1362. That Terah was the son of Nahor, and also a nation that was named after him as its forefather, and that he means idolatrous worship, has been shown already. The fact that Terah was a nation becomes clear from the consideration that nations arising from his sons acknowledged him as their forefather, just as the sons of Jacob - that is, the Jews and Israelites - and also the Ishmaelites, Midianites, and others, acknowledged Abram as theirs and as the Moabites and Ammonites acknowledged Lot. Although these nations were not named after those forefathers, but after their sons, nevertheless when all acknowledge a common forefather and call themselves his sons - for example, the sons of Terah, or the sons of Abraham, or the sons of Lot - a nation is meant in a general sense by each one, as also here by Terah, Abram, Nahor, and Lot, because they are the stocks or roots of nations. The same was true of the descendants of Jacob who were all named after his twelve sons, but are nevertheless called Jacob and Israel, as well as the seed and the sons of Abraham, John 8:33, 39.