Bible Meaning: Mountaineer, parched
Strong's Concordance #H2771
There are three people named Haran in the Bible. The first is the firstborn son of Terah and brother to both Abram (Abraham) and Nahor. This person was also the father of Lot (Genesis 11:26 - 27).
The second Haran found in Scripture is one of Caleb's sons through a concubine named Ephah (1Chronicles 2:46). The third person with this name is a member of the tribe of Levi (1Chronicles 23:9).
Terah and his family lived in Ur of the Chaldees for many years. Terah, however, leads his household to migrate northwest after Haran dies when Abram (Abraham) is seventy years old. Terah lives only another five years before dying at the ripe old age of 205 (Genesis 11:32).
Abram, after the death of his father, takes his wife Sarah, along with Lot and his family, to the land of Canaan per God's command. Those of the family who stay in Haran include Abram's brother Nahor and his family.
It is unclear whether the city was also called Nahor or whether Nahor was a separate village very close to it (Genesis 24:10, 27:43, 28:10, 29:4).
In the KJV translation of Acts 7:2, 4, the word Charran (Strong's #G5488), which means "a mountaineer," is used to refer to where Abraham lived after leaving Ur. Charran is the Greek form of the Hebrew word for Haran.
Important Verses
Person
Genesis 11:26
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran . . .
Location
Genesis 11:31 - 32
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot . . . and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Genesis 12:5 - 6
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran: and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan: and into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Genesis 27:43
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran . . .
2Kings 19:11 - 12
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
Have the Gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed: as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?