And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife [was] Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
29. Sarai ] Abram’s wife was, according to Gen 20:12, his half-sister, i.e. a daughter of Terah by another wife. Milcah, Nahor’s wife, is Nahor’s niece. Whether in these marriages we have to deal with the actual details of relationship permitted in nomadic life, or whether we have presented to us, under the imagery of matrimony, the fusion of families or tribes in the main community, is a question which we are not able through lack of evidence to answer. The blending of personal and tribal history produces a result, in which it is impossible to be sure of disentangling the separate elements.
“Sarai” is believed to be an archaic form of “Sarah” = “princess”: cf. Gen 17:15.
The fact that Sarratu (= “princess”) was a title of the moon-goddess, consort of Sin, and Malkatu (= “queen”), a title of Istar, among the deities worshipped in Harran, raises questions with regard to the origin of the Hebrew proper names, Sarah and Milcah.
For Milcah cf. Gen 22:20; Gen 22:23; Gen 24:15; Gen 24:24; Gen 24:47. “Iscah,” otherwise unknown: by some identified with Sarai; by others as Lot’s wife.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 29. Milcah, the daughter of Haran] Many suppose Sarai and Iscah are the same person under two different names; but this is improbable, as Iscah is expressly said to be the daughter of Haran, and Sarai was the daughter of Terah, and half sister of Abram.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Such marriages of uncles and nieces being permitted then, Exo 6:20, (as in the beginning of the world the marriages of brethren and sisters were), though afterwards, the church being very much enlarged, they were severely forbidden, Lev 18:12,14.
Iscah is either Sarai, as the Jews and many others think, or rather another person. For,
1. Why should Moses express Sarai thus darkly and doubtfully? Had he meant her, he would have added after Iscah, this is Sarai, according to his manner in like cases, Gen 14:2,7; 35:6.
2. He elsewhere calleth her, the daughter, not of his brother, as he should have done, had she been Iscah, but of his father, by another mother.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Abram and Nahor took them wives,…. Very probably after the death of their elder brother Haran, whose daughters they married, at least one of them did, and some think both;
the name of Abraham’s wife was Sarai: it is not said whose daughter she was, unless she is the same with Iscah, the daughter of Haran, and so had two names, Iscah her name before marriage, Sarai after it, Abram calling her “my mistress”, as “Sarai” signifies, as she called him my lord: so the Targum of Jonathan, Iscah, this is Sarai; in like manner Jarchi, Baal Hatturim, and other Jewish writers f, take them to be the same; but according to Ge 20:12 Sarai should be the daughter of Terah, the father of Abraham, by another woman; and so the Arabic writers g say,
“the mother of Abraham died, whose name was Juna; and Terah married another wife, whose name was Lahazib; she bore him Sarah, whom Abraham afterwards married:”
[and] the name of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah: so that Nahor married his brother’s daughter, which sort of marriage was then allowed of, as formerly that of own brothers and sisters, but afterwards was strictly forbidden in the Levitical law: this account is given of Nahor’s wife, as Aben Ezra observes, to show the pedigree of Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah: some think, as before observed, that Abram married the other daughter of his brother Haran, Iscah, and that she is the same with Sarai; and indeed, without supposing that, it is difficult to conceive for what reason this should be observed, that Haran, the father of Milcah, was also the father of Iscah; and if Sarai is not Iscah, no account is given by Moses of her descent, which may seem strange; and it can hardly be thought he would omit it, when it must be so agreeable to his people to know from whom they descended, both by the father’s and mother’s side.
f Bereshit Rabba, sect. 38. fol. 33. 3. 4. g Ut supra, (Elmacinus, p. 31. Patricides, p. 17.) apud Hottinger. p. 281.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(29) Iscah.Not the same as Sarai, for we learn in Gen. 20:12 that she was Abrahams half-sisterthat is, a daughter of Terah by another wife. Nor was she Lots wife, as Ewald supposed, for she was his full sister. Marriages between near relatives seem to have been allowed at this time, and were perhaps even common for religious reasons (see Gen. 24:3-4; Gen. 28:1-2), but not marriages between those actually by the same mother. Thus Abraham takes his half-sister to wife, and Nahor his niece. Iscah, like Naamah (Gen. 4:22), was probably eminent in her time, but for reasons not recorded.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. Iscah is, by Josephus, ( Ant . , 1: 6,) and by the Jewish writers generally, identified with Sarai or Sarah . If so, Abram married his niece, and Lot was his brother-in-law as well as his nephew . See the plan under Gen 11:27. That Sarah was in some way descended from Terah appears from Abram’s statement to Abimelech, Gen 20:12, “She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother . ”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife [was] Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Ver. 29. And the father of Iscah. ] The Chaldee Paraphrast addeth Hi Sara ; , the same is Sarah. It was not yet flatly forbidden to marry a brother’s daughter, as afterwards it was. Lev 18:14 Why then should Burgensis on the text say, that such marriages were never prohibited?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Iscah. See App-29.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Sarai: Gen 17:15, Gen 20:12
Milcah: Gen 22:20, Gen 24:15
Iscah: Iscah is called the daughter-in-law of Terah – Gen 11:31, as being Abram’s wife; yet Abram afterwards said, “she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother” – Gen 20:12. Probably Haran was the eldest son of Terah, and Abram his youngest by another wife; and thus Sarai was the daughter, or grand-daughter of Terah, Abram’s father, but not of his mother.
Reciprocal: Gen 12:13 – thou Gen 24:24 – General Gen 24:36 – Sarah Eze 16:3 – Thy birth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
11:29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife [was] Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of {m} Iscah.
(m) Some think that this Iscah was Sarai.