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Judges 8 (WEB)

Shechem — Journeys of Abram—Shechem·City

Journeys of Abram

1. Ur of the Chaldees (Gen 11:31; Acts 7:2-4)

Haran died before his father Terah in Ur (Gen 11:28). Sometime after this death, Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, Sarai, Abram's wife, and went from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan, to the city called Haran (presumably named after his father) to make that his new home (Gen 11:31).

It appears that in Haran, Yahweh spoke to Abram and informed him that it was He who brought Abram out of Ur, in order to give the land of Canaan as an inheritance (Gen 15:7). Nehemiah confirms this (Neh 9:7), where the text of Scripture says that Yahweh is the God who chose Abram (great father) and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave to him the name Abraham (father of many nations).

2. Haran (Gen 12:1-4; Acts 7:4)

Haran is the name of the son of Terah who died in Ur of the Chaldees, and also the name of the city in Canaan. Genesis 11:27 indicates that Terah lived seventy years before he became the father of his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran. It may be that the order of the sons (Gen 11:26), as is common, depicts the order of their birth (see the sons of Noah, Gen 10). If this is so, then the youngest brother of Abram, Haran, preceded his brothers and father in death (Gen 11:28), after he had already become the father of Lot (Gen 11:27), the nephew of Abram.

The biblical account continues that Abram married his half-sister, Sarai (Gen 11:29). This may be due to the scarcity of possible wives where they went, but the text does not speak of this, but the Bible reveals that Abram and Sarai were married before they left Ur (Gen 11:31). Upon coming to Haran, Terah, at two hundred and five years old, died there (see the map of the Ancient Near East and location of Haran. (Map Link to Haran and Mesopotamia, click map to have a larger map).

Upon the death of Terah, Abram, now seventy-five, was approached by Yahweh, who commanded him to leave Haran, and many of his relatives (Gen 12:1) and travel south from Haran to the places that Yahweh would show him (Gen 12:1).

The biblical text indicates that Abram, in obedience to Yahweh's command, left relatives in Haran, but also took a number of his extended family into the land of Canaan, including Sarai, his wife and half-sister, his nephew Lot (son of Haran), and apparently several others (Gen 12:5) on this journey. Several years later, at Isaac's command, his son Jacob returned to Haran, to escape the wrath of Esau, to live with his uncle Laban (Gen 27:43; 28:10).

Several of the foregoing details in Genesis are substantiated in the sermon of Stephen (Acts 7:2-4).

3. Damascus (Gen 15:2)

4. Shechem (Gen 12:6, 7)

5. Bethel (Genesis 12:8)

6. Egypt (Gen 12:9-20)

7. Bethel (Gen 13:1-9)

8. Hebron (Gen 13:10-18)

9. Dan (Gen 14:1-14)

10. Hobah (Gen 14:15, 16)

11. Salem (Gen 14:17-21)

12. Hebron (Gen 15:1-21; 17:1-27)

13. Gerar (Gen 20:1-18)

14. Beersheba (Gen 21:1-34)

15. Moriah (Gen 22:1-18)

16. Beersheba (Genesis 26:23-33)

17. Hebron (Gen 23: 1-20)

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Judges 8 (WEB)

1The men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you treated us this way, that you didn’t call us when you went to fight with Midian?” They rebuked him sharply. 2He said to them, “What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 3God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that.

4Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. 5He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

6The princes of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”

7Gideon said, “Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

8He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.”

10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. 11Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the army; for the army felt secure. 12Zebah and Zalmunna fled and he pursued them. He took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. 13Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. 14He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him; and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. 15He came to the men of Succoth, and said, “See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’” 16He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. 17He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.

18Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?”

They answered, “They were like you. They all resembled the children of a king.”

19He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.”

20He said to Jether his firstborn, “Get up and kill them!” But the youth didn’t draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was yet a youth.

21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “You rise and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.

22Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you, your son, and your son’s son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”

23Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. Yahweh shall rule over you.” 24Gideon said to them, “I do have a request: that you would each give me the earrings of his plunder.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

25They answered, “We will willingly give them.” They spread a garment, and every man threw the earrings of his plunder into it. 26The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, in addition to the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and in addition to the chains that were about their camels’ necks. 27Gideon made an ephod out of it, and put it in Ophrah, his city. Then all Israel played the prostitute with it there; and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house. 28So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

29Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body, for he had many wives. 31His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

33As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again and played the prostitute following the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god. 34The children of Israel didn’t remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; 35neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.

World English Bible · public domain · ebible.org

Shechem