Bible Study Genesis Verse By Verse

[Beetow]

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● Gen 9:24-25a . .When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his
youngest son had done to him, he said: Cursed be Canaan;

I'd imagine that Canaan objected very strongly upon hearing a curse pronounced
upon himself when it was not him but his dad who embarrassed grandpa. What did
Canaan do to deserve a curse? Not a thing. Then why did Noah curse Ham's son
instead of cursing Ham? The answer to that is located in the passage below:

"Jehovah, Jehovah: a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in
kindness and faithfulness; extending kindness to the thousandth generation--
forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment; but
visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children's children unto the third and
fourth generation." (Ex 34:6-7)

In other words: descendants sometimes become collateral damage when God goes
after the parents. For example: no doubt quite a few innocent children drowned in
the Flood event due to their parents' wickedness. The same happened to the
children in Sodom and Gomorrah. And during Moses' face-off with Pharaoh, God
moved against everything that pertained to the man; including, but not limited to,
his economy, his land, his livestock, his citizens, his citizens' children, and his own
children.

It's a very disturbing biblical fact of life that sometimes God gets back at the
parents by going after things that pertain to them.

For example; God took the life of David's innocent little baby boy to get back at his
father for committing the capital crimes of premeditated murder and adultery.

Another example is located in the 16th chapter of Numbers where not just the
rebels were punished; but their entire families and all their belongings were
swallowed by a fissure that God opened in the ground beneath their feet.

A close call is recorded in the book of Jonah. Had not the adults in Ninevah changed
their ways, something like 120,000 little children would have perished; not to
mention all the cattle. According to Jonah 4:11, taking out children and dumb
animals is not something that God enjoys. But there is a mysterious element to
absolute justice that apparently compels Him to do it.

This leads me to suspect that God's chosen people weren't caught up in the
Holocaust as retribution for their own sins; rather; as retribution for the sins of
their past generations; which tells me that the status of God's chosen people isn't
something to be proud of; rather; something to be afraid of because moths that fly
too close to the flame risk getting their wings burned seeing as how the covenant's
God doesn't practice favoritism.

"You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish
you for all your iniquities." (Amos 3:2)

In other words: among the various human communities on earth; Moses' people
have the least excuse for their impieties due to their privileged association with God
and their ready access to a knowledge of His thoughts.
_

 

[GodsGrace]

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● Gen 1:1a . . In the beginning God

The first chapter of the first book of the Bible doesn't waste words with an
argument to convince skeptic minds that a supreme being exists; rather, it starts
off by candidly alleging that the existence of the cosmos is due to intelligent design.
I mean: if the complexity of the cosmos-- its extent, its objects, and all of its forms
of life, matter, and energy --isn't enough to convince the critics; then they're pretty
much beyond reach.

The creation story wasn't written for the academic community anyway, nor was it
written for people who indulge in debating and perpetual bull sessions that never
get to the bottom of anything, nor for people who regard this book as just another
chapter of "Pride And Prejudice" to dissect in a Jane Austen book club; rather, the
creation story was written for the religious community.

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that
what is seen was not made out of what was visible." (Heb 11:3)

There's quite a bit of disagreement related to origins; viz: the origin of species, the
origin of the universe, and the origin of life; but not much debate about the origin
of matter; defined by Webster's as 1) the substance of which a physical object is
composed and 2) material substance that occupies space, has mass, and is
composed predominantly of atoms consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons,
that constitutes the observable universe, and that is interconvertible with energy.

Without matter there could be no universe and there could be no life; so the origin
of matter then is where we have to begin.

The Hebrew word translated "God" is 'elohiym which isn't the creator's
personal moniker, rather, a nondescript label that pertains to all sorts of deities;
both the true and the false and/or the real and the imagined; plus magistrates (Ps
82). The noun is grammatically plural but doesn't necessarily indicate more than
one. Sheep, fish, and deer are plural too but don't always indicate more than one of
each. There are other gods in the Bible, such as Baal and Dagon, to whom the word
'elohiym is applied and those gods aren't composite entities; e.g. 1Kgs 18:25-29
and Jgs 16:23.

● Gen 1:1b . . created the heavens and earth--

The word for "heavens" is from the Hebrew word shamayim which is somewhat ambiguous because it pertains to everything that can be seen in the sky when we look up with either the naked eye or a telescope-- both in the atmosphere and the celestial regions, i.e. clouds and stars --for example:

"He took him outside and said: Look up at the heavens and count the stars-- if
indeed you can count them." (Gen 15:5)

The Hebrew word for "earth" is 'erets which is yet another of the Bible's many
ambiguous words. It can indicate dry land, a country, and/or even the entire
planet.
_

Great post Beetow!

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 9:25b . . the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.

That's a very derogatory remark, and more likely a colloquialism or a metaphor
rather than a literal prediction; sort of like the one God made regarding the
Serpent; that it would crawl on its belly and eat dirt; viz: henceforth be regarded
the lowest sort of filth imaginable. Well, that was Noah's prediction regarding
Canaan; and it came true. The people of the land of Canaan became so abhorrent
that God, in Deut 7:1-5 and Deut 18:9-14, commanded Moses' people to drive
them out, to exterminate them, to reject their religions, and to avoid assimilation.

● Gen 9:26a . . And he said: Blessed be Jehovah, the god of Shem;

Jehovah is said to be Shem's god. But He's not said to be the god of either Ham
or Japheth. Shem is the only one of the three brothers of whom it is said "Jehovah,
the god of" perhaps implying that the Bible's God didn't become Shem's god just
because the family he was born into worshipped that particular god, rather because
Shem personally chose the Bible's God to be his god. Quite a few adults are in a
religion simply because that's the one they grew up with.

● Gen 9:26b . . let Canaan be a slave to them.

The pronoun "them" would refer to the peoples that would descend from Shem.

● Gen 9:27a . . May God enlarge Japheth,

That seems more a prayer than a prediction. Japheth is generally regarded as the
father of several Gentile nations, most particularly the Romans and the Greeks,
who became mighty world powers. Japheth seemed like an okay kind of guy who at
least had a sense of propriety. People like him; even though maybe not particularly
God-fearing, will listen to reason, and can often be persuaded to do the right thing.
He proved at least that much when he assisted brother Shem to cover their dad's
exposure in a discreet way. It is so cool to see someone wishing good for non-Jews
so early in human history.

● Gen 9:27b . . and let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

That doesn't necessarily mean Shem's people and Japheth's people would mingle
and assimilate. The expression "dwell in the tents of" is a colloquialism sometimes
used to denote compliance or conformity. Here's an example of just the opposite of
what we might call dwelling in the tents of Shem.

"Better one day in Your courts than a thousand [anywhere else]; I would rather
stand at the threshold of God's house than dwell in the tents of the wicked." (Ps
84:11)

The "tents of the wicked" regards a life style that has no place in it for the Bible's
God and doesn't allow His spirit an influence in one's personal life. The remainder of
that Psalm is dedicated to the kind of people of whom we could say: dwell in the
tents of Shem.

"For The Lord God is sun and shield; The Lord bestows grace and glory; He does
not withhold His bounty from those who live without blame. O Lord of hosts, happy
is the man who trusts in You." (Ps 84:12-13)

NOTE: The expression "Lord of hosts" runs throughout the Old Testament. It's
apparent meaning is that Jehovah is commander in chief of all military forces; both
natural and supernatural-- friends and foes alike. The expression isn't poetic. God is
able to manipulate the outcome of any conflict in which He's involved. Plenty of
stories in the old testament bear that out.

People who live in the tents of the wicked, and walk where the wicked walk; sure
don't walk where Shem walks. Not all of Japheth's people would dwell in the tents
of Shem of course. But the idea is that Japheth's people weren't totally a bad apple
like Canaan's. Many of them would become God-fearing, moral, scrupulous, and
upright-- though not all of course; but at least Japheth's progeny wouldn't prove
100% incorrigible.

● Gen 9:27c . . and let Canaan be a slave to them.

Not all of Ham's descendants would become subservient to the people of Shem and
Japheth. Only those in Canaan's line.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 9:28-29 . . Noah lived after the Flood 350 years. And all the days of Noah
came to 950 years; then he died.

Another righteous man bites the dust. Noah lived twenty more years than Adam,
but nineteen less than Methuselah-- no doubt a great role model and a tremendous
influence upon the minds of all his grandchildren. He surely must have had a huge
brood of them in the new world by the time his 350 post-Flood years ended.

Guys like Noah prove a point. Just because someone is righteous is no reason to
think that they shouldn't have to die. The human body has its limits. No matter how
righteous somebody is, their body will eventually give out.

"Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?" (Zech
1:5)
_

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 10:1 . .These are the lines of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah:
sons were born to them after the Flood.

The tenth chapter is a tiresome list of genealogies that some have found interesting
enough to devote entire books; generating a catalogue of nations connecting
Noah's descendants to the ancient civilizations and even today's. But I'm going to
comment upon only a few salient features.

● Gen 10:5 . .These are the descendants of Japheth by their lands-- each with its
language-- their clans and their nations.

Diverse languages didn't appear right away. First came the tower of Babel. It was
after that when people's languages became what we might call "foreign".

● Gen 10:8-9 . . Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior
on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before The Lord; that is why it is said: Like
Nimrod, a mighty hunter before The Lord. The first centers of his kingdom were
Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar.

At first, mankind was scattered out in individual clans, and leadership was pretty
much restricted to local patriarchal Dons and Sheiks. But Nimrod wasn't content
with local rule. He was resolved not only to be head and shoulders above his
neighbors-- not only to be eminent among them but to lord it over them.

There are some in whom ambition, achievement, and affectation of dominion seem
to be bred in the bone. Nothing short of Hell itself will humble and break the proud,
domineering spirits of men such as those.

The same spirit that actuated the mighty men and the men of renown prior to the
Flood, (by reason of whom the Flood came) now revived in Nimrod; a nephiyl
personage with humble beginnings: first as a professional hunter; probably
supplying meat to frontier towns and selling pelts at trading posts. That was likely
Nimrod's career path up until his exploits became famous and he began to realize it
was far more profitable to go into politics.

Lots of great men, some good and some bad, had humble beginnings-- Abraham
Lincoln, King David, and even Hitler. Timely circumstances, and fortuitous events,
catapulted those blokes up to very high levels of control over their fellow men.

To this very day Nimrod is still known as the outdoorsman who would be king. He
was such a famous icon of that day that his example became descriptive of others
who worked their way to the top like he did-- men of vision, daring, energy, strong
personal ambition, and dogged perseverance.

The common personality trait, among such men (and certain women) is their strong
desire not just to govern, but to quite dominate. There are those for whom it isn't
enough to win; no, it isn't enough for people like that to win: everyone else has to
lose. They don't want 50% market share, nor even 90% no, they're content with
nothing less than 100%

Actually, Nimrod was one of the great men of history, though so little is written
about him. He was the first statesmen to successfully unite the world; and it was
such a solid unity that only divine intervention could bring it down.

● Gen 10:21a . . Sons were also born to Shem, ancestor of all the descendants of
Eber

Descendants of Eber (most notably Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) became known as
Eberites: a.k.a. Hebrews.

● Gen 10:32 . .These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations,
in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the Flood

What I find very interesting about the nations divided in the earth is their diversity
of progress. When Europeans came to the continental US, they found indigenous
peoples who were, from all appearances, perpetual cave men. They never had an
iron age. Heck, no metal age at all; except maybe copper picked up here and there.

Long, long after the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons evolved into Egyptians,
Romans, Greeks, Spaniards, and Portuguese; North America's indigenous folks
were still using stone tools, living in rudimentary shelters, and walking everywhere
they went. Their greatest obstacle to travel was distance because they had neither
horses nor wheels. It was like they were a people whom time forgot.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 11:1 . . Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.

Spoken languages are a combination of words and lips; viz: vocabulary and
pronunciation, i.e. accent and inflection. It's one thing to know the words of a
language, but it is quite another to speak them with the correct pronunciation. In
that day, everyone used the same words and spoke them alike.

● Gen 11:2 . . And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the
land of Shinar and settled there.

The name "Shinar" was of course given later because these early migrations were
to lands heretofore uninhabited. According to Gen 10:10, Shinar became Nimrod's
turf.

The amount of time elapsed between Noah's bender and this migration isn't stated
in the Bible-- plus; there's really no way to tell which part of the world was "the
east" in the author's day.

Here in the USA, the Great Continental Divide is an east/west determinant. Funny
thing is, if you're located in Phoenix Arizona, then Billings Montana is to your
continental east even though geographically, it's almost directly north; so when
Bible readers see directions like east and/or west in Genesis, it's probably best to
not think cardinal points on a compass.

For example in the case of the Magi of Matt 2:1. As best as we can tell, their city
was somewhere east of the meridian that runs north/south through the Jordan
River Valley but that kind of an east is geographical rather a compass direction so
there's really no telling where they came from.

This particular migration was "from" the east; which means pioneers from among
Noah's progeny, whose numbers at this point are totally unknown, went out west
looking for greener pastures. Although the region of Shinar has not yet been
precisely pinpointed, we can take a relatively educated guess at it.

"In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord delivered King Jehoiakim
of Judah into his power, together with some of the vessels of the House of God, and
he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his god; he deposited the
vessels in the treasury of his god." (Dan 1:1-2)

The Shinar of Daniel's day is apparently the region where ancient Babylon was
located. Babylon's location today is marked by a broad area of ruins just east of the
Euphrates River, approximately 90 km (56 mi) south of Baghdad, Iraq. It's part of
an area commonly known as the Fertile Crescent; a very large region arching
across the northern part of the Syrian Desert and extending from the Nile Valley to
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the early post-Flood years, this region was very
lush. But today much of it is arid wasteland.

● Gen 11:3a . .They said to one another: Come, let us make bricks and burn them
hard. (Brick served them as stone).

Brick are blocks of clay or other ceramic used for construction and decorative
facing. Bricks may be dried in the sun but are more usually baked in a kiln. They
cost relatively little, resist dampness and heat, and can actually last longer than
some kinds of stone.

Brick was the chief building material of ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine. The
inhabitants of Jericho in Palestine were building with brick about 9,000 years ago
(7,000 BC). That's about 5,000 years before Abraham's day.

Sumerian and Babylonian builders constructed ziggurats, palaces, and city walls of
sun-dried brick and covered them with more durable kiln-baked, often brilliantly
glazed brick, arranged in decorative pictorial friezes. Later the Persians and the
Chinese built in brick, for example, the Great Wall of China. The Romans built large
structures such as baths, amphitheaters, and aqueducts in brick, which they often
covered with marble facing.

● Gen 11:3b . . and bitumen served them as mortar.

According to Webster's, bitumen is any of various mixtures of hydrocarbons (as tar)
often together with their nonmetallic derivatives that occur naturally or are
obtained as residues after heat-refining natural substances (e.g. petroleum).

The stuff can be deadly if one isn't careful because when their feet become stuck,
they are very difficult to extract; as the museum at the La Brea tar pits in Los
Angeles attests. But it's a handy building material too. Noah sealed the ark with a
bituminous material, and Moses owed his life to it. (Ex 2:1-10)
_

 

[hawkman]

● Gen 11:1 . . Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.

Spoken languages are a combination of words and lips; viz: vocabulary and
pronunciation, i.e. accent and inflection. It's one thing to know the words of a
language, but it is quite another to speak them with the correct pronunciation. In
that day, everyone used the same words and spoke them alike.

Speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives the utterance the language will be pronounced correctly by the Holy Spirit !
Never really thought about that fact .

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 11:4 . . And they said: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top
in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the
world.

Magnificent cities have a way of attracting tourism, commerce, and industry. People
want to come and visit, and to live there. Politically, their scheme made good
sense. More people equals more prosperity; resulting in more power and control
over the region-- and of course the larger their tax base the more city services they
could provide citizens; including an effective civil defense program.

There's nothing really intrinsically wrong in building a large beautiful city. But in
their case, it wasn't the right time for it. God wanted the post-Flooders to move out
and populate the entire globe, rather than accumulate in one local region.

Towers served a variety of purposes in the ancient world. Some were used as look
outs, others were used as tombs, and yet others were used as bloody altars for
human sacrifices.

The purpose intended for the tower of Gen 11:4 isn't stated but guessing from the
wording, I'd say it was intended to be a grand monument; sort of like the 630 foot
stainless steel Gateway Arch in Ste. Louis Missouri, or a magnificent minaret like
the 239-foot Qutab Minar in Delhi India. Something like that would certainly go a
long ways towards getting the Shinarians the renown they sought.

But their wish that the tower's top be in the sky suggests their primary motive was
to use its facade to display a variety of gods popular in that day. There's towers like
that right now that in the city of Madurai in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of River Vaigai.

The towers are literally festooned with hundreds of gods. So if your favorite god is
up there somewhere, there's no need for you to leave town and go on a pilgrimage
elsewhere to worship. People are fond of their religions. So if you give them the
liberty and the means to practice it; they'll love you forever. Tolerance is good
politics; except of course in systems where human rights abuses are essential
management practices, e.g. fascism, communism, and totalitarianism.

● Gen 11:5 . .The Lord came down to look at the city and tower that man had built,

That verse presents an interesting theological problem. Wouldn't it make better
sense by saying Jehovah looked down, instead of saying He "came" down? Why
bother to come down? Doesn't the Bible's God see all and know all? Isn't God
omniscient and isn't His spirit omnipresent? Can't He see everything from right
where He is?

Well; fact of the matter is, yes, The Lord could see the city and the tower from
Heaven, but He wasn't satisfied. It was His wish to inspect everything up close and
personal; to actually visit the city and the tower in person as an on-site eye
witness. He'll do it that way again with Sodom and Gomorrah. (Gen 18:20-21)

● Gen 11:6 . . and The Lord said: If, as one people with one language for all, this is
how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out
of their reach.

I don't think The Lord objected to the people's unity per se. I mean, after all; it's
Christ's wish that his church be unified (John 17:1-26, 1Cor 1:10). I think what He
objected to was the direction that humanity's unity was taking; and it was no doubt
similar to the direction depicted below.

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth
take their stand and the rulers gather together against The Lord and against His
anointed. Let us break their chains-- they say --and throw off their fetters." (Ps
2:1-3)

● Gen 11:7 . . Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they
shall not understand one another's speech.

The Lord speaks of Himself by the plural pronoun "us" in that passage.

Up to this point, Genesis has revealed The Lord in only three aspects as Himself,
His spirit, and His voice. Since that's the case; then I'm confident there's sufficient
reason to believe that those three aspects of God are sentient beings, i.e. persons.
ergo: the plural pronoun.

NOTE: God's voice is well-known to informed Christians as the Word (John 1:1-3)
translated from the Greek noun logos (log'-os) which basically refers to speech
rather than thoughts. For example Gen 1:3 where "God said" viz: God spoke.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● Gen 11:8 . .Thus The Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole
earth; and they stopped building the city.

The language barrier was only a temporary delay because later on the city of
Babylon was eventually built. But at this point in time, the world had no choice. It
was just impossible to continue. Incidentally; the entire world has never again been
unified in a singular endeavor like it was on that tower.

● Gen 11:9 . .That is why it was called Babel, because there The Lord confounded
the speech of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them over the
face of the whole earth.

In time, people branched out and colonized the entire planet. But barely anything is
said in the Bible about the world in the years between Babel and Abraham.

● Gen 11:10a . .This is the line of Shem.

Well; that's pretty much about it for the other Noah brothers. From now on, the
Bible will direct its focus mainly upon the adventures of Shem's line. But not all.
Just specific ones that are connected to Abraham's covenant; and ultimately to
Messiah.

Noah was a pretty simple kind of guy. He probably tore apart the ark for its wood
and built a home, and barns, and whittled fence posts and split rails to corral his
livestock. The rest of the ark's lumber he could distribute to his sons and
grandchildren for their own ranches after setting aside enough firewood for many
years to come.

He more than likely stayed pretty close to where the ark went aground and
remained behind when the others migrated out west. After all, if Noah could raise
food right where he was, plus his grapes, then why move away? He'd seen it all
anyway and lived the adventure of a lifetime.

● Gen 11:10b . . Shem was 100 years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years
after the Flood.

That would make Shem about 97 years old when the flood began.

● Gen 11:11 . . After the birth of Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and begot sons
and daughters.

Each of the patriarchs probably had at least as many daughters as well as sons
even though girls' names are rarely listed in the record.

● Gen 11:12-25 . .When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he begot Shelah. After the
birth of Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters . .When
Nahor had lived 29 years, he begot Terah. After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived 119
years and begot sons and daughters.

Included in the genealogy of Gen 11:12-25 was a man named Eber. His name
carries on to this day in a people well known as Hebrews; for the Old Testament
word for Hebrew is 'Ibriy (ib-ree'); which means an Eberite; viz: a descendant of
Eber.

At that point in time, the human life span was noticeably decreasing.

Noah lived 950 years (about the same as his antediluvian forebears), but Shem
lived only 600. It became even worse by the time of Nahor; who only lived to 148.
Today, even the healthiest among us begins to decline as early as our mid thirties;
with an average life expectancy of not even 80. This problem has baffled scientists
for years and no one seems to know yet just why our body loses its youth so soon
and deteriorates so fast. Whoever solves that problem will get very rich from it,
that's for sure.

God introduced tongues during the Tower Of Babel incident to break up world
unification. Apparently it was God's judgment that world unification in those days
was not a good thing. Well; the language barrier remains in place today; so I'm
assuming that world unification in our day is still not a good thing.

In other words: today's world is an imperfect world. But according to 2Pet 3:1-13
and the 21st chapter of Revelation, a new world order is on its way; a perfect world
that can be trusted with unification so there will be no need for a control measure
to thwart global rebellions against God and all that He stands for.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Gen 11:26-27 . .When Terah had lived 70 years, he begot Abram, Nahor, and
Haran. Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and
Haran begot Lot.

By the time of Terah, Shem's line had slipped away and no longer associated with
humanity's divine benefactor in spite of their solid spiritual heritage.

"Then Joshua said to all the people: Thus said the Lord, the God of Israe: In olden
times, your forefathers-- Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor --lived
beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods." (Josh 24:2)

Because their dad walked with other gods, the two brothers, Abram and Nahor,
grew up as idolaters until Noah's guiding light stepped in and broke the chain:
appearing to Abram, and instructing him to leave his relatives, and get out of Ur.

One has to wonder what malfunctioned with Terah. His grandfathers Shem and Noah
actually came off the ark and saw the Flood for themselves but that was waaaaay
back when. Time has a way of turning history into legend; and anon into myth,
folklore, and superstition.

NOTE: One of the difficulties associated with the Flood's credibility is finding
scientific evidence for it; and a significant portion of that problem is related to the
Flood's duration. The actual downpour lasted a mere forty days; and the standing
water was gone within a year; which just isn't enough time. It takes water millennia
to erode permanent features in the earth's lithosphere.

And on top of that, once the rain stopped, the Flood's waters were essentially static
like a lake or a swimming pool. In order to cause erosion of any significance, water
has to move; as a river or a stream, or as waves along the sea shore; not stand
still.

When I was a kid, the presence of sea shells and fossils way up on the sides and
tops of mountains was thought to be evidence of the Flood, but now we know that
they got up there by tectonic forces rather than by the Flood.

You know it hasn't been all that long ago that people began putting some faith in
continental drift. It's been barely a century since German meteorologist Alfred
Wegner proposed that Earth's dry land had once been a single continent then
gradually began separating. He was soundly mocked and dismissed by his
contemporary scientific community.

Now though; pretty near all the geological scientists are in agreement that the
earth's prominent mountain ranges were produced by the grinding, colliding,
buckling, and subduction of massive sections of the earth's crust.

● Gen 11:28 . . Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur
of the Chaldeans.

The Grim Reaper cares not for the age of its victims, whether young or whether old.
Haran died before his dad. Many a parent has buried their children before they even
had a chance to live.

You know, anybody can die; it's not all that difficult; and people don't have to be
old nor do they have to be especially intelligent. Even the young, the inexperienced,
and the stupid do it all the time.

"For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered: in days to come both
will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die." (Ecc 2:16)

● Gen 11:29 . . Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of Abram's
wife being Sarai and that of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father
of Milcah and Iscah.

Nahor married a niece; the daughter of his brother Haran. And Abram, according to
Gen 20:12, married a half sister; the daughter of his father Terah. Such close
marriages were later forbidden in the covenant that Moses' people agreed upon
with God as per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

But as Genesis has shown all along, at this early date close marriages were neither
forbidden nor particularly dangerous from a genetic point of view, and so were not
uncommon. Adam's family married among themselves; and so did Noah's. His kin
really had no choice about it. There just weren't any other people available for
spouses at the time.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Gen 11:30 . . Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.

This is the very first recorded incident of a human reproductive malfunction. Other
than the reduction in longevity; the human body seems to have been running on all
eight cylinders up to this point. But who was the problem; was it Abram or Sarai? It
was Sarai because Abram later engendered a child by one of Sarai's servant girls.

One of the first horrors the human family witnessed was Abel's death. No one had
ever seen a human being dead before. And now this. A woman who couldn't
conceive. It must have been stunning and unbelievable. All the women in history up
to this point were cranking out babies like rabbits and mice. Sarai was a gorgeous
piece of work, but her womb had no more life in it than a stack of 8½ x 11 Xerox
paper.

I'm a man; so how can I possibly understand Sarai's personal grief? Only another
barren woman can understand what Sarai must have felt. There are women who
don't care about children. But Sarai doesn't strike me as one of those. And even if
she didn't care for children, it would have still been a comfort in her mind to know
that at least she could have some if she wanted to.

"There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not; "It is
enough" -- the grave; the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water; and
the fire." (Prov 30:15-16)

● Gen 11:31a . .Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and
his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together
from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan;

Ur's ruins are located approximately midway between the modern city of Baghdad
Iraq, and the head of the Persian Gulf, south of the Euphrates River, on the edge of
the Al Hajarah Desert. The site of Ur is known today as Tall al Muqayyar.

In antiquity, the Euphrates River flowed near the city walls; and thus Ur was
favorably located for the development of commerce and for attaining political
dominance. The biblical name "Ur of the Chaldees" refers to the Chaldeans, who
settled in the area about 900 BC. By the 4th century BC, the city was practically
forgotten, possibly as a result of a shift in the course of the Euphrates River.

Water played an important role in the location of ancient civilizations. The Sahara
desert, for example, was once a pluvial region with lakes. When geological forces
caused the loss of rainfall and surface water, the Sahara became the dry waste it's
famed for today and consequently its inhabitants had to relocate.

Ur was enclosed by oval walls thirty feet high, which protected not only the city, but
two harbors as well. Sir Leonard Woolley discovered that the inhabitants benefited
from well-planned streets, and houses with high standards of sanitation. They
appear to have been constructed to remain cool in the hot summers and some may
have been two-storied. House walls adjoined the streets. Homes featured an inner
courtyard onto which their rooms faced; just like Judah's home in the Charlton
Heston movie Ben Hur.

● Gen 11:31b . . but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there.

According to Gen 12:1, God took an interest in Abram while he was in Ur, before he
left with Terah to travel to Haran. After sharing his vision with Terah, the dad quite
possibly became interested in a new life himself, having recently lost a son. The
land where he then lived held bad memories and, probably not wanting to lose
touch with any more of his family if Abram were to move away, he suggested that
they all travel together; which is a perfectly good idea considering the dangers they
were likely to encounter en route.

But the dad didn't have the heart for it really. The old gentleman decided to settle
in Haran instead of going all the way to Canaan like the original plan called for.

From Ur, Canaan is dead west and just about the same distance as Haran. But
instead of going directly to Canaan, they went north, following the trade routes. I
think I would have too. Terah's family was a lot safer going from town to town
along the fertile crescent. It would take longer to get to Canaan, but they would be
in better shape upon arrival.

There are some who like to keep their foot on the gas and push on through when
they travel. But that is very tiring. It's far better to stop often, eat, and rest before
moving on. The towns along the northern route could provide them with needed
supplies for the journey too.

But Haran (modern Charran or Haraan) is too far out of the way really. It's clear up
in Urfa Turkey on the trade route to Nineveh. Terah could have turned south a lot
sooner and gone on down to Canaan via Damascus. But I think that by then, he'd
lost interest in Canaan and decided that Haran was the place for him. And Abram,
probably not wanting to leave his dad alone there, stayed on too.
_