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Jeremiah 41 (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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Jeremiah 41 (WEB)

1Now in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 2Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 3Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean men of war who were found there.

4The second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it, 5men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Yahweh’s house. 6Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went, and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” 7It was so, when they came into the middle of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the middle of the pit, he, and the men who were with him. 8But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.”

So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers. 9Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed.

10Then Ishmael carried away captive all of the people who were left in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.

11But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 12then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. 13Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad. 14So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon.

16Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam—the men of war, with the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. 17They departed and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt 18because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

World English Bible · public domain · ebible.org

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