Matthew Henry Commentary Genesis 11:27-32

"Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: The name of Abram`s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor`s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. And Sarai was barren; She had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son`s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram`s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran." — Genesis 11:27-32 (ASV)

Here begins the story of Abram, whose name is famous in both Testaments. Even the children of Eber had become worshippers of false gods. Those who are, through grace, heirs of the land of promise, should remember what the land of their birth was; what their corrupt and sinful state was by nature. Abram's brothers were Nahor, from whose family both Isaac and Jacob took their wives, and Haran, the father of Lot, who died before his father.

Children cannot be sure that they will outlive their parents. Haran died in Ur, before the happy removal of the family from that idolatrous country. We should hasten from our natural state, so that death does not surprise us in it. We read here of Abram's departure from Ur of the Chaldees, with his father Terah, his nephew Lot, and the rest of his family, in obedience to the call of God.

This chapter leaves them about midway between Ur and Canaan, where they lived until Terah's death. Many reach Charran, and yet fall short of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come there.