Illustration created for this project.
Hur
What we know — and how we know it
Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 2
Ancient writers — non-biblical testimony · 1
Scholarly — supported scholarly belief · 1
Family & lineage
Tribe & people
BibleOf the tribe of Judah.
Exodus 17:12
Death & legacy
Scan by NYPL — Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Ancient writersJosephus names Hur in his retelling of Israel's battle with Amalek and adds the extra-biblical detail that Hur was the husband of Miriam, Moses's sister, an identification not stated in scripture itself.
Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 3.2.4 (Amalek battle narrative); Josephus adds the extra-biblical detail, not in scripture, that Hur was the husband of Miriam, sister of Moses.
ScholarlyA later rabbinic tradition holds that Hur was murdered by the people when he resisted their demand to make the golden calf, which is offered as the reason he disappears from the narrative while Aaron survives. This is a tradition of the sages, not a datum of the biblical text.
Rabbinic tradition (e.g., Leviticus Rabbah 10; b. Sanhedrin 7a; Targumic sources).
Where in scripture
ExodusBut Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.
Exodus 17:12 — Holds up Moses' hands
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
Family
In art
