Reu or Ragau (Hebrew: רְעוּ, romanized: Rəʿū; Biblical Greek: Ῥαγαύ, romanized: Rhagaú), according to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Peleg and the father of Serug, thus being Abraham's great-great-grandfather and the ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites.

In scriptures

According to the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, Reu is said to have been born to Peleg and Lomna of Shinar at the time when the Tower of Babel was begun.

'Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar.' - (10:18)

His wife was Ora, daughter of 'Ûr, (the son of Kesed) (Jubilees 11:1).

According to the Masoretic text (Genesis 11:20), Reu was 32 when Serug was born and lived to the age of 239 (when Abraham was either 18 or 78).

The Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch state that his age on fathering Serug was 132, and the Septuagint thus gives age at death as 339.

In popular culture

The biblical film Abraham (1993) features Nadim Sawalha as a minor character named Reko, a name phonetically similar to Reu.

References