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Next it is related how Terah with his family left the region of the
Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia, and dwelt in Haran. But
nothing is said about one of his sons called Nahor, as if he had not
taken him along with him. For the narrative runs thus: "And Terah
took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and
Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and led them
forth out of the region of the Chaldeans to go into the land of
Canaan; and he came into Haran, and dwelt there." Nahor and
Milcah his wife are nowhere named here. But afterwards, when
Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it
thus written: "And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his
lord, and of all the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and
went into Mesopotamia, into the city of Nahor." This and other
testimonies of this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham's
brother, had also left the region of the Chaldeans, and fixed his
abode in Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why,
then, did the Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his family
went forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it
mentions that he took with him not only Abraham his son, but also
Sarah his daughter-in-law, and Lot his grandson? The only reason
we can think of is, that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of his
father and brother, and adhered to the superstition of the Chaldeans,
and had afterwards emigrated thence, either through penitence, or
because he was persecuted as a suspected person. For in the book
called Judith, when Holofernes, the enemy of the Israelites,
inquired what kind of nation that might be, and whether war should be
made against them, Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, answered
him thus: "Let our lord now hear a word from the mouth of thy
servant, and I will declare unto thee the truth concerning the people
which dwelleth near thee in this hill country, and there shall no lie
come out of the mouth of thy servant. For this people is descended
from the Chaldeans, and they dwelt heretofore in Mesopotamia,
because they would not follow the gods of their fathers, which were
glorious in the land of the Chaldeans, but went out of the way of
their ancestors, and adored the God of heaven, whom they knew; and
they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into
Mesopotamia, and dwelt there many days. And their God said to
them, that they should depart from their habitation, and go into the
land of Canaan; and they dwelt," etc., as Achior the Ammonite
narrates. Whence it is manifest that the house of Terah had suffered
persecution from the Chaldeans for the true piety with which they
worshipped the one and true God.
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