Genesis 12:4

ABRAM IN CANAAN, Genesis 12:4-9.

4. Departed Abram obeys, and goes forth from Haran, westward, over the river, as it was ever called by the Hebrews, the great Euphrates, afterwards the boundary of the kingdom of David and Solomon, separating Aram from Padan-Aram, the fertile Mesopotamian plain from the Syrian desert, and henceforth he was Abram, the Hebrew, the man who had crossed the border from beyond the great river, ( ο περατης , LXX of Genesis 14:13,) the emigrant, the pilgrim, ( peregrinus, perager,) a typical name of spiritual depth and beauty . See note on Genesis 10:24. He crossed the high chalk cliffs which wall the plain on the west, and forded the broad strong stream with wife and nephew and dependants, his flocks and his asses and camels, and entered the Syrian desert, a pilgrim, henceforth a type of all who set out on the heavenly pilgrimage . The manners and habits of the East are to day so nearly what they were in Abram’s day that we can easily picture the scene .