Abraham travels: On the road again
Abraham on the road again
Abram, later known as Abraham, is an important figure in the Bible. His travels are detailed in several stories throughout the Old Testament. The Casual English Bible tells of his journey with a focus on the significant moments.
The trip begins
Abram's journey begins in Ur of the Chaldeans, where God calls him to leave his home and travel to a land that God would show him. Abram shows great faith in God and leaves his home with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot.
The group travels through Haran, today's Turkey, where they settle for a while. Eventually, God tells Abram to continue his journey to Canaan, which is the land that he has promised to Abram's descendants. Canaan is what is now Israel and Palestinian Territories.
From Canaan to Egypt
When they arrive in Canaan, God appears to Abram and tells him that he will give this land to his descendants, and Abram builds an altar to the Lord.
Soon after, a famine forces Abram to leave Canaan and travel to Egypt. He tells his wife Sarah to say that she is his sister, to avoid any danger. He was afraid someone would kill him to steal his beautiful wife...who was at least 66 years old. That's according to Who's Who & Where's Where in the Bible, by Stephen M. Miller. The Egyptian Pharaoh takes Sarah into his palace, but God intervenes and plagues the Pharaoh's household. Pharaoh realizes that Sarah is Abram's wife and returns her to him.
Back to Canaan
Abram continues his travels through Canaan, and he and Lot separate due to a dispute over grazing land. Lot chooses the lush Jordan valley, while Abram settles in the land of Canaan. Arabs say Abraham is their father as well. They hold him in high esteem as a prophet.
Throughout his travels, Abram remains devoted to God and builds altars to honor him. People remember him today for his jaw-dropping faith and for becoming the father of the Jewish people.
His stories appear in Genesis 12-25.
Abraham on the road again
Map Genesis 12
Uncle Abraham to the rescue
Map of Lot moving to Sodom
Map Genesis 14
Map Genesis 14
Map Genesis 14. Abraham attacks raiders who captured his nephew Lot: Hittites, Hurrian, Elam, Shinar...all from what is now Turkey, Iran, Iraq.
Attack of the foreign raiders
Map of Hebron
Map of Hebron
Map of Hebron Abraham and Lot part company. Lot leaves Hebron for Sodom, which gets too hot for him.
Road to Sodom
Map Genesis 16
Map Genesis 16
Map Genesis 16. Pregnant slave wife Hagar, mistreated by Sarah, runs away into the desert badlands.
Hagar runs away
Map Round trip for Hagar
Map of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar
Map of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar
Map of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar. Abraham saw the plain engulf in billows of smoke. Genesis 19:27-28.
Sodom on fire
Abraham’s Promised Land Plus
Abraham's Promised Land Plus
Promised Land Boundaries
Map Boundaries of the Promised Land God gave to Abraham
Abe gets Israel and beyond
The boundary of the land God promised to Abraham extends beyond Israel, north to the Euphrates River. That's Syrian's northern boundary with Turkey. The land also stretches east into what is now the country of Jordan.Different versions of the boundaries
The Bible has different versions of the boundaries of the Promised Land, that God described to Abraham, Moses, and Joshua.
Promise to Abraham
The promise to Abraham, found in Genesis 15:18-21, talks about of the land God will give to his descendants. God says he'll extend the land from the Euphrates River in the east, to the brook of Egypt in the west. This region would include the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
This promise established the idea of a homeland and set the stage for the future exodus from Egypt.
Promise to Moses
Moses, in Deuteronomy 34:1-4, reports a detailed description of the land promised to the Israelites. The boundaries mentioned in this passage include the Negev desert in the south, the Lebanon mountains in the north, the River Euphrates in the east, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
This version of the promise differed from Abraham’s in terms of the specific territories included.
Land captured by Joshua
Finally, in the book of Joshua, the promise is fulfilled as they enter the land of Canaan. According to Joshua 1:4, God promised the land promised from the great Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. However, the northernmost boundary fell far short of that: Mount Hermon. And the southern boundary extended to the desert of Paran.
Throughout ancient Jewish history, the actual boundaries varied greatly. King Solomon controlled the largest swath of land, controlling his neighboring nations to the far extend of God's promise to Abraham. But that boundary was short-lived. Israel disappeared when Assyrian and Babylonian invaders destroyed the cities and deported most survivors of the wars in the 700's and 500's BC.
Abe gets Israel and beyond