Ur of the Chaldeans
A place in the Bible
A very old city in Mesopotamia, by the Euphrates River. Abraham’s family came from there.
What happened here
- Abraham’s family: Terah, Abraham’s father, left Ur of the Chaldeans with Abraham, Sarah, and his grandson Lot, to go to Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there.
- The promise: God told Abraham that he had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give him the land of Canaan.
Today
Its ruins remain at Tell el-Muqayyar (once written “Mugheir”), in southern Iraq.
Where it appears in the Bible
Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:7
What the Bible says
Genesis 11:31
And Thare took Abram, his son, and Lot the son of Aran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Chanaan: and they came as far as Haran, and dwelt there.
Genesis 15:7
And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), “Ur”