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Ur of the Chaldeans

Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia

(Gen. 11:28, 31; Neh. 9:7)—the city from which Terah’s family departed with Abram on the journey toward Canaan. Most modern scholarship identifies it with the great Sumerian city at Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Mesopotamia. Older interpreters, including the source, identified it with Edessa, later Urfa and now Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey, but that equation is no longer generally accepted.

Scripture cited

Genesis 11:28 Nehemiah 9:7

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