Terah

Terah is a figure in the Hebrew Bible regarded as the patriarch who precedes Abraham. He is listed as the son of Nahor and the father of Abram (later called Abraham), Nahor, and Haran. In the biblical account, his wife’s name is not given, and little is said about his own activities beyond his role as a household ancestor in the Genesis genealogies. He is associated with Ur of the Chaldeans, a city in southern Mesopotamia, as the family’s place of origin.

According to Genesis 11, Terah left Ur with his son Abram, his grandson Lot, and their possessions, intending to travel to the land of Canaan. They halted in Haran, where Terah died. The text records his age at death as 205, making him one of the longer-lived patriarchs in the biblical narrative. The journey and Terah’s death in Haran serve primarily to introduce Abraham and to establish a geographic and familial link to Canaan.

In religious tradition, Terah is recognized as the father of Abraham, making him a progenitor of the Israelites in Judaism and Christianity, and a cited ancestor in Islamic and other Islamic-influenced traditions. His place in the biblical genealogies underscores the continuity between Ur of the Chaldeans and the later Hebrews.

Name and interpretation: The Hebrew name Terah is generally understood to carry meanings related to delay or station, though exact etymology is not certain. Scholarly discussions often treat Terah as a relatively brief, symbolic figure whose primary function is to connect Abraham to a ancestral homeland and a specific place of origin, rather than to provide a detailed biography.