And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventytwo nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one tongue, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God. Nor can we conclude that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations that descend from Shem through Arpachshad and reach to Abraham. But from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before or nonexistent, whether both cities remained after the flood—the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord—is not easily determined.
But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of years each member of this series lived but only the year of his life in which he gave birth to his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years from the flood to Abraham and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument. In the second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he was years old begat Arpachshad; Arpachshad when he was years old begat Cainan; Cainan when he was years begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when he begat Eber. Eber lived years and begat Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived years and begat Reu; and Reu lived years and begat Serug; Serug , and begat Nahor; and Nahor , and begat Terah; and Terah , and begat Abram, whose name God afterwards changed into Abraham. There are thus from the flood to Abraham , years, according to the common or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew copies far ...
“And Aran [Haran] died before his father in the land in which he was born in the territory of the Chaldeans.” In place of what we read [in the LXX] as “in the territory of the Chaldeans,” in the Hebrew it has “in ur Chesdim,” that is, “in the fire of the Chaldeans.” Moreover the Hebrews, taking the opportunity afforded by this verse, hand on a story of this sort to the effect that Abraham was put into the fire because he refused to worship the fire, which the Chaldeans honor, and that he escaped through God’s help and fled from the fire of idolatry. What is written [in the LXX] in the following verses, that Thara [Terah] with his offspring “went out from the territory of the Chaldeans,” stands in place of what is contained in the Hebrew, “from the fire of the Chaldeans.” And they maintain that this refers to what is said in this verse: “Aran died before the face of Thara in the land of his birth in the fire of the Chaldeans”; that is, because he refused to worship fire, he was consumed...
