Ur
The home from which Genesis says Abraham’s family set out. It is usually identified with the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq, where the pin stands. Some scholars look for it in northern Mesopotamia, nearer Haran.
Genesis calls the homeland of Terah’s family “Ur of the Chaldees” (Genesis 11:28) (Genesis 11:31), and later texts recall that God brought Abraham out from there (Genesis 15:7) (Nehemiah 9:7). Stephen speaks of Mesopotamia and “the land of the Chaldaeans” (Acts 7:2–4). Most scholars identify the place with the great Sumerian city excavated at Tell el-Muqayyar on the lower Euphrates (C. Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees, 1929). Others argue for a northern Ur, among them Cyrus H. Gordon, “Abraham and the Merchants of Ura”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 17 (1958). They point out that Abraham later calls the region of Haran “my country” when he sends there for a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:4) (Genesis 24:10). The text itself does not settle the question.
What happened here
- about 2091 BC, traditional dateThe Call of Abraham
Genesis tells how God calls Abram to leave his country and his father’s house for a land he will be shown, promising to make him a great nation through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed. Abram leaves Haran for Canaan.