Biblical Archaeology Review

See Patricia G. Kirkpatrick, The Old Testament and Folklore Study (Sheffield, England: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Press, 1988), pp. 108–114.

The names of the descendants of Nahor in Genesis 22:20–24, including Aram and Chesed (the Chaldeans), are another indication of first-millennium updating; in the case of the Chaldeans, the updating reflects conditions known from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E.

See Abraham Malamat, Mari and the Early Israelite Experience (Oxford: Oxford Univ., 1989). Malamat identifies these common features as at least typologically relevant for comparison, and possibly historically related to the patriarchal traditions (see pp. 27–30).

The nuance of the word ’oµbeµd, “perishing, lost,” is not entirely clear in this verse.

On Aramean-Israelite relations, see Wayne T. Pitard, Ancient Damascus: A Historical Study of the Syrian City-State from Earliest Times Until Its Fall to the Assyrians in 732 B.C.E. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1987) and his remarks on this issue on p. 86.

Beitzel, “The Old Assyrian Caravan Road,” pp. 36–37.

See Barry J. Beitzel, “The Old Assyrian Caravan Road in the Mari Royal Archives,” in Gordon D. Young, ed., Mari in Retrospect (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992) pp. 36, 38, 52.