Judith 5:8

Deuterocanon

7 At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they did not wish to follow the gods of their ancestors who were in Chaldea. 8 Since they had abandoned the ways of their ancestors, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know, their ancestors drove them out from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time. 9 Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and grew very prosperous in gold and silver and very much livestock. 10 When a famine spread over the land of Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food. There they became so great a multitude that their race could not be counted.

Jubilees 12:6

Pseudepigrapha

6 And his father said unto him, 'I also know it, my son, but what shall I do with a people who have made me to serve before them? 7 And if I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul cleaves to them to worship them and honour them. 8 Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee.' And these words he spake to his two brothers, and they were angry with him and he kept silent. 9 And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second week, in the seventh year thereof, [1925 A.M.] Abram took to himself a wife, and her name was Sarai, the daughter of his father, and she became his wife.

 Notes and References

"... In Genesis 11:31 we are told that Terah, Abraham, Lot, and Sarai leave Ur of the Chaldeans on their way to the land of Canaan, but end up living in Haran, a city in northern Mesopotamia, and we hear nothing of the deities worshipped in Ur. Abraham is then commanded by God to go to Canaan (Genesis 12:1–5). In our passage, Achior fills in the gaps, and we learn that these migrations are connected to the rejection of ancestral gods and the worship of God. Achior states that the Israelites’ ancestors were expelled from their homeland because of their belief in the existence of the God of heaven rather than the gods of their fathers. While it is clear that Achior is referring to Abraham and his family, he speaks quite generally of the collective ancestors of the Israelites rejecting local gods and being summoned by God, and he does not mention Abraham by name. This general reference to the Israelite ancestors is in line with Achior’s deliberate portrayal of the people of Israel, rather than their leaders. At the same time, it eliminates any possible contradiction between Genesis 11:31, where Abraham’s entire family has already left Ur, and Genesis 12:1, where Abraham alone is told to leave his “homeland,” presumably Ur; see Nehemiah 9:7. Other post-biblical sources (Jubilees 11:16–17; 12:1–8, 12–14; Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.154–157) also state that Abraham recognized the true God and had to leave Ur because of his beliefs, but in these sources it is only Abraham who recognizes God. Indeed, in biblical (Joshua 24:2–3) and post-biblical (Jubilees 12:1–8, 14) sources Abraham’s father and brothers are said to worship other gods or idols ..."

Gera, Deborah Levine Judith (p. 204) De Gruyter, 2014

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