Genesis 11:28

Summary

The verse reports the death of Haran, one of Terah's sons, stating that he died "upon the face of" his father Terah — an idiomatic phrase indicating that Terah was still alive — and specifying the location as his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans.

Key words

• va-yamot ("and he died", H4191/H9001) — qal verb with narrative vav, moving the story forward with a sequential past action.
• 'al-penei ("upon the face of", H5921A + H6440H) — preposition + construct noun; literally "on the face(s) of," an idiom used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to mean "in the presence of" or "before."
• avi ("father of", H0001G) — construct noun with pronominal suffix -o ("his"), linking Terah as Haran's father.
• 'erets moladto ("land of his kindred/birth", H0776G + H4138 + suffix) — double construct chain, "land of his birth-place," designating Haran's native region.
• Ur Kasdim ("Ur of the Chaldeans", H0218B + H3778) — proper noun pair identifying the specific city and its associated people/region.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yamot ("and he died," H4191), attaching the death of Haran (H2039G) to the preceding genealogical material through the standard Hebrew narrative chain (vav + prefixed verb). The phrase 'al-penei Terach aviv ("upon the face of Terah his father," H5921A/H6440H/H8646G/H0001G) is a construct idiom: panim ("face," H6440H) in construct with a person's name commonly expresses "in the presence of" rather than a literal spatial sense, and by extension can indicate that the referenced person (Terah) was still living when the event occurred.

The remainder of the verse stacks two locative phrases in construct chains: be-'erets moladto ("in the land of his kindred," H0776G/H4138) and be-Ur Kasdim ("in Ur of the Chaldeans," H0218B/H3778). The second phrase functions in apposition to the first, giving the specific place name for the more general "land of his birth."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'al-penei with ἐνώπιον ("before, in the presence of"), matching the idiomatic sense preserved by the Vulgate's ante ("before"). The BSB shifts this into a temporal clause ("During his father Terah's lifetime"), making explicit an implication that the Hebrew idiom carries but does not state directly. For the locative phrase, the LXX expands 'erets moladto into a relative clause, ἐν τῇ γῇ ἧ ἐγενήθη ("in the land where he was born"), splitting it from "in the region of the Chaldeans" (ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῶν Χαλδαίων), whereas the Hebrew and the Vulgate keep the two location terms tightly joined as a construct chain followed by an appositional place name.