Homeland (Gen 12:1)
The Story of Abraham Begins
1 from your land, from your home, from your father’s house
מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ
We saw last time that it is absolutely critical to understand that these three phrases are here to match the three direct objects of the verb קח qaḥ ‘take’ in 22:2 at the beginning of the story of the Akedah, “The Binding of Isaac.” That doesn’t mean we don’t have to bother with what they mean individually. The three objects in 22:2 are laid out with extreme literary care, and we should look to see whether our three were also chosen deliberately and not just to make up the necessary quantity. Let’s look at them in order.
אַרְצְךָ֥ artz’kha ‘your land’
This all-purpose Hebrew word was in the very first verse of the Bible. We know that it can mean Earth as opposed to Sky; Land as opposed to Sea; and “land” in the sense of a particular country, like Havilah or Shinar. We’ve also seen éretz belonging to people — “their” lands — in the case of Yefet, Ham, and Shem in Genesis 10, the Table of Nations. But if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time we’ve seen a land “belonging” to a single individual: your land.
This is not Abram’s land in the sense that Gerar was the land of King Abimelech, who calls it “my land” in 20:15; Abram is not the king of anything. A quick survey through the first thirty or so chapters of Genesis does reveal something quite interesting. In 24:4, Abraham sends his servant back to “my land” — the land he is leaving now — to get a wife for Isaac; in 30:25, Jacob asks his father-in-law’s permission to go back to “my land,” that is, the land of Canaan. Between the two bookend patriarchs, grandfather and grandson, “my” land has changed from the old home place in Mesopotamia to the family’s future home, where Abram is being sent right now.
מֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ molad’t’kha ‘your home’
