abraham, filled with reverence and joyful gratitude, fell upon his face "and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" Nevertheless, against hope he believed in hope; and being not weak in faith, he staggered not at the promise of God, but was fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform; and his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Rom 4:18-22.
Abraham, finding that the blessings of the covenant were to be bestowed on his future offspring, immediately thought of Ishmael, in whom he had probably before supposed the promises were to be fulfilled, and he uttered the solemn and affecting prayer, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" God heard him, and almost while he was yet speaking answered him by making known to him his great purposes respecting Ishmael. Gen 17:20 and Gen 25:16.
As soon as the vision had closed, Abraham hastened to obey the divine command, and with Ishmael, his son, and all the men of his house, was circumcised in the self- same day. He was not long without another divine communication. As he sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day three men approached him. He received them with all the courtesy and hospitality customary in the East, and after they had refreshed themselves they inquired of him respecting Sarah and repeated the promise respecting the birth of her son.
It was on this occasion, or in connection with these circumstances, that a divine testimony was given to the patriarchal character of Abraham. Gen 18:19. It was because of his faithfulness that he was favored with a revelation of God's purposes respecting the devoted cities of the plain, and with an opportunity to plead for them; and it was for Abraham's sake, and probably in answer to his prayers, that Lot and his family were rescued from the sudden destruction which came upon Sodom.
After this, Abraham removed to Gerar, perhaps because the Amorites, with whom he was in alliance, had been driven from Hebron by the Hittites. Here he made a second attempt to have Sarah taken for his sister. See ABIMELECH. Here, also, the prediction was fulfilled respecting the birth of a son. Sarah had a son, whom he called Isaac, and who was duly circumcised on the eighth day.
When Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a feast. Ishmael, being then a lad of thirteen years, mocked Isaac, quite possibly without malicious intent. This roused the jealousy of Sarah, who urged Abraham to drive out Hagar and her son. Abraham, although unwilling to do this injustice, at last obeyed at the command of God. Thus it came to pass that the prophecy of the wild life Ishmael was to lead was realized.Gen 21:10-13.
Abraham so obviously enjoyed the favor and blessing of God in all that he did that Abimelech, the king, proposed to make with him a covenant of perpetual friendship; and a matter of wrong about a well, of which Abimelech's servants had violently deprived Abraham, was thus happily adjusted. This transaction was at a place which was there after called Beer-sheba (the well of the oath, or the well of swearing). Gen 21:23-31.
The events of many years are now passed over in silence, but the scene next related shows how worthy Abraham was to be called the father of the faithful. He was commanded to take his son, his only son, Isaac, then a young man, and to offer him up for a burnt-offering upon a distant mountain. Without an inquiry or murmuring word, and with a prompt submission, Abraham obeyed the command. A journey of three days was accomplished. Every preparation for the offering was made, and the knife was uplifted to slay his son, when his purpose was arrested by a voice from Heaven requiring him to spare the lad. A ram was provided in the neighboring thicket, which he took and offered up ; and, after having been favored with special tokens of the divine approbation, he returned with his son to Beer-sheba. This grand trial and proof of the patriarch's faith took place upon Mount Moriah (or, as others suppose, on Mount Gerizim). In commemoration of it he gave to the place the name Jehovah-jireh {the Lord will provide), intimating a general truth respecting the divine faithfulness and care, and in prophetical allusion to the great sacrifice which was to be offered for the sins of mankind. Gen 22:14.
At the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years Sarah died, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron at Hebron, for a family burial-place, and there buried his wife. Gen 23:19, Gen 23:20,
Isaac had now arrived at mature age, and Abraham called one of his servants, probably Eliezer, Gen 15:2, and made him promise to obtain a wife for Isaac, not among the Canaanites, but in Abraham's native country and from among his own kindred. This enterprise terminated successfully, and every desire of the patriarch respecting Isaac's marriage was answered. Gen 24. Abraham married a second time and had several sons, but he made Isaac his sole heir, having in his lifetime distributed gifts among the other children, who were now dispersed. He died in peace at the age of one hundred and seventy five years, and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael in the same sepulchre with Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah. Gen 25:8. Abraham's Oak, near Hebron. Gen 13:18 It is now in the possession of the Mohammedans, and jealously guarded by them as a most sacred spot beneath the great mosque of Hebron. See Machpelah On Abraham's Oak, see Hebron. Abraham's Bosom. See Bosom.

Abraham ("father of a multitude".) Up to Genesis 17:4-5, his being sealed with circumcision, the sign of the covenant, ABRAM (father of elevation). Son of Terah, brother of Nahor and Haran. Progenitor of the Hebrew, Arabs, Edomites, and kindred tribes; the ninth in descent from Shem, through Heber. Haran died before Terah, leaving Lot and two daughters, Milcah and Iscah. Nahor married his niece Milcah: Abraham Iscah, i.e. Sarai, daughter, i.e. granddaughter, of his father, not of his mother (Genesis 20:12). Ur, his home, is the modern Mugheir, the primeval capital of Chaldaea; its inscriptions are probably of the 22nd century B.C. The alphabetical Hebrew system is Phoenician, and was probably brought by Abraham to Canaan, where it became modified. Abraham, at God's call, went forth from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:31-12). In Haran Terah died. The statement in Genesis 11:26, that Terah was 70 when he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, must apply only to the oldest, Haran. His being oldest appears from the fact that his brothers married his daughters, and that Sarai was only ten years younger than Abraham (Genesis 17:17); the two younger were born subsequently, Abram, the youngest, when Terah was 130, as appears from comparing Genesis 11:31 with Genesis 12:4; Acts 7:3-4; "before he dwelt in Charran Haran, while he was in Mesopotamia," in his 60th year, at Ur he received his first call: "Depart from thy land, to a land which I will show thee" (as yet the exact land was not defined). In Haran he received a second call: "Depart from thy father's house unto THE land (Heb., Genesis 12:1(which I will show thee;" and with it a promise, temporal (that God would bless him, and make him founder of a great nation) and spiritual (that in him all families of the earth should be blessed). The deluge, the revelation to Noah, and the Babel dispersion had failed to counteract the universal tendency to idolatrous apostasy, obliterating every trace of primitive piety. God therefore provided an antidote in separating one family and nation to be the repository of His truth against the fullness of time when it should be revealed to the whole world. From Joshua 24:2; Joshua 24:14-15, it appears Terah and his family served other gods beyond the Euphrates. Silly traditions as to Terah being a maker of idols, and Abraham having been east into a fiery furnace by Nimrod for disbelief in idols, were drawn from this Scripture, and from Ur ("fire"). The second call additionally required that, now when his father was dead and filial duty had been discharged, after the stay of 15 years in Haran, he should leave his father's house, i.e. his brother Nahor's family, in Haran. The call was personally to himself. He was to be isolated not only from his nation but from his family. Lot, his nephew, accompanied him, being regarded probably as his heir, as the promise of seed and the specification of his exact destination were only by degrees unfolded to him (Hebrews 11:8). Nicolaus of Damascus ascribed to him the conquest of Damascus on his way to Canaan. Scripture records nothing further than that his chief servant was Eliezer of Damascus; he pursued Chedorlaomer to Hobah, on the left of Damascus, subsequently (Genesis 14:15), Abraham entered Canaan along the valley of the Jabbok, and encamped first in the rich Moreh valley, near Sichem, between mounts Ebal and Gerizim. There he received a confirmation of the promise, specifying "this land" as that which the original more general promise pointed to. Here therefore he built his first altar to God. The unfriendly attitude of the Canaanites induced him next to move to the mountain country between Bethel and Ai, where also he built an altar to Jehovah, whose worship was fast passing into oblivion in the world. Famine led him to Egypt, the granary of the world, next. The record of his unbelieving cowardice there, and virtual lie as to Sarai (See ABIMELECH) is a striking proof of the candor of Scripture. Its heroes' faults are not glossed over; each saint not only falls at times, but is represented as failing in the very grace (e.g. Abraham in faith) for which he was most noted. Probably the Hyksos (akin to the Hebrew), or shepherds' dynasty, reigned then at Memphis, which would make Abraham's visit specially acceptable there. On his return his first visit was to the altar which he had erected to Jehovah before his fall (compare Genesis 13:4 with Hosea 2:7; Revelation 2:5). The greatness of his and Lot's substance prevented their continuing together. The promise of a direct heir too may have influenced Lot, as, no longer being heir, to seek a more fixed home, in the region of Sodom, than he had with Abraham, "dwelling in tents." Contrast the children of the world with the children of God (Hebrews 11:9-10; Hebrews 11:18-16). His third resting place was Mamre, near Hebron ("association", namely, that of Abraham, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner; next called Kirjath Arba; then it resumed its old name, Hebron, the future capital of Judah). This position, communicating with Egypt, and opening on the pastures of Beersheba, marks the greater power of his retinue now, as compared with what it was when he encamped in the mountain fastness of Ai. Fourteen years previously Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (the region S. of Assyria, E. of Persia, Susiana), the chief sovereign, with Amrephar of Shinar (Babylon), Arioch of Ellasar (the Chaldean Larissa, or Larsa, half way between Ur, or Mugheir, and Erech, or Warka, in Lower Babylonia), and Tidal, king of nations, attacked Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, and Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela or Zoar, because after twelve bears of subordination they "rebelled" (Genesis 14). Babylon was originally the predominant power; but a recently deciphered Assyrian record states that an Elamitie king, Kudur Nakhunta, conquered Babylon 2296 B.C. Kudur Mabuk is called in the inscriptions the "ravager of Syria," so that the Scripture account of Chedorlaomer (from Lagsmar, a goddess, in Semitic; answering to Mabuk in Hamitic) exactly tallies with the monumental inscriptions which call him Apda martu, "ravager," not conqueror, "of the West." Abraham, with 318 followers, and aided by the Amorite chiefs, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, overtook the victorious invaders near Jordan's springs, and attacked them by night from different quarters and routed them, and recovered Lot with all the men and the goods carried off. His disinterestedness was evinced in refusing any of the goods which Arabian war usage entitled him to, lest the king of worldly Sodom should say, "I have made Abraham rich" (compare Esther 9:15-16; 2 Kings 5:16; contrast Lot, Genesis 13:10-11). Melchizedek, one of the only native princes who still served Jehovah, and was at once king and priest, blessed Abraham in the name of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed God in Abraham's name, by a beautiful reciprocation of blessing, and ministered to him bread and wine; and Abraham "gave him tithes of all." Immediately after Abraham had refused worldly rewards Jehovah in vision said, "I am ... thy exceeding great reward." The promise now was made more specific: Eliezer shall not be thine heir, but "he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels ... Tell if thou be able to number the stars; so shall thy seed be." His faith herein was called forth to accept what was above nature on the bore word of God; so "it (his faith) was counted to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15). Hence he passes into direct covenant relation with God, confirmed by the sign of the burning lamp (compare Isaiah 62:1) passing between the divided pieces of a heifer, she goat, and ram, and accompanied by the revelation that his posterity are to be afflicted in a foreign land 400 years, then to come forth and conquer Canaan when the iniquity of the Amorites shall be full. The earthly inheritance was to include the whole region "from the river of Egypt unto the ... river Euphrates," a promise only in part fulfilled under David and Solomon (2 Samuel 8:3; 2 Kings 4:21; 2 Chronicles 9:26). Tyre and Sidon were never conquered; therefore the complete fulfillment remains for the millennial state, when "the meek shall inherit the land," and Psalm 72:8-10 shall be realized; compare Luke 20:37. The taking of Hagar the Egyptian, Sarai's maid, at the suggestion of Sarai, now 75 years old, was a carnal policy to realize the promise in Ishmael. Family quarreling was the inevitable result, and Hagar fled from Sarai, who dealt hardly with her maid when that maid despised her mistress. Abraham in his 99th year was recalled to the standing of faith by Jehovah's charge, "Walk before Me and be thou perfect" (Genesis 17). God then gave circumcision as seal of the covenant of righteousness by faith, which he had while yet uncircumcised (Romans 4). His name was changed at circumcision from Abram to Abraham (father of many nations), to mark that the covenant was not to include merely his seed after the flesh, the Israelites, but the numerous Gentile nations also, who in his Seed, Christ, should be children of his faith (Galatians 3). Sarai (my princess, or "nobility," Gesenius) became Sarah (princess) no longer queen of one family, but spiritually of all nations (Galatians 3:16). The promise now advances a stage further in explicitness, being definitely assigned to a son to be born of Sarah. Its temporal blessings Ishmael shall share, but the spiritual and everlasting with the temporal are only to be through Sarah's son. Sarah laughed. more from joy though not without unbelief, as her subsequent laugh and God's rebuke imply (Genesis 18:12-15). Now first, Jehovah, with two ministering angels, reveals Himself and His judicial purposes (Genesis 18) in familiar intercourse with Abraham as "the friend of God" (John 15:15; Psalm 25:14; 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23; Amos 3:7), and accepts his intercession to a very great extent for the doomed cities of the plain. The passionate intercession was probably prompted by feeling for his kinsman Lot, who was in Sodom, for he intercedes only for Sodom, not also for Gomorrah, an undesigned propriety, a mark of genuineness. This epiphany of God contrasts in familiarity with the more distant and solemn manifestations of earlier and later times. Loving confidence takes the place of instinctive fear, as in man's intercourse with God in Eden; Moses similarly (Exodus 33:11; Numbers 12:8); Peter, James, and John on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17). A mile from Hebron stands a massive oak, called "Abraham's oak." His abode was "the oaks of Mamre" (as Genesis 18:1 ought to be translated, not "plains".) A terebinth tree was supposed in Josephus' time to mark the spot. It stood within the enclosure, "Abraham's house." Isaac's birth, beyond nature, the type of Him whose name is Wonderful (Luke 1:35-37, and contrast Mary's joy with Sarah's half incredulous laugh and Zacharias' unbelief, Luke 1:38; Luke 1:45-47; Luke 1:20), was the first grand earnest of the promise. Ishmael's expulsion, though painful to the father who clung to him (Genesis 17:18), was needed to teach Abraham that all ties must give way to the one great end. The full spiritual meaning of it, but faintly revealed to Abraham, appears in Galatians 4:22-31. When Isaac was 25 years old the crowning trial whereby Abraham's. faith was perfected took place (James 2:21-23). Still it was his faith, not his work, which was "imputed to him for righteousness"; but the faith that justified him was evinced, by his offering at God's command his son, to be not a dead but a living "faith that works by love." Paul's doctrine is identical with James's (1 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 5:6). The natural feelings of the father, the divine promise specially attached to Isaac, born out of due time and beyond nature, a promise which seemed impossible to be fulfilled if Isaac were slain, the divine command against human bloodshedding (Genesis 9:5-6), --all might well perplex him. But it was enough for him that God had commanded; his faith obeyed, leaving confidently the solution of the perplexities to God, "accounting that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:19), "from whence he received him in a figure." The "figure" was: Isaac's death (in Abraham's intention) and rescue from it (2 Corinthians 1:9-10) vividly represented Christ's death and resurrection on the "third" day (Genesis 22:4). The ram's substitution represented Christ's vicarious death: it was then that Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad (John 8:56). The scene was Moriah (i.e. chosen by Jehovah); others suppose Moreh, three days' journey from Beersheba. His faith was rewarded by the original promises being now confirmed by Jehovah's oath by Himself (Hebrews 6:13; Hebrews 6:17); and his believing reply to his son, "God will provide Himself a lamb," received its lasting commemoration in the name of that place, Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord will provide." His giving up his only and well beloved son (by Sarah) typifies the Father's not sparing the Only Begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, in order that He might spare us. Sarah died at Kirjath Arba, whither Abraham had returned from Beersheba. The only possession he got, and that, by purchase from the Hittites, was a burying place for Sarah, the cave of Machpelah, said to be under the mosque of Hebron. His care that he and his should be utterly separated from idolatry appears in his strict charge to Eliezer as to the choice of Isaac's wife, not to take a Canaanite woman nor yet to bring his son back to Abraham's original home. Abraham being left alone at Isaac's marriage, and having his youthful vigor renewed at Isaac's generation, married Keturah. The children by her, Midian and others, he sent away, lest they should dispute the inheritance with Isaac after his death. He died at 175 years, Isaac and Ishmael joining to bury him beside Sarah. Through his descendants, the Arabs, Israelites, and descendants of Midian, "children of the East," Abraham's name is still widely known in Asia. As "father of the faithful," who left home and all at the call of God, to be a sojourner in tents, he typifies Him who at the Father's call left His own heaven to be a homeless stranger on earth, and to sacrifice Himself, the unspeakably precious Lamb, for us: "the Word tabernacled Greek John 1:14 among us."