Acts 7:4

‘Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Haran, and from there, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land, in which you now dwell,'

So Abraham had left behind him the land of the Chaldaeans at God's command and had dwelt in Haran. And from there he had later, when his father was dead, removed into Canaan. Note the two stages in his journey, only the second of which brought him ‘home'. This compares later with the two visits of the brothers to Egypt only the second of which resulted in their knowing Joseph (Acts 7:12), and the two appearances to his people by Moses, only the second of which resulted in his acceptance as deliverer (Acts 7:27; Acts 7:35). This was Stephen's way of making palatable to his hearers the possibility of conversion to Jesus Christ, even though they had not at first recognised Him. They too could take the second chance.

‘When his father was dead.' Even though Abraham may have take his flocks into Canaan well before this, it would have been unfilial to show him as permanently leaving his father's household while his father was alive. It would be considered that if, while acting as a shepherd, he had taken his flocks and his household to Canaan this would, while his father was still alive, only have been seen as ‘temporary'. It was only when his father was dead that the ties could be cut. Compare Jacob's ‘temporary' move to Paddan-Aram which lasted over twenty years, but always with the thought that he would return, and the movements of Jacob's sons as they fed their flocks in various places constantly away from ‘home', so that Joseph had to travel quite a distance in order to visit them. But always the contact remained with ‘home'. The place to which they had gone was never ‘home'. In the same way Abraham would still, as a dutiful son, essentially be seen as subject to Terah's summons to return. Where Terah was would still be his ‘home'. It would only be his father's death that would finally make Canaan ‘home'. It was at that stage that Abraham would finally and firmly be settled in the land never to return to his father's household.

We may also note the possibility that Abraham was mentioned first of the three sons in Genesis 11:26 only because of his prominence in the ensuing narrative, rather than because he was the eldest son. Thus the son born when Terah was ‘seventy' may have been Nahor or Haran. (It was after all Nahor who was named after his grandfather, and Haran had a grown up daughter for Nahor to marry). Abraham may have been born much later and have been the youngster. Thus if we were to take the numbers literally we might see Abraham as having been born when Terah was one hundred and thirty.

However, this assumes that the numbers were intended to be taken literally, and with ancient numbers that is always doubtful, especially when they are round numbers. Numbers were used to convey information, and not necessarily numerical information. Indeed it will be noted that all the numbers in the narrative are in fact round numbers (to the early Hebrews numbers ending in five appear to have been round numbers). Thus seventy may have indicated simply the divine perfection of Abraham's birth (taken literally seventy would have been very late in time for the bearing of a firstborn) while two hundred and five may have represented ‘two hundred' as dying in middle age (thus not three hundred which would represent old age) with the five indicating covenant connection because of his connection with Abraham, the man of the covenant. Seventy five could then again signify the seventy of divine perfection with again covenant connection (note how many ages in the early list of patriarchs ended in five).