The son of Terah and founder of the Hebrew Nation was a man by the name of Abraham (originally Abram). His family descended from Shem and settled in Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:28), Abraham's home town. Terah was apparently an idolater (Joshua 24:2), but had three sons, Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, one of which would go on to be called by God to create a chosen people. Abraham was married to his half-sister, Sarah (originally Sarai). After the death of his brother Nahor, Abraham and his family, including his nephew Lot and father Terah, left Ur to go to the land of Canaan (Genesis 11:27-31). In Acts, Stephen says that God appeared to Abraham in Ur, before he lived in Haran, and appeared again once he got there possibly to renew his call (Acts 7:2-4). After living a while in Haran, he was seventy-five by this time, Abraham left for Canaan. Less than a year later, he arrived there when a vision from the Lord assured him that this was the land his descendants would inherit (Genesis 12:4,7). He wandered the land for a few more years, travelling "as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem" (Genesis 12:6). During a famine, Abraham went to Egypt. The Pharaoh welcomed him, but, fearful for his life, Abraham represented Sarah as his sister, not his wife. The Pharaoh learned the truth, and the Lord inflicted serious diseases on him and his household for taking her. That persuaded him to let Abraham and his family go (Genesis 12:15-17,20). Back in Canaan, he and Lot separated because their herdsmen were arguing. Lot chose the fertile plain by the Jordan to graze at, while Abraham pitched his tent among the oak groves of Mamre, in the hill country near Hebron (Genesis 13:10,18). Abraham lived in the hill country for at lest fifteen years. He strengthened his position with the local Amorites by uniting with them in the rescue of Lot when Sodom and Gomorrah had been taken (Genesis 14:12). On his way back, he was blesssed by Melchizedek, priest-k...
