We have been studying Genesis 1-11 for a long time now. We are coming to the conclusion of this part of our study with the genealogies of Shem and Terah. These genealogies have one goal: to introduce the rest of Genesis and the story of Abraham and the patriarchs.
In my last issue, I talked about the Tower of Babel and there are some interesting insights we can gather from these genealogies. You will think they are cut and dried and probably pretty boring but they, like the other genealogies we have studied, have some interesting people that I will connect for you.
Let’s dive into the final genealogies as we prepare this transitioning part of Scripture that will also take us to our next BIG Volume.
Shem’s Descendants in the Genealogies of Shem and Terah
Genesis 11:10-26: These are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after Arpachshad was born 500 years and fathered sons and daughters. Now Arpachshad lived 530 years and fathered Shelah. And Arpachshad lived after Shelah was born 403 years and fathered sons and daughters. Now Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. And Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber and fathered sons and daughters. Now Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. And Eber lived 430 years after he fathered Peleg and fathered sons and daughters. Now Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. And Peleg lived 209 years after he fathered Reu and fathered sons and daughters. Now Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. And Reu lived 207 years after he fathered Serug and fathered sons and daughters. Now Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nabor. And Serug lived 200 years after Nabor was born and fathered sons and daughters. Now Nabor lived 29 years and fathered Terah. And Nabor lived 119 years after he fathered Terah and fathered sons and daughters. Now Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
As we look at the genealogies of Shem and Terah, there’s not much extraordinary, life-changing content. This genealogy for Shem is straightforward. But there is one thing I want to mention. Notice the amount of years each person was given to live.
As you go further and further down the list of descendants, you notice that everyone’s lifespan gets shorter and shorter. We go from 600 years for Shem to around 200 years for everyone after Peleg. Shem’s genealogy is familiar to us because we have seen part of it before.
If you remember in one of the other issues, I went through the table of nations and talked about Shem’s genealogy. Genesis 10:25 tells us that Peleg’s name refers to the division of the earth, when God separated people by languages at the Tower of Babel.
Isn’t it interesting that Peleg is the first to have his lifespan cut in half? Eber, Peleg’s father lived 464 years while Peleg only lived for 239 years. That’s a difference of 225 years, almost exactly half the lifespan of Eber.
That gets me wondering if the Tower of Babel incident affected humanity more than we realize. We know it brought multiple languages upon the earth to stop communications so the people would not continue in unity to build a structure dedicated to reaching God’s dwelling in heaven.
But if Eber was the last human to have such a long lifespan, perhaps the Tower of Babel did more than just confuse language and separate people. Perhaps this act of rebellion against God greatly decreased the amount of years we live on the earth so we cannot amass such knowledge that we could defy God in the same ways ever again.
I could just be blowing something out of proportion here. But the genealogies of Shem and Terah make you wonder. At least, it makes me wonder about some of these things. The generations following Peleg experience even less of a lifespan than he did. Even Terah only lived 205 years. Just something interesting to think about.
Terah’s Descendants in the Genealogies of Shem and Terah
Genesis 11:27-32: Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nabor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. And Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Now Abram and Nabor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai and the name of Nabor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren. She had no children. So Terah took Abram his son and Lot, Haran’s son, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife, and went with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan, and they went up to Haran and settled there. And Terah’s days were 205 years and Terah died in Haran.
Now we get to the setup for the rest of the book of Genesis in the genealogies of Shem and Terrah. This will lead us right into the story of Abraham and Sarah and beyond. I noticed that there are no age ranges in this genealogy. Only Terah’s lifespan is mentioned right at the end.
Instead, we get a lot more commentary about each person in this genealogy. It is a different kind of genealogy for sure. We immediately ran into names we recognize because the next section of Genesis is about Abram and Sarai, a story that greatly increases our knowledge about them.
Terah is Abram’s father. Abram’s brothers are Nahor and Haran. The genealogy specifically mentions Lot, Abram’s nephew. The genealogy explains why Abram will later take Lot as if he is Abram’s son. Lot’s story is intertwined with Abram’s story. But we see the origins of why they are so close.
Lot’s father, Haran, never made the trip with Terah, Abram, and Nahor. He died in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram took Lot with him because his father did not make it. Terah’s genealogy does not tell us how Haran died, but it tells us he died in Terah’s presence.
This might be the way of the genealogy telling us Haran died in an unexpected or unusual way. It certainly tells us Haran did not carry on a legacy or genealogical line of his own except through his son. This also means Lot was Haran’s only son because he is the only one Abram took with him when they traveled toward Canaan.
Another unusual feature of this the genealogies of Shem and Terah is that it mentions Abram’s and Nahor’s wives. Women were almost never mentioned in genealogies, so when you see a woman’s name or any notation about wives or women, it is unusual. It makes these women significant to the family, history, and the Bible.
I don’t want this to get too weird but Nahor married Milcah who is Haran’s daughter, Nahor’s sister. Yes. That’s right. He married his sister. I don’t know if this was a cultural thing that was not frowned upon or if there is some other reason for it. Later in Abram’s story, he will ask Sarai to say she is his sister instead of his wife. Twice. And the Bible tells us it is true.
This is certainly an unusual practice. Just as the genealogy explains that Lot was Haran’s only heir because of an untimely death, it also tells us that Sarai is barren. And then it stresses, “she had no child.” That is significant as Abram is in danger of Haran’s predicament that his lineage will be slim or nonexistent. But at least Haran has an heir.
To have no sons to carry on your lineage in Bible times was one of the worst and most dishonorable things that could happen to you. Sarai bears the full weight of ridicule and scorn because she cannot bear Abram a son. She would blame herself for not carrying on his lineage.
Men took wives and concubines beyond a barren wife because carrying on the lineage and family line was that important. It becomes especially important when they take land in Canaan because a continuing family lineage is the only way to keep your territory. Here, it is just that Abram’s lineage would die with him.
The word for child is unusual here because it is the only time this word appears in the Old Testament. It is closely related to other words for child but the fact that it only appears once grabbed my attention. Perhaps that is the reason this word appears here. Sarai’s barrenness is a key part of Abram’s and her story.
Genesis 11:31 says that Terah took the family to Canaan but Genesis 12 tells us God said to Abram to go where He would lead, which was eventually to Canaan. We can gather that Terah was with Abram and Sarai as they followed God’s lead, but Terah gets the credit in the genealogy because he is the father.
This last part of Terah’s genealogy stresses all the family ties and relationships. Lot is mentioned as Terah’s grandson. Abram is his son and Sarai is his son Abram’s wife. It’s unusual for a genealogy to state the obvious.
They settle in the land of Haran. The land has the same name as Terah’s dead son. I don’t know if there is any significance to this fact either. Terah dies in Haran at the ripe old age of 205. Except for the death of his son in Ur of the Chaldeans, Terah lives a good life.
The genealogy does not explain why they decided to go to Canaan. I think that is why Genesis 12 will pick up on that and tell us more about Abram’s journey and why they went there.
The Saga Continues…
I hope I have made some of the genealogies of the Old Testament interesting to you. As we have studied the genealogies of Shem and Terah, we have seen the unusual aspects of a genealogy and how it points to something later. That something later is what we venture into in our next volume and issue, the beginning of our character study of Abraham and Sarah.
