Meaning of NAHOR

"that gasps, that snorts."
(a) Son of Serug and grandfather of Abraham (Gen. 11:24, 25).

(b) Son of Terah and brother of Abraham (Gen. 11:27). He married Milcah, his niece, daughter of Haran (Gen. 11:29). He is not mentioned among those who left Ur of the Chaldeans with Terah, Abraham and Lot, but he is later found in Haran, in Mesopotamia (Gen. 24:10; 27:43). He had eight sons by Milcah, who became the progenitors of the Aramaic tribes.

His concubine bore him four sons, from whom other peoples also arose (Gen. 22: 21-24). Bethuel, son of Nahor and Milcah, became the father of Rebekah and Laban (Gen. 24:15, 29).

The Mari tablets, and more recent documents in Middle Assyrian, frequently name the city of Nahor (Gen. 24:10), called Nakhur (Najur).

It was located approximately further south of Haran, in the Balikh Valley. In the 14th century BC. It was ruled by Amorite princes (cf. Courville, "The Exodus Problem and its Ramifications", vol. II, p. 233 ff.).