Terah, a descendant of Shem son of Noah, was the father of Abram/Abraham, Sarai/Sarah, Nahor, and Haran.[5] Their home's location is not certain, but it is usually supposed to have been in Mesopotamia. Besides Lot and Milcah, Haran fathered a daughter Iscah.[6]
After Haran died in Ur of the Chaldees 'before his father Terah', his family travelled towards Canaan, the Promised Land. However, Terah stopped at Charan (or Haran [Hebrew חָרָן, Ḥārān]) and settled there, as did Nahor and Milcah, whereas Lot accompanied Abraham and others onwards to Canaan.[7][8]
The name Haran possibly comes from the Hebrew word har, = "mountain", with a West Semitic suffix appearing with proper names, anu/i/a.[9] Thus, it has been suggested that Haran may mean "mountaineer".[10] Personal names which resemble Haran include ha-ri and ha-ru, from texts of second millennium BC Mari and Alalakh, and ha-ar-ri, from one of the Amarna letters—but their meanings are uncertain.[11][12][13] The initial element of Haran can be found in the Phoenician personal name hr-b`l, and also in the Israelite personal name hryhw from Gibeon.[13]
^D. Sivan, Grammatical Analysis and Glossary of the Northwest Semitic Vocables in Akkadian Texts of the 15th–13th C., BC from Canaan and Syria, 1984, p.97–98
^A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing with its Language, Vol. 1, 1899, p.301
^H. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Archives: A Structural and Lexical Study, 1965, p.204
^D. Sivan, Grammatical Analysis of Northwest Semitic Vocables, p. 222
