Southern Mesopotamia · Today: Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq
Ur in the Bible
Ur of the Chaldeans is where Abraham's family begins, before Terah leads them north to Haran. Joshua's farewell speech reminds Israel that their ancestors served other gods beyond the river.
Archaeology
Woolley's excavations uncovered the great ziggurat and the royal cemetery with its lyres, jewellery and mass burials, showing a sophisticated city in the third millennium BC.
Verses mentioning Ur
6 occurrences across 5 verses in the King James Version.
- Genesis 11:28
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Read in context - Genesis 11:31
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.
Read in context - Genesis 15:7
And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Read in context - 1 Chronicles 11:35
Ahiam the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal the son of Ur, Sacar: or, Sharar Eliphal: or, Eliphelet Ur: or, Ahasbai
Read in context - Nehemiah 9:7
Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
Read in context