What we first notice about Abraham’s family is a shift in the pattern of childbearing. Take a look at all the people the Holy Spirit mentions ahead of Terah, Abraham’s father. Beginning from Arphaxad, the very first son of Shem, you will notice that every man began to have children before the age of forty. Some had children at age twenty-nine, others at thirty, some at thirty-five, but none lived to forty without children.