Nachor

NACHOR (Hebrew: Nāhōr). - Son of Terah and brother of Abraham (Gen. 11:26). He was the father of 12 sons, of whom 8 were born to Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran and sister of Lot, and 4 to another wife named Reumah: these were the ancestors or eponyms of as many Aramean tribes, which settled to the west of the Euphrates, and some of them (such as Maacah [v.]) extended as far as the mountains of Gilead. Although he is not mentioned at the time of Abraham's emigration from Chaldea, N. followed his brother as far as Haran, afterward called for that reason "the city of N." (Gen. 27:43), where he settled with his family.

Abraham continued to maintain relations with N. even when he separated from him to go to the land of Canaan (cf. ibid. 22:20), and later he wished to give his son Isaac a wife, Rebecca, from his brother's household (ibid. 24). From the same family Jacob took his two wives Leah and Rachel (ibid. 29). And when the latter, after fleeing from Haran, was reconciled with his uncle and father-in-law Laban, who was the son of Bethuel and the grandson of N., a covenant was concluded between the two in the name "of the God of Abraham and the God of N." (ibid. 31:33): from this passage some wish to infer that N. too, like his father Terah before him (cf. Josh. 24:2), was infected with idolatry.