the districts. Thus Aram or highlands, Canaan or lowlands, Ophir or rich lands, Madai or midlands, Mizraim or the two Egypts, &c. We are thus warranted to associate a definite meaning with the word east. We have already noticed it in connection with Eden. The symbolic presence of Jehovah was in the east of Eden, and the blessed garden was in the east of the land of Eden. So likewise the reference to the east (x. 30) after Sephar.

There are two words chiefly used in the Old Testament for the east, namely, Kedem or that front of the looker, and Mizrach or the sun-rising. The former term originated in the habit of characterizing the part before them, when they turned their faces to the rising sun, as the east. Behind them was the west, to the right the south, and to the left hand the north. The oriental mode of determining geographical bearing thus differed from ours. We look to the north, and the south is the direction behind us, the east that on our right hand, and the west that on our left. This difference being kept in mind, will make clear many references to geographical bearings which cannot be otherwise understood. When both terms are used together, we translate them "on the east, eastward"-a somewhat uncertain form of expression; the true import being, in front, in the direction of the rising sun. In explaining passages in which the east is named, it will thus be important to keep in mind the locality in which the writer lived. The Israelite standing on the shores of the Great Sea would speak of the territory between him and the Jordan as in the east; while another standing on the banks of the Jordan would speak of the same region as in the west. As regards the use of the term in verse 2, there are two modes of explaining it. 1. The preposition prefixed to Kedem, which is rendered from in our translation, might be rendered in. Thus a writer in the position of Moses would naturally say, "as they journeyed in the east," when he wished to mention the tribes which wandered in the districts bordering on the Euphrates. 2. If the expression be associated rather with the direction in which the tribes journeyed than with the view of the writer, we would have to suppose that the chief waves of population had been to the south-west from Ararat, and that they again returned to the east, and "found the plain in the land of Shinar."

The different senses assigned to the word may be thus classified :First, To mark out one of the four quarters of the heavens:

"The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth
From the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.-(Ps. 1. 1.)

The rising of the sun (mizrach), the orient, the east

"As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath he removed our transgressions from us."-(Ps. ciii. 12.)

The same word (mizrach) is used here, and so in Malachi i. 11-"For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. In the New Testament the Greek word (anatole) rendered "east," is the proper equivalent of the Hebrew word named above. Its true meaning is the sun-rising-" And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. viii. 2). Second, To designate one of the four quarters of the world. This sense is, with the other, implied in the passage last. quoted. It has evident allusion to such expressions as "the four corners of the earth" (Isa. xi. 12); "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the heavens" (Jer. xlix. 36); "And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth" (Rev. xx. 8). Third, To indicate one of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, south :-" And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward" (Gen. xiii. 14). The word here is literally the tract in front (kedem). It is so rendered in Job xxiii. 8-10:-" Behold I go forward (kedem), but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." In Ezekiel xlvii. 18, the same word is used: -“And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side." In several passages this term is associated with strictly geographical references, and with the people dwelling in the regions alluded to. (See under Gen. xxix. 1.)

At the tenth verse the Hebrew genealogy is again resumed:-"These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years." In a table given above, the genealogical list of the Sethites, from Adam to Noah, is set down; the names mentioned being those through whom Christ was to come, and

by whom chiefly the witness to the grace and righteousness of God was maintained on the earth. As we are now entering on a narrower field than has hitherto been before us in dealing with the sacred text, and as the historical ground is becoming more sure, even from the point of view of profane history, these lists need not be continued farther down than to the period of the death of Abraham. Before that event the Shemites, in the line of Arphaxad, had begun to assume a political importance even, sufficient to keep them distinctly in view in the chronicles of the world. Thus in chapter xiv. he is seen as the head of a number of confederate chiefs, under the name of " Abram, the Hebrew."

Isaac was married to Rebekah, B.C. 1856. Sarah was born B.C. 1986, Terah, taking with him Abraham and Lot, went Abraham removed to Canaan B.C. 1921.

and died B.C. 1859. to Haran B.C. 1923. Before the household of Terah removed to Haran, they had been dwelling in Ur of the Chaldees. This city was the native place of Terah's children. Thus Haran, his eldest son, is said (ver. 28) to have "died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees." And when God met Abraham before they set out to go to Canaan, and while he still dwelt with his father in Ur, his words to him were "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee" (xii. 1). "Thou art the Lord God," said Nehemiah (ix. 7), "who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham." Joshua's reference to the same fact gives us a glimpse into the spiritual condition of Terah's household. "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even

Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac" (Josh. xxiv. 2, 3). It is plainly intimated in the Acts (vii. 2) that the call of God reached Abraham in Ur. When the proto-martyr, Stephen, began in the presence of his judges to rehearse the leading events in the history of God's dealings with the chosen and favoured race, he said:" The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran (Haran)." "Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans and dwelt in Charran (ver. 4).

In verse 31 of this chapter we are distinctly told that, though there was no direct divine call given to Terah, "he took Abram and 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." Urged, no doubt, by outward circumstances, Terah removed with all his house from his native place, and turned towards Canaan. Abram likewise leaves Ur, and proceeds with his father in the same direction. Thus far they might seem under the same motive. Yet how widely apart were the motives of each! Terah is moved by political or industrial considerations; Abram's heart is under the direct teaching of the Spirit of God. He has hearkened to a spiritual call, and his eye is to be henceforth on the promise by which the call was backed. His father, still an idolater, walks by sight; Abraham sets out as a man of faith-" -"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place, which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Heb. xi. 8).

The connection of Abraham's forefathers with Chaldæa appears to have been as early as the time of Shem himself. The name of his son, Arphaxad, has been recently shown to mean "the strength, or stronghold of Chaldæa." Chaldæa, or the land of the Kaldi, was, strictly speaking, an independent region, which lay on the south of Babylonia. It came afterwards to be incorporated with it; but, as has already been shown, it was originally, and for a long period, distinct. When mentioned in Scripture, however, it generally includes all Babylonia. Its extent and its physical features are noticed under Isaiah xiii. 1.

At a very early period Ur appears to have been its capital, situated most likely in a province of the same name. This will explain the twofold way in which it is referred to. Sometimes it is noticed in such

a general way as to force on us the conclusion that a wide district is mentioned; but oftener the scope of the context demands that Ur should be regarded as a city. The attempts to identify Ur have led historical critics to claim one of two places as representing the birthplace of Abraham. It was for some time thought that the modern fort, Ur, on the Tigris, between Dura and Nisibis, occupies the site of the ancient city. This is now held to be untenable. The general belief is, that the modern Mugheir, Muqueyer, or Umghéir, a large ruin south of the Euphrates, points out the city of Terah and Abraham. It lies near the junction of the Euphrates with the Shat-el-Hie, about sixteen miles north-west by west from the modern Suk-es-Shuyukh. In 1854 Mr. J. E. Taylor made a careful examination of this mound. The ruin is nearly three thousand yards in circumference, and is built throughout of bricks. The mass of the masonry is sun-dried bricks. These are in some places edged with kiln-dried ones bearing inscriptions. The rows which form the foundations of the chief building, which is two-storied, have been laid down in asphalt, like those at Birs Nimroud. Around the principal ruin many smaller mounds are met with, containing evidences of having been used for the burial of the dead.

In the journey from Ur to Canaan, Terah's household halted in Haran. There Terah died. This town is called Charran in Acts vii. 2, 4. Nahor appears to have settled there. So that when Abraham, after his father's death, set out for Canaan, he left his own kindred in Mesopotamia. Haran is called "the city of Nahor." When Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for Isaac, the heir of promise, it is said (xxiv. 10)" He arose and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor." When Rebekah was persuading her son Jacob to escape from the hands of his wronged and offended brother Esau, she said, "Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother, to Haran" (xxvii. 43). Its geographical position is made even more definite in chapter xxv.-" Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel (son of Nahor by Milcah) the Syrian (the Aramite) of Padan-Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian" (ver. 20). We have thus-1, the region named in which Haran was situated; and 2, the position of the region lying in its immediate neighbourhood is mentioned. The great tract of country was the Hebrew "Aram-Naharaim," or highlands of the two rivers, rendered Mesopotamia in our version. "This," says Dr. Stanley, "is applied to the mountains from which the Euphrates and Tigris issue into the plain. It is also described in Numbers xxiii. 7, as Aram, the mountains of