Nachor

נחור


Genesis 11: 21 ff: Two men by the same name are referred to; Nachor the elder was the son of Serug (שרוג) and the father of Terach (תרח), Av-Ram's father; Nachor the second was Av-Ram's brother who married his own niece Milkah (מלכה), the daughter of Haran (הרן). See also Genesis 22:20.

The Mari letters refer to a city called Nakhuru or Til Nakhiri; also noted in Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th to the 12th centuries BCE in the region of Charan.

Genesis 24:10 is interesting in this regard, as it tells us that Eli-Ezer, Av-Raham's servant, going to seek a wife for Yitschak, "made his way to the town of Nachor"; the verse has always been read as meaning "the town where Nachor lived", but perhaps it is in fact naming the town, and not the man. This is paralleled in the names of Haran (הרן), their youngest brother, and Charan (חרן), which is supposedly the name of the town in question (but note that Haran and Charan are spelled differently in Yehudit, where Nachor and Nachor are not).

Nachor the younger may have been Terach's eldest, and not Av-Ram as some versions suggest; for he bore the name of his paternal grandfather, as the first-born would. But only if the grandfather had died, because the naming of the grandson in his honour is an act of memorial in Jewish tradition - so in fact the naming in this instance is not a confirmation of status. Whereas not being the one to inherit generally leaves the next son having to depart in search of an inheritance he can make for himself, which would give a rational explanation for "Lech lecha" - and in the ultimogenitural world of the Beney Yisra-El, as we see with Kayin, Esav and Yisham-El, it is the youngest son who inherits, the first-born who therefore has to make his own way in the world, usually by leaving home and settling elsewhere. So, from this, rather than the grandfather's name, we can state with confidence that Av-Ram was the firstborn.

Does this then render Av-Ram's epic journey equivalent to Ya'akov's? No, because Ya'akov was himself the younger son, and it was Esav who departed and settled permanently in Edom. In the epic journey, the hero always returns to claim his inheritance; Av-Ram settles permanently in Kena'an, and never returns to Charan.

Genesis 31:51 refers to Elohey Nachor (אלהי נחר). In the light of the above comments on Nakhuru, or Til Nakhiri, can we understand this to mean that Av-Ram's Emoritic family, and therefore presumably him too, were followers of the Babylonian pantheon?

The root means "to snort" or "breathe hard", as bulls do, thus identifying him with the bull-god El.

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