Where was Ur of the Chaldees?

Answer

Ur of the Chaldees (or Chaldeans) was a location in Mesopotamia and is referenced four times in the Old Testament:

Genesis 11:28 records that Haran (Abram’s brother and Lot’s father) passed away in Ur of the Chaldees, “the land of his birth.”

Genesis 11:31 mentions that Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldees and journeyed to Canaan. Chapter 12 elaborates that this decision was a result of God’s call to Abram to leave his homeland and relocate to a new land that God would one day bestow upon his descendants.

In Genesis 15:7, God introduces Himself to Abram: “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

In Nehemiah 9, the Israelites acknowledge their wrongdoings and recount the history of Israel: “You are the LORD God, who selected Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham” (verse 7).

Ur might have been a city, and various locations have been proposed as the possible site of Ur, but no theory is conclusive. The most commonly suggested site is a city situated on the Euphrates River, approximately 150 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf.

The Septuagint (an Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) simply refers to Ur of the Chaldees as the “land of the Chaldees,” and in the New Testament, Stephen, while reviewing the history of Israel, mentions that Abraham came out of the “land of the Chaldeans” «Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. », (Acts 7:4).

Many scholars argue that Ur is not the name of a city but simply a term that means “land.” If this is accurate, then Ur of the Chaldees is essentially the land of the Chaldees. Chaldea was situated in the region known as the Fertile Crescent. The extent of the Chaldeans’ territory varied depending on the time period.

, but it would have included the lower part of the Fertile Crescent, extending from the upper edge of the Persian Gulf northwest to the area of the city of Babylon. The Chaldeans ruled Babylon for a while. The exact boundaries of their territory are not clear.

The point of the story is that God called Abram out of an area of civilization and prosperity. Ur of the Chaldees, the place where he lived, would have had ample water and land for pasturing and would have been active with commerce. It was “the place” to be. God called him away from that to a place that was unknown to him. Abram would probably have had a hard time imagining any place better than the place where he already was. But Abram believed the promises of God, and God credited that faith to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). History has been filled with pioneers who have left civilization to seek a better life, but usually these people have been in dire straits, desperate for something better. They left a bad situation knowing that, even though there would be dangers and hardships, they could have something better in the end. Abram’s situation seems to have been the opposite. He lived in a prosperous civilization among his family, who appears to have been wealthy. He walked away from it all, simply trusting that God was going to give him something better, even though he would be a stranger in a strange land and would not see the fulfillment of God’s promises in his lifetime.

Many Christians face the same issue. Those living in ease and luxury can too easily focus on the here and now, forgetting that God has called them, like Abram and his children, to look “forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” «for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. », (Hebrews 11:10).