Genesis 11–13: Out of Ur by way of Haran, and a tent pitched at Hebron
Read it →The man on this map is called Abram in every verse of it. He does not become Abraham until Genesis 17, four chapters and twenty-four years after the last place named here, so the page is titled for the name people look for and the text is left saying what it says. The journey begins as his father's. Terah takes Abram, Lot and Sarai out of Ur of the Chaldeans — a Sumerian city on the lower Euphrates, a hundred and fifty miles downriver from Babel — and sets out for the land of Canaan. Nobody crosses the Arabian desert to get there, so the road runs the long way round, up the river past Babylon and Mari to the crossing at the Balikh, and Haran is where Terah stops. He settles, and he dies there, and that is the last thing Genesis 11 has to say about him: Canaan is named as where the family was going and is not reached for another chapter. Abram is seventy-five when he leaves, and the road he takes is the one his father stopped on — west to Aleppo, down the Orontes past Hamath and Homs, through Damascus, into the hill country from the north. He walks the ridge and builds two altars on it, one at the oak of Moreh beside Shechem and one on the high ground with Bethel to the west of him and Ai to the east, and then keeps going south toward the Negeb. Then a famine. The hill country lives on rain and the Nile does not, so he goes down to Egypt, tells Pharaoh that his wife is his sister, and is put out of the country richer than he came. Genesis 13 walks the whole road back up in two verses and returns him to the same two miles of ridge, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. The last thing on the map is a division. Two households have too much livestock for one hill country, and Abram gives his nephew first choice of the land. Lot looks east from the ridge, sees the Jordan Valley well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, takes it, and moves his tent as far as Sodom — and Genesis says what the men of Sodom were before anything at all has happened to them. Abram takes what is left, which turns out to be all of it, and settles by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron. Ur to Hebron is about six hundred and fifty miles in a straight line and close to twice that by the road there was, which is why this frame holds the whole Fertile Crescent and Canaan sits small inside it.
Regions on this map
Gen 11:27–31: Terah takes his son, his grandson and his daughter-in-law out of a Sumerian city on the lower Euphrates and sets out for a land none of them has seen. The road runs up the river, because the desert between is not a road.
Gen 11:31–12:5: they stop halfway and stay. Terah dies at Haran with Canaan still four hundred miles off, and Abram goes on without him at seventy-five.
Gen 12:5–9: the first walk through the land, and two altars on it — one at the oak of Moreh beside Shechem, one on the high ground between Bethel and Ai — then south toward the Negeb.
Gen 12:10–20: the hill country lives on rain and the Nile does not. Abram calls Sarai his sister, Pharaoh takes her and is plagued for it, and the household is escorted out of the country richer than it came.
Gen 13:1–4: four hundred miles walked back in two verses, and not one new place on them. Naming nothing new is what makes it a return, so this stage owns no pin and is drawn entirely in its legs.
Gen 13:5–13: two households with too much livestock for one hill country. Abram offers first choice, Lot looks east and takes the valley, and Genesis says what the men of Sodom were before anything has happened to them.
Gen 13:14–18: with Lot gone the land is promised again to the man left on the ridge, and the journey stops. Abram moves his tent to the oaks of Mamre and builds his third altar.
The first half of Genesis 11, which is on this map because it is the country the family is called out of and not because anyone in the family goes there: a plain, and a city built on it so that its builders could make a name for themselves.
Genesis 11–13, verse by verse
Genesis 11
- Genesis 11:1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
- Genesis 11:2And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of and settled there.
- Genesis 11:3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
- Genesis 11:4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
- Genesis 11:5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
- Genesis 11:6And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
- Genesis 11:7Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
- Genesis 11:8So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
- Genesis 11:9Therefore its name was called , because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
- Genesis 11:10These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
- Genesis 11:11And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:12When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.
- Genesis 11:13And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:14When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.
- Genesis 11:15And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:16When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.
- Genesis 11:17And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:18When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.
- Genesis 11:19And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:20When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.
- Genesis 11:21And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:22When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.
- Genesis 11:23And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:24When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.
- Genesis 11:25And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:26When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
- Genesis 11:27Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
- Genesis 11:28Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in of the .
- Genesis 11:29And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.
- Genesis 11:30Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
- Genesis 11:31Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of , his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from of the to go into the land of , but when they came to , they settled there.
- Genesis 11:32The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in .
Genesis 12
- Genesis 12:1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
- Genesis 12:2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- Genesis 12:3I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
- Genesis 12:4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from .
- Genesis 12:5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in , and they set out to go to the land of . When they came to the land of ,
- Genesis 12:6Abram passed through the land to the place at , to the oak of . At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
- Genesis 12:7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
- Genesis 12:8From there he moved to the hill country on the east of and pitched his tent, with on the west and on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
- Genesis 12:9And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the .
- Genesis 12:10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
- Genesis 12:11When he was about to enter , he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,
- Genesis 12:12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
- Genesis 12:13Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
- Genesis 12:14When Abram entered , the saw that the woman was very beautiful.
- Genesis 12:15And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
- Genesis 12:16And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
- Genesis 12:17But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
- Genesis 12:18So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
- Genesis 12:19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
- Genesis 12:20And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Genesis 13
- Genesis 13:1So Abram went up from , he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the .
- Genesis 13:2Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
- Genesis 13:3And he journeyed on from the as far as to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between and ,
- Genesis 13:4to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the LORD.
- Genesis 13:5And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,
- Genesis 13:6so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,
- Genesis 13:7and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
- Genesis 13:8Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
- Genesis 13:9Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
- Genesis 13:10And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of , in the direction of . (This was before the LORD destroyed and .)
- Genesis 13:11So Lot chose for himself all the , and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
- Genesis 13:12Abram settled in the land of , while Lot settled among the cities of the and moved his tent as far as .
- Genesis 13:13Now the men of were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.
- Genesis 13:14The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
- Genesis 13:15for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
- Genesis 13:16I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
- Genesis 13:17Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
- Genesis 13:18So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at , and there he built an altar to the LORD.