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Haran

• Today Harran

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Events

1. c. 610 BCThe Babylonians and the Medes take Harran from the last Assyrian king
2. 53 BCThe Parthians rout Crassus near Carrhae (Haran); he is killed soon after at a parley

History

Haran lay in upper Mesopotamia on the Balikh, a tributary of the Euphrates, at the site of Harran in south-eastern Turkey, about 40 km south-east of Urfa. Its name means "road" in Akkadian, fitting a town where the routes from Mesopotamia to Syria and Anatolia crossed. It was famed as the city of the moon god Sin, whose temple was called Ehulhul. Under the Assyrian empire it was a provincial centre.

Genesis tells that Terah came to Haran with Abram, Sarai and Lot on the way from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan, and died there. Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Later Jacob fled to his uncle Laban in Haran and served him for his wives. Sennacherib's envoys to Hezekiah named Haran among the lands their kings had destroyed, Ezekiel lists its merchants among those who traded with Tyre, and Stephen recalled Abraham's stay in Charran.

After Nineveh fell in 612 BC, Ashur-uballit II took the throne in Harran as the last king of Assyria. In 610 BC the Babylonians and the Medes marched on the city; the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies abandoned it, and it was taken. A year later Ashur-uballit and an Egyptian army tried in vain to retake it, as the Babylonian Chronicle records. Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, rebuilt the temple of Sin.

The Greeks and Romans called the town Carrhae. Near it in 53 BC the Parthians routed the army of Crassus, who was killed soon after. In AD 217 the emperor Caracalla was murdered on the road from Edessa to Carrhae, and in 363 Julian stopped there on his way to Persia to sacrifice to the moon. The pilgrim Egeria, about 384, was shown a church outside the walls on the site of Abraham's house, but found scarcely a Christian in the city apart from clergy and monks: Harran long kept its old worship.

Scripture: Gen 11:31–32; Gen 12:4–5; Gen 27:43; Gen 28:10; Gen 29:4–5; Gen 29:18–28; 2 Kgs 19:12; Isa 37:12; Ezek 27:23; Acts 7:2–4

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (12)

Gen 11:31

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

Gen 11:32

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Gen 12:4

So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Gen 12:5

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Gen 27:43

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;

Gen 28:10

And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.

Gen 29:4

And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we.

2 Kgs 19:12

Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?

Isa 37:12

Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?

Ezek 27:23

Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.

Acts 7:2

And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

Acts 7:4

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.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Abraham's journey →
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