Genesis 11:31

Hebrew Bible

28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, while his father Terah was still alive. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

Isaiah 51:2

Hebrew Bible

1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, who seek the Lord. Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants. 3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her arid rift valley like the garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

 Notes and References

"... the exodus of the Abraham family cannot be understood adequately as a “prolepsis” or a “prefiguration” of the exodus of the Israelites under Moses and Joshua. Thomas Römer has interpreted the story of Genesis 12:10‒13:2 as a sort of “anti-exodus” or a contrasting program to the exodus of the Israelites, a thesis with which I previously agreed. Now it seems more reasonable to me to understand the story in the book of Genesis as an “alternative model” of an exodus from Egypt. The “alternative” character is evident: the exodus is uncomplicated; all participants act in concert. The reason for this “alternative” exodus can be found in Genesis 11:27‒12:5. These verses describe an exodus from Mesopotamia into the land of Canaan. Abraham’s journey into and out of Egypt should be read in light of the preceding exodus out of Mesopotamia. Thus, one should interpret the Abraham-exodus-story in Genesis 12:10‒13:2 as relating to the situation of the deportees living in Babylonia after 587/586 B.C.E. Such an assumption is supported by the fact that Abraham and Sarah are mentioned together elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible only in Second Isaiah (compare Isaiah 51:2), which undoubtedly reflects the situation of the Judeans in Babylonia ..."

Jericke, Detlef "Exodus Material in the Book of Genesis" in Berner, Christoph, et al. (eds.) Book-Seams in the Hexateuch I: The Literary Transitions between the Books of Genesis/Exodus and Joshua/Judges (pp. 137-156) Mohr Siebeck, 2018

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