What does Genesis 11 verse 31 mean?

Answer 1

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Genesis 11:31: "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. "

The surface explanation is that Terah, father of Abram (later 'Abraham'), took his family out of the city of Ur and travelled with them to the city of Haran in the land of the West Semitic people (Canaanites). Much can be read from a text from knowing the context. Ur and Haran were the two key cities of the moon god, Sin. Travelling specifically from Ur to Haran has been seen as in some way related to the ancient worship of Sin.

Sarai is described as Terah's daughter-in-law, although later Abraham would insist that she was also his sister (or perhaps niece), a claim that is actually consistent with the subsequent history of the family.

Notice that Terah's other son was called Haran, just as the city was called Haran. This can not be a chance observation, and indicates a mythical element in the story.

The passage, by mentioning 'Ur of the Chaldees' demonstrates that it could not have been written before 625 BCE, when the Chaldees threw off Assyrian rule and established the neo-Babylonian Empire. The Chaldees (or Chaldeans) were an Arabic tribe that had migrated into southern Mesopotamia as pastoralists around one hundred years earlier.