very strong. Uru is the only city of the name known from Assyriology
(although the addition of the gen. (
Hebrew characters) suggests that others were
known to the Israelites: G-K. § 125 h): it was situated in the properly
Chaldæan territory, was a city of great importance and vast antiquity,
and (like Ḥarran, with which it is here connected) was a chief centre of
the worship of the moon-god Sin (KAT2, 129 ff.). The only circumstance
that creates serious misgiving is that the prevalent tradition of Gen.
points to the NE as the direction whence the patriarchs migrated to
Canaan (see below); and this has led to attempts to find a northern
Ur connected probably with the Mesopotamian Chaldæans of 2222 (see
Kittel, Gesch. i. 163 ff.). Syrian tradition identifies it with Edessa
(Urhåi, Urfa). It is generally recognised, however, that these considerations
are insufficient to invalidate the arguments in favour of Uru.—(Hebrew characters)]
= Bab. Kašdu, Ass. Kaldu ((Greek characters)), is the name of a group of
Semitic tribes, distinguished from the Arabs and Aramæans, who are
found settled to the SE of Babylonia, round the shore of the Persian Gulf.
In the 11th cent. or earlier they are believed to have penetrated Babylonia,
at first as roving, pastoral nomads (KAT3, 22 ff.), but ultimately giving
their name to the country, and founding the dynasty of Nabopolassar.—By
the ancients (Hebrew characters) was rightly understood of Babylonia (Nikolaos
Damasc. in Jos. Ant. i. 152; Eupolemos in Eus. Præp. Ev. ix. 17;
Jer. al.); but amongst the Jews (Hebrew characters) came to be regarded as an appellative
= 'fire' (in igne Chaldæorum, which Jer. accepts, though he rejects
the legends that were spun out of the etymology). This is the germ of
the later Haggadic fables about the 'fire' in which Haran met an
untimely fate, and the furnace into which Abraham was cast by order
of Nimrod (Jub. xii. 12-14; Jer. Quæst., ad loc.; TJ, Ber. R. § 38, Ra.).
29. While we are told that Nāḥôr's wife was his brother's
daughter, it is surprising that nothing is said of the
parentage of Sarai. According to E (2012), she was Abraham's
half-sister; but this does not entitle us to suppose that
words expressing this relationship have been omitted from
the text of J (Ewald). It would seem, however, that
tradition represented marriage between near relations as
the rule among the Teraḥites (2012 243ff. 2919).
With regard to the names, (Hebrew characters) seems to be an archaic form of
(Hebrew characters) = 'princess' (see on 1715), while (Hebrew characters) means 'queen.' In Bab. the
relations are reversed, šarratu being the queen and malkatu the princess.
It cannot be a mere coincidence that these two names correspond
to two personages belonging to the pantheon of Ḥarran, where Šarratu
was a title of the moon-goddess, the consort of Sin, and Malkatu a title
29. (Hebrew characters)] sing., according to G-K. § 146 f.—30. (Hebrew characters)] as 2521 2931 (J);
not in P (see 161a).—(Hebrew characters)] [E] (Hebrew characters). Only again as Kethîb of Or. MSS in
2 Sa. 623. It is possibly here a scribal error, which eventually influenced
the other pass.
