- Text of the passage in Nawat
11:10 élle tol'dot shem
Formula announcing the start of a tol'dot section.
wayyóled et arpakhshad
If we compare this with the rest of the genealogy, we would expect the text to mention Shem's firstborn son. But in the Table of Nations (10:22 ) Arpachshad is named in third place. Of course, we're interested in Arpachshad now because we're following the line that leads to Abram.
11:11 ff.
The repeating formula for giving the data for each successive generation differs slightly from that followed in ch. 5. There, the age was first given of a firstborn at the time when he begot his first son (e.g. way'xi shet xamesh shanim um'at shana wayyóled et enosh (5:6), then how long he lived after that followed by the phrase wayyóled banim uvanot, and finally the total lifespan is given (wayihyu kol y'me shet...), concluding with wayyámot 'and he died.' In the present passage, on the other hand, only the age at the birth of the first son and the period lived after that are given, omitting the (redundant) recap of the entire lifespan and the phrases wayihyu kol y'me and wayyámot.
11:22 naxor
Notice that there are two naxors, the one here who is tárax/térax's father (v. 24), and then the latter's son, Abram's brother (v. 26).
11:26 et avram et naxor w'et haran
Here the repeating formula is interrupted, as we come close to the immediate family of Abram. The first departure from the standard formula is the naming of three sons of Terah. Regarding the possible meaning and etymology of avram see my note on 17:5-6. Regarding naxor see 11:22.
11:27 w'élle tol'dot térax
Notice the new tol'dot heading, as if to say: "New section." Actually we know disappointingly little about Abram's father himself from Genesis: see vv. 31-32.
w'haran holid et loT
Lot is an important secondary character in the story of Abram, which may be enough of a reason for his being singled out for this anticipatory "special treatment" at this point in the present passage. Then again, it might have been considered important information given that Haran died (v. 28) leaving Lot in Abram's care; thus we need to establish Lot's position in the family before "disposing of" his father Haran. A third possibility is that Lot's real significance consisted of his place as the patriarch of the two nations of Moab and Ammon, two of Israel's most important neighbours, as told in ch. 19.
11:28 wayyámot haran ‛al p'ne térax aviw
Lit. '...over Terah' or more likely, '...in the presence of Terah', but the meaning is obviously that Haran died before Terah, during Terah's lifetime. It must be an idiomatic expression.
b'éretz moladto b'ur kasdim
'In the land of his birth, Ur-Kasdim' (trad. Ur of the Chaldees, or of the Chaldeans). According to scholars, this does not necessarily refer to the once great city of Ur: see my comments here and the following words of Speiser (EAS, p. 80), which touch on Harran (see 11:31) but also Ur-Kasdim: "The one fact beyond serious dispute is that the home of the patriarchs was in the district of Haran, and not at Ur. According to xii 1 and 5, Haran was Abraham's birthplace... And the cultural background of many of the later patriarchal narratives is intimately tied up with the Hurrians of Haran and the regions nearby rather than with the Sumerians and Babylonians in the south. Thus Ur proves to be intrusive in this context, however old that intrusion may have been."
11:29
Both surviving brothers, Abram and Nahor, marry half-sisters, it seems. Since the family background of Nahor's wife milka is mentioned, it is strange that that of Abram's wife saray is not, but it will be revealed elsewhere in the narrative that follows (see 22:12). Concerning the meaning of this name see my note on 17:15.
11:30 watt'hi saray ‛aqara en lah walad
Some commentaries say the meaning of ‛aqara is 'without offspring' but not necessarily 'sterile', although both meanings are given in EK. The noun walad 'child' is a hapax legomenon.
11:31 loT ben haran
Speiser points out that this is a patronymic, not a description: Lot's name is Lot Ben-Haran, or as Speiser puts it (somewhat jocularly), "Lot Haranson."
wayyetz'u ittam
This looks like a small grammatical slip in the Hebrew ('they left with them'?? who with who?).
wayyavóu ‛ad xaran
Har(r)an was "an old and prominent city in Central Mesopotamia" (EAS p. 79). Speiser wrote of the name of Abram's brother Nahor (pp. 79-80): "As we know now from the Mari records, there was in the patriarchal age a city by the same name (cun[eiform] Naḫur) located in the region of Haran... Significantly enough, the population of Naḫur in Mari times included demonstrably West Semitic elements. Another place name in the same general area was Sarug-, manifestly analogous with the patriarch... who was the father of Nahor the older." See also the note above on 11:28. In the present narration which suggests they were on their way to Canaan, there is no indication whatsoever of why they stopped in Haran.
END OF SECTION 2
We have now reached the end of the second of the twelve sections or parashot and completed the first of the five cycle. From the point of view of the Genesis narrative, we are done with prehistory now and, with the name of Abram, have walked through the door into the realm of patriarchial history. But first we have had to make our way through the difficult growing pains of early humanity, which for the authors of Genesis consisted of constant descents into the horrors of evil and sin by humans who, it seems, just never learn, and the drastic steps taken by God to clean things up and nudge the living world back on track. God resorted to a cataclysm, the mabbul or great flood, to excise the evil ways of the world and give it a chance to start again from Noah. After that the world was peopled by the descendants of Noah's three sons who gave rise to all the many nations, countries, peoples and languages known to the ancient Israelites. Another cautionary tale is also thrown in: the Tower of Babel. Now we reach a new phase when hope seems to be pinned on the special relationship between God and one man: Abram.
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