Nahor

About Nahor

Nahor, mentioned in Genesis 11, 22, 24, 29, and 31, was the son of Terah and the brother of Abraham and Haran. He was born in Ur of the Chaldeans and later settled in the city of Nahor, which was likely named after him.

Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran, and together they had eight children, including Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah (Gen.22.20-23). Rebekah would later marry Isaac, Abraham's son, thus continuing the lineage of the patriarchs.

When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, the servant traveled to the city of Nahor and met Rebekah at the well (Gen.24.10). Rebekah's family connection to Nahor and Abraham was confirmed when she identified herself as Bethuel's daughter and Nahor's granddaughter (Gen.24.15, 24, 47).

Later, when Israel (or 'Jacob'), Rebekah's son, fled from his brother Esau, he sought refuge with Laban, Rebekah's brother, in the city of Nahor (Gen.29.5). This shows that Nahor's descendants maintained close ties with Abraham's family.

In Gen.31.53, when Jacob and Laban made a covenant, they invoked the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor as witnesses, suggesting that Nahor and his descendants had come to acknowledge the God of Abraham.

Nahor's role in the biblical narrative is primarily as a link in the lineage of the patriarchs, connecting Abraham to the subsequent generations. His descendants, particularly Rebekah and her family, play a crucial role in the continuation of the covenant promises made to Abraham.

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.