Abraham's Journeys

Cities

Altars

Wells

Tomb

Ur to Haran

Into Canaan

Egypt and back

Rescuing Lot

Hagar (not Abraham)

The South, Hebron

Servant (not Abraham)

Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:27–31)

Abram's family home. Terah sets out from here with Abram, Sarai and Lot, “to go into the land of Canaan”.

Ur of the Chaldees

Abram's brother Haran died here, “in the land of his nativity” (Genesis 11:28). Sarai “was barren; she had no child” (11:30).

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.

Where did the call come? Genesis tells of the LORD's call after the family reached Haran (12:1). Stephen says God appeared to Abraham “when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran” (Acts 7:2), and the LORD later says, “I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees” (Genesis 15:7). Many readers take it that the call came first at Ur and was repeated at Haran. Others read Genesis 12:1 as spoken at Haran.

Where was Ur? The site is not certain. Most identify it with Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq, where the pin sits. Some place Ur in the north, near Haran, most often at Urfa (Şanlıurfa) in Turkey. OpenBible.info's data gives the southern site much the stronger support.

Haran (Genesis 11:31 – 12:5)

The family settles here instead of going on to Canaan. Terah dies in Haran. At seventy-five, Abram leaves for Canaan.

Haran

They “came unto Haran, and dwelt there” (Genesis 11:31), and “Terah died in Haran” (11:32).

Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

“So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him.” He was seventy-five. He took Sarai, Lot, all their goods and “the souls that they had gotten in Haran” (12:4–5).

Stephen also puts the move after Terah's death: “from thence, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land” (Acts 7:4). Hebrews 11:8 says of this step, “he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

Where was Haran? The pin is at Harran in south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. The identification is secure.

Shechem (Genesis 12:6–7)

At the oak of Moreh the LORD appears to Abram and promises the land to his seed. Abram builds an altar.

Shechem: the oak of Moreh

And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him.

This is the first altar Genesis records Abram building. The pin is at Tell Balatah, the accepted site of Shechem, in the pass between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The exact spot of the oak of Moreh is not known.

Bethel (Genesis 12:8)

Abram pitches his tent between Bethel and Ai, builds an altar, and calls on the name of the LORD.

Between Bethel and Ai

And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah.

The pin marks Bethel at Beitin, its usual identification. The text places the tent on the mountain between the two towns, not in either. Ai is usually placed at et-Tell, about 2 km east of Beitin; Khirbet el-Maqatir and other sites have also been proposed.

Beer-sheba (Genesis 21)

Isaac is born when Abraham is a hundred. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away. Abraham and Abimelech swear a covenant over a well at Beer-sheba, and Abraham plants a tamarisk there.

Isaac

And Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

Abraham was “a hundred years old” (21:5). Genesis does not say where Isaac was born; the chapters around it place Abraham in the South, around Gerar and Beer-sheba (20:1; 21:31–34). Hebrews 11:11: “By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age”.

Hagar and Ishmael sent away

At Sarah's word, and with God's promise to make Ishmael a nation, Abraham sends Hagar away with bread and water. She “wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba”. God shows her a well, and Ishmael grows up in “the wilderness of Paran” (21:9–21).

The well of the oath

Abimelech's servants had seized a well. Abraham gives Abimelech seven ewe lambs as a witness “that I have digged this well”, and the two make a covenant (21:25–32).

Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.

And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God.

Where? The pin is at Tel Beer Sheva, the ancient town mound. Abraham's well may have been nearby in the valley, where the modern city of Beersheba stands; OpenBible.info lists both.

Egypt (Genesis 12:10–20)

Famine drives Abram down to Egypt, where he calls Sarai his sister and she is taken into Pharaoh's house.

Sojourn in Egypt

And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land.

• Abram asks Sarai to say she is his sister, “that it may be well with me for thy sake” (12:11–13).
• Pharaoh's princes praise her, and “the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house”. Pharaoh deals well with Abram for her sake (12:15–16).
• The LORD plagues Pharaoh and his house “because of Sarai, Abram’s wife”. Pharaoh sends them away with all that Abram had (12:17–20).

The text does not say where in Egypt Abram stayed. The pin is only OpenBible.info's representative point for Egypt (near Heliopolis, by modern Cairo).

The oaks of Mamre (Genesis 13:18)

Abram moves his tent to “the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron” and builds an altar there.

The oaks of Mamre

And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto Jehovah.

Mamre is Abram's home for much of the story that follows (14:13; 18:1). Hebrews 11:9 describes these years: “By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents”.

Where? The pin is at Ramat el-Khalil, the traditional site of Mamre, about 3.5 km north of ancient Hebron. OpenBible.info rates it well above the other proposals. Ancient Hebron itself is Tel Rumeida, beside the cave of Machpelah pin.

Dan (Genesis 14:1–14)

Four kings from the east defeat the kings of Sodom and its neighbors and carry off Lot. Abram arms 318 men of his household and pursues them as far as Dan.

The war of the kings

• Four kings, among them Chedorlaomer king of Elam, fight five kings, among them the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, “in the vale of Siddim”, which Genesis says is now “the Salt Sea” (14:1–10).
• The victors take “Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom” (14:12).
• A fugitive brings the news to Abram, who “dwelt by the oaks of Mamre” (14:13).

And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.

The text gives no route; the line's path is only illustrative.

Where? The pin is at Tel Dan, by the springs of the Jordan. The city “was Laish at the first”, until the tribe of Dan took it and renamed it (Judges 18:29).

Damascus (Genesis 14:15–16)

Abram divides his men, strikes by night, and pursues the kings to Hobah, “on the left hand of Damascus”. He brings back Lot, the goods and the people.

Past Damascus to Hobah

And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Where was Hobah? Its site is unknown. Most translations take “on the left hand of Damascus” to mean north of it: someone facing east has the north on his left. OpenBible.info lists only weak proposals for the site, so Hobah has no pin and the line stops at Damascus.

Salem (Jerusalem) (Genesis 14:17–24)

On the way home, the king of Sodom meets Abram in the King's Vale. Melchizedek king of Salem brings bread and wine and blesses him, and Abram gives him a tenth.

The King's Vale and Salem

The king of Sodom went out to meet him “at the vale of Shaveh (the same is the King’s Vale)” (14:17).

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him a tenth of all.

Abram will not keep any of Sodom's goods, “lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich” (14:23).

Hebrews 7:1–2 recalls this meeting and explains the name: “King of Salem, which is, King of peace”.

Where? Salem is usually taken to be Jerusalem; a minority view places it near Shechem. Psalm 76:2 sets it beside Zion: “In Salem also is his tabernacle, And his dwelling-place in Zion.” The King's Vale is placed near Jerusalem too; Absalom later set up his pillar in “the king’s dale” (2 Samuel 18:18). OpenBible.info puts it where the Kidron and Hinnom valleys meet, just south of ancient Jerusalem. The pin marks Jerusalem.

Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 16:1–14)

Sarai gives Hagar to Abram. When Hagar conceives, Sarai deals hardly with her and she flees. The angel of the LORD finds her at a fountain on the way to Shur.

Hagar's flight

This is Hagar's journey, not Abraham's. After “Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan” (16:3), Sarai gives him her Egyptian handmaid Hagar. Hagar conceives and despises her mistress; Sarai deals hardly with her, and “she fled from her face” (16:4–6).

The angel of the LORD finds her “by the fountain in the way to Shur” (16:7), on the road toward Egypt (Shur “that is before Egypt”, 25:18). He sends her back and promises a son, Ishmael (16:9–11).

And she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou art a God that seeth: for she said, Have I even here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

Where? Genesis does not say where Abram's tents were; the line starts from Mamre, his last stated home. The well lay between Kadesh and Bered. Kadesh is usually placed at Ain el-Qudeirat in north-eastern Sinai; the site of Bered is uncertain. The pin is at Ain Muweileh, the best supported of several uncertain proposals in OpenBible.info's data; others include Haluza (Elusa).

Gerar (Genesis 20)

Abraham moves south and sojourns in Gerar. Again he calls Sarah his sister; God warns King Abimelech in a dream, and Sarah is restored.

Gerar

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

• “Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister”, and Abimelech king of Gerar takes her (20:2).
• God warns Abimelech in a dream; he has not come near her (20:3–7).
• Abraham explains that Sarah is his half-sister, “the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother” (20:12).
• Abimelech restores Sarah with gifts; Abraham prays, and God heals Abimelech's house (20:14–17).

Where? The pin is at Tel Haror, about 27 km north-west of Beer-sheba, the identification OpenBible.info favors. Tell esh-Sharia and Tell Jemmeh have also been proposed.

Cave of Machpelah (Hebron) (Genesis 23)

Sarah dies at 127 in Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron. Abraham, “a stranger and a sojourner”, buys the field and cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite.

Sarah's death

And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

Abraham asks the children of Heth for a burying-place (23:3–4). Ephron offers the field as a gift; Abraham insists on paying, and weighs out “four hundred shekels of silver” (23:10–16).

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan.

The field and the cave “were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place” (23:20).

Where? The pin is at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the traditional site, inside a great walled enclosure usually dated to Herod the Great. Ancient Hebron is Tel Rumeida, less than 1 km away. Genesis 22:19 last placed Abraham at Beer-sheba; the text does not say when he returned to Hebron.

Ur of the Chaldees

With Terah to Haran

Into Canaan: Shechem

Between Bethel and Ai

On toward the South (Genesis 12:9)

“And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.”

Toward the South

The ASV calls it the South; other versions call it the Negeb, the dry country in the south of the land.

Genesis names no stopping place. The line runs to Beer-sheba only to show the direction: OpenBible.info uses Beer-sheba as its representative point for the Negeb.

Down into Egypt

Up out of Egypt (Genesis 13:1–2)

Abram goes up out of Egypt into the South with Sarai, Lot and all that he had, “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold”.

Up out of Egypt

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Again the text names only the South, not a place. The line returns to Beer-sheba to show the direction.

Back to Bethel: Abram and Lot part (Genesis 13:3–17)

Abram returns to the altar between Bethel and Ai. Strife between the herdsmen leads Lot to choose the Plain of the Jordan.

Back to the first altar

Abram goes “from the South even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning” and calls on the name of the LORD there (13:3–4).

• The land cannot bear both households, and their herdsmen quarrel (13:6–7).
• Abram lets Lot choose. Lot takes “all the Plain of the Jordan” and moves his tent “as far as Sodom” (13:9–12).
• After Lot leaves, the LORD tells Abram to look north, south, east and west:

for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

To the oaks of Mamre

The war of the kings: pursuit to Dan

Past Damascus to Hobah

Salem: Melchizedek

The covenant between the pieces (Genesis 15)

The LORD promises Abram a son and seed as many as the stars, and Abram believes. After dark a smoking furnace and a flaming torch pass between the divided animals, and the LORD makes a covenant with him.

Genesis 15 (place not stated)

Genesis does not say where this happened. The map shows it at Mamre, where Abram was living before and after (14:13; 18:1).

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

Abram asks, “whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” The LORD tells him to bring a heifer, a she-goat, a ram and two birds; Abram divides the animals and lays the halves opposite each other (15:9–10). The LORD tells him his seed will be afflicted in a land not theirs “four hundred years” and will come out “with great substance” (15:13–14). After dark, “a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces” (15:17).

In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Hagar at the well Beer-lahai-roi

The oaks of Mamre: three visitors (Genesis 16:15 – 19:29)

Hagar bears Ishmael. Years later God renames Abram and Sarai and gives the sign of circumcision. At Mamre three visitors promise Sarah a son, and Abraham pleads for Sodom.

Ishmael

The angel had told Hagar to return (16:9), and “Hagar bare Abram a son”. Abram was eighty-six (16:15–16).

The covenant of circumcision

When Abram is ninety-nine, God renews the covenant (Genesis 17). The text does not say where. Abram becomes Abraham, “the father of a multitude of nations”; Sarai becomes Sarah; and every male of the household is circumcised.

Three visitors

And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

Abraham serves three men a meal under the tree. They promise that “Sarah thy wife shall have a son”, and Sarah laughs (18:2–15). “Is anything too hard for Jehovah?”

Abraham pleads for Sodom

The men go on toward Sodom, and Abraham intercedes: “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The LORD will spare the city for ten righteous (18:22–33).

The smoke of the Plain

Two angels bring Lot out of Sodom before the LORD overthrows the cities of the Plain (19:1–26). Next morning Abraham goes back to where he had stood:

And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

“God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” (19:29).

Where was Sodom? Disputed. The map label follows OpenBible.info's leading view, the plain south of the Lisan peninsula at the south end of the Dead Sea; nearby Bab edh-Dhra is also proposed. Others argue from “the Plain of the Jordan” for a site north of the Dead Sea, such as Tall el-Hammam.

Gerar: Abimelech

Beer-sheba: Isaac, Hagar, the well

The land of Moriah (Genesis 22:1–18)

God tests Abraham: “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac”. On the third day Abraham sees the place. The angel of the LORD stops his hand, and a ram is offered instead.

The binding of Isaac

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

On “the third day” Abraham sees the place afar off (22:4). Isaac asks where the lamb is: “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son” (22:7–8). The angel of the LORD stops him, and Abraham offers a ram “in the stead of his son” (22:11–13). He names the place Jehovah-jireh (22:14).

Hebrews 11:17–19 says he offered Isaac “accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead”.

Where? Genesis names only “the land of Moriah” and “one of the mountains which I will tell thee of”. The traditional identification with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem rests on 2 Chronicles 3:1, where Solomon builds the house of the LORD “at Jerusalem on mount Moriah”. Samaritan tradition places it on Mount Gerizim instead. The pin marks Jerusalem.

Back to Beer-sheba (Genesis 22:19–24)

“So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.”

Back to Beer-sheba

News comes that Abraham's brother Nahor has children. Among them is Bethuel, and “Bethuel begat Rebekah” (22:20–23). This sets up the story of chapter 24.

Hebron: Sarah's death and the cave of Machpelah

The servant's journey to the city of Nahor (Genesis 24:1–61)

Abraham does not make this journey. He sends his servant, “the elder of his house”, to his kindred in Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac. At the well outside the city of Nahor, Rebekah waters the servant's camels.

Not Abraham's journey

Abraham, now “old, and well stricken in age”, makes his servant swear not to take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites (24:1–9). Genesis does not say where Abraham was living; the line starts at Hebron, where chapter 23 leaves him.

And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed, having all goodly things of his master’s in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

The servant prays at the well. Rebekah, granddaughter of Abraham's brother Nahor, gives him drink and draws for all his camels (24:12–27). Her brother Laban welcomes him, and her family asks her. She answers, “I will go” (24:58).

Where was the city of Nahor? It may be Haran itself, where Laban later lived (27:43; 29:4–5), or a town called Nahur, named in ancient texts from the region around Haran. Its site is unknown, so the pin used is Haran. The ASV's “Mesopotamia” here is Aram-naharaim, the land around Haran.

Rebekah meets Isaac (Genesis 24:61–67)

The servant brings Rebekah back. Isaac, who lives in the South, meets them in the field at evening and takes her as his wife.

Rebekah meets Isaac

And Isaac came from the way of Beer-lahairoi; for he dwelt in the land of the South. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.

And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

The text says only that Isaac “came from the way of Beer-lahairoi” and lived in the South. It does not name the field where they met. The pin is Beer-lahai-roi, whose site is itself uncertain (see Hagar's step).

Abraham is buried at Machpelah (Genesis 25:1–10)

Abraham dies at 175, “in a good old age”. Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah, with Sarah.

Abraham's burial

Abraham takes another wife, Keturah, who bears him six sons. He gives all that he has to Isaac, and sends his other sons away east with gifts (25:1–6).

And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

Genesis does not say where Abraham died. The line runs from Beer-lahai-roi, where Isaac lived (24:62; 25:11), to the cave.

Hebrews 11:13 looks back on Abraham and his family:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

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