Abram confesses that Yahweh is “God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen 14:22). Importantly, this confession of Yahweh as the most high God, the one who owns all the universe, precedes Abram’s justification by faith in Genesis 15:6 when he is said to have “believed the LORD” and the LORD in turn “counted it to him as righteousness.” And now Abram will forever see the Amorites as enemies of the true God—if they do not trust Yahweh as Abram did. 

Abram and his family lived in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen 11:31). Later, he migrated north to the city of Haran. This means that Abram came from a city environment and only later became a nomadic herder.

According to Joshua 24:2, Abram and his family worshipped the gods of Ur, Haran, and presumably of the Old Babylonian pantheon, a region of the world then dominated by Amorite rulers and culture.

Interestingly, both Ur and Haran are associated with worship of the moon god, Sin. Genesis does not tell exactly why Terah and Abram moved to Haran, but Haran was a trade city connected to Ur and focused on the same worship of Sin. It could have simply been an economic move, or it was because Abram’s family already knew they needed to go to Canaan (Acts 7:2–3). In any case, God calls Abram from the cities of Ur and Haran in Genesis 12:1 and summons him to Canaan.

Abram, the Wandering Aramean

Because of Abram’s migration from Ur to Haran, Moses remembers him as a wandering Aramean (Deut 26:5). The region of Aram comprises a large area of northern Mesopotamia, and the term Aramean points to the Hebrew phrase Aram-Naharaim, meaning Aram of Two Rivers. That is what Mesopotamia means: between Two Rivers: Euphrates and Tigris (See Gen 24:10, Deut 23:4, Judges 3:8–10). The Aram area thus refers to Mesopotamia, which includes Syria.

Both Isaac and Jacob will find wives in Haran, which is situated in the plains of Aram or Paddan-Aram. In other words, both Rebekah (Isaac’s wife) and Jacob’s wives are Aramean or Mesopotamian. When Jacob flees Esau to Aram, he goes to Rebekah’s family household in Paddan-Aram, “the house of Bethuel” (Gen 28:2). There, he marries two daughters of Laban: Leah and Rachel. Jacob stays in Aram for twenty years until God calls him, like Abram, to Canaan (Gen 31:3).

So Abram and his family have deep ties to Mesopotamia. Ethnically, he is a Semite (Gen 11:10–26). In terms of country (city-state), he comes from Ur and Haran.

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