Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Abraham

ABRAHAM, son of Terah, and brother of Nahor and Haran, the progenitor of the Hebrew nation and of several cognate tribes. In obedience to a call of God, Abraham, with his father Terah, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot, left his native Ur of the Chaldees, and dwelt for a time in Haran, where Terah died. After his father's death. Abraham, now 75 years old, pursued his course, with Sarah and Lot, to the land of Canaan, whither he was directed by the divine command (Genesis, xii: 5), when he received the general promise that he should become the founder of a great nation, and that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. As the country was suffering with famine, Abraham journeyed southward to the rich cornlands of Egypt. Abraham left Egypt with great possessions, and, accompanied by Lot, returned to one of his former encampments between Bethel and Ai. Abraham pitched his tent among the oak-groves of Mamre, close to Hebron, where the promise that his descendants should become a mighty nation was confirmed. At the suggestion of Sarah, who despaired of having children of her own, he took as his concubine Hagar, her Egyptian maid, who bare him Ishmael, in the 86th year of his age. Thirteen years elapsed, during which revelation was made that a son of Sarah, and not Ishmael, should inherit both the temporal and spiritual blessings. The covenant was renewed, and the rite of circumcision established as its sign. At length, Isaac, the long-looked-for child, was born, and Ishmael was driven out, with his mother Hagar, as a satisfaction to Sarah's jealousy. Some 25 years after this event, Abraham received the strange command to take Isaac and offer him for a burnt-offering at an appointed place. He hesitated not to obey, but the sacrifice was stayed by the angel of Jehovah. Abraham, at the goodly age of 175, was "gathered to his people."