child” (Gen 11:30). Such barrenness, says Brueggemann, “is the way of human history. It is an effective metaphor … [because] there is no human power to invent a future. But barrenness is not only the condition of hopeless humanity. The marvel of biblical faith is that barrenness is the arena of God’s life-giving action.”12 In other words, insofar as this passage is the first substantive introduction to Abram—the preceding verses in Genesis 11:26–31 being more about his father, Terah—its details provide