While Abraham was still living in Ur, “before he took up residence in Haran,” Jehovah commanded him to move out to a strange land, leaving behind friends and relatives. (Ac 7:2-4; Ge 15:7; Ne 9:7) There in that country that He would show Abraham, God said he would make out of him a great nation. At the time, Abraham was married to his half sister Sarah, but they were childless and both were old. So it would take great faith to obey, but obey he did.

Terah, now around 200 years old and still the family’s patriarchal head, agreed to accompany Abraham and Sarah on this long journey, and it is for this reason that Terah as father is credited with making the move toward Canaan. (Ge 11:31) It appears that fatherless Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was adopted by his childless uncle and aunt and so accompanied them. Northwestward the caravan moved, some 960 km (600 mi), until they reached Haran, which was an important junction on the E-W trade routes. Haran is located where two wadis join to form a stream that reaches the Balikh River in the winter, about 110 km (68 mi) above where the Balikh empties into the Euphrates River. Here Abraham remained until the death of his father Terah.​—MAP, Vol. 1, p. 330.

Sojourn in Canaan. Now 75 years old, Abraham began to move his household out of Haran to the land of Canaan, where he lived out the remaining hundred years of his life in tents as an alien and migratory resident. (Ge 12:4) It was following the death of his father Terah that Abraham went out from Haran in 1943 B.C.E. and crossed the Euphrates River, evidently on the 14th day of the month that later became known as Nisan. (Ge 11:32; Ex 12:40-43, LXX) It was at that time that the covenant between Jehovah and Abraham went into effect, and the 430-year period of temporary residence until the making of the Law covenant with Israel began.​—Ex 12:40-42; Ga 3:17.

Evidently Abraham, with his flocks and herds, traveled down through Damascus and on to Shechem (located 48 km [30 mi] N of Jerusalem), near the big trees of Moreh. (Ge 12:6) Here Jehovah appeared again to Abraham, confirming and enlarging His covenant promise by declaring: “To your seed I am going to give this land.” (Ge 12:7) Abraham not only built an altar to Jehovah there but, as he moved southward through the land, he built other altars along the way; and he called on the name of Jehovah. (Ge 12:8, 9) In time a severe famine compelled Abraham to move temporarily to Egypt, and to protect his life, he represented Sarah as his sister. This resulted in Pharaoh’s taking beautiful Sarah into his household to be his wife, but before he could violate her, Jehovah had Pharaoh give her back. Abraham then returned to Canaan to the campsite between Bethel and Ai and again called “on the name of Jehovah.”​—Ge 12:10–13:4.

Appearance of the Promised Seed. Since Sarah continued to be barren, it appeared that Eliezer the faithful house steward from Damascus would receive Abraham’s inheritance. Nevertheless, Jehovah again reassured Abraham that his own offspring would become uncountable, as the stars of heaven, and so Abraham “put faith in Jehovah; and he proceeded to count it to him as righteousness,” even though this occurred years before Abraham was circumcised. (Ge 15:1-6; Ro 4:9, 10) Jehovah then concluded a formal covenant over animal sacrifices with Abraham, and at the same time, he revealed that Abraham’s offspring would be afflicted for a period of 400 years, even being taken into slavery.​—Ge 15:7-21; see COVENANT.

Time passed. They had now been in Canaan for about ten years, yet Sarah continued barren. She therefore proposed to substitute her Egyptian maidservant Hagar so that she might have a child by her. Abraham consented. And so in 1932 B.C.E., when Abraham was 86 years old, Ishmael was born. (Ge 16:3, 15, 16) More time passed. In 1919 B.C.E., when Abraham was 99 years old, as a sign or seal to testify to the special covenant relationship existing between himself and Abraham, Jehovah commanded that all the males of Abraham’s household be circumcised. At the same time Jehovah changed his name from Abram to Abraham, “because a father of a crowd of nations I will make you.” (Ge 17:5, 9-27; Ro 4:11) Soon after, three materialized angels, whom Abraham received hospitably in the name of Jehovah, promised that Sarah herself would conceive and give birth to a son, yes, within the coming year!​—Ge 18:1-15.

And what an eventful year it proved to be! Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Abraham’s nephew and his two daughters barely escaped. Abraham along with Sarah moved to Gerar, only to have the king of that Philistine city take Sarah for his harem. Jehovah intervened; Sarah was released; and at the appointed time, 1918 B.C.E., Isaac, the long-promised heir, was born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. (Ge 18:16–21:7) Five years later, when Isaac’s 19-year-old half brother Ishmael poked fun at him, Abraham was compelled to dismiss Ishmael and his mother Hagar. It was then, in 1913 B.C.E., that the 400 years of affliction upon Abraham’s offspring began.​—Ge 21:8-21; 15:13; Ga 4:29.

The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came about 20 years later. According to Jewish tradition, Isaac was now 25 years old. (Jewish Antiquities, by F. Josephus, I, 227 [xiii, 2]) In obedience to Jehovah’s instructions Abraham took Isaac and traveled N from Beer-sheba at the Negeb to Mount Moriah, situated directly N of Salem. There he built an altar and prepared to offer up Isaac, the promised seed, as a burnt sacrifice. And indeed Abraham “as good as offered up Isaac,” for “he reckoned that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.” Only at the last moment did Jehovah intervene and provide a ram as a substitute for Isaac on the sacrificial altar. It was, therefore, this implicit faith backed up by complete obedience that moved Jehovah to reinforce his covenant with Abraham with a sworn oath, a special legal guarantee.​—Ge 22:1-18; Heb 6:13-18; 11:17-19.

When Sarah died at Hebron in 1881 B.C.E. at the age of 127, it was necessary for Abraham to purchase a burial plot, for indeed he was only an alien resident owning no land in Canaan. So he bought a field with its cave at Machpelah near Mamre from the sons of Heth. (Ge 23:1-20; see PURCHASE.) Three years later, when Isaac reached the age of 40, Abraham sent his oldest servant, likely Eliezer, back to Mesopotamia in order to find a suitable wife, one who was also a true worshiper of Jehovah, for his son. Rebekah, who was the grandniece of Abraham, proved to be Jehovah’s choice.​—Ge 24:1-67.

“Furthermore, Abraham again took a wife,” Keturah, and thereafter fathered six additional sons, so that from Abraham sprang not only the Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Edomites but also Medanites, Midianites, and others. (Ge 25:1, 2; 1Ch 1:28, 32, 34) Thus it was that Jehovah’s prophetic utterance was fulfilled in Abraham: “A father of a crowd of nations I will make you.” (Ge 17:5)