Paddan Aram

Paddan Aram or Padan-aram was an early Aramean kingdom in Mesopotamia. Paddan Aram in Aramaic means the field of Aram. The name may correspond to the Hebrew “sedeh Aram,” or “field of Aram.” (Rashi to Gen. 25:20; e.g., Hos. 12:13.)

The city of Harran, where Abraham and his father Terah settled after leaving Ur of the Chaldees, while en route to Canaan, according to the Genesis 11:31, was located in Paddan Aram, that part of Aram Naharaim that lay along the Euphrates. When dying, Abraham sent his head-servant back to this place to find a wife for Isaac, Abraham's son. The steward found Rebekah, who satisfied and exceeded the requirements set forth by Abraham.

In the Hebrew Bible

Padan-aram or Padan appears 11 times in 11 verses in the Hebrew Bible, all in Genesis. Adherents of the documentary hypothesis often attribute most of these verses to the priestly source (E.g., Richard Elliott Friedman. The Bible with Sources Revealed, 71, 76, 82, 109, 113. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003; Genesis with sources highlighted, at Wikisource), and the remainder to a later redactor. (Friedman at 87, 89.)

Abraham’s nephew Bethuel, son of Nahor and Milcah, and father of Laban and Rebekah, lived in Padan-aram. (Gen. 25:20.) Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob there, away from Esau, to take refuge, and to marry a niece of Rebekah, a daughter of Laban, rather than a Canaanite, or daughters of Ishmael, as Esau had done. (Gen. 28:1-2.) There Jacob worked for Laban, fathered eleven sons and a daughter, Dinah, (Gen. 35:22-26; 46:15), and amassed livestock and wealth. (Gen. 31:18.) From there, Jacob went to the Land of Israel and Shechem. (Gen. 33:18.)

In Rabbinic interpretation

In the midrash, Rabbi Isaac taught that the people of Padan-aram were rogues and Rebekah was like a lily among the thorns. (Genesis Rabbah 63:4 see also Leviticus Rabbah 23:1 (deceivers); Song of Songs Rabbah 2:4 (tricksters); Zohar, Bereshit 1:136b (wicked); Rashi to (Rashi to Gen. 25:20 (wicked).) Rabbi Isaac thus considered Rebekah’s sojourn in Padan-aram as emblematic of Israel’s among the nations. (Zohar, Bereshit 1:137a.)

See also

• Padanaram Settlement, a modern community in Indiana named for Padan Aram.