At the end of parsha Noach, which covers the stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel, we find these verses:
29. And Abram and Nahor took themselves wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
31. And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran and settled there.
32. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Rashi says: 32. [This happened] after Abram had left Haran and had come to the land of Canaan, and had been there for over sixty years, for it is written (below 12:4): “And Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran,” and Terah was seventy years old when Abram was born, making Terah one hundred and forty-five years old when Abram left Haran. Accordingly, many of his [Terah’s] years were left. Why then did Scripture relate Terah’s death before Abram’s departure? So that the matter should not be publicized to all, whereby they would say: “Abram did not fulfill [the commandment of] honoring his father, for he left him in his old age and went away.” Therefore, Scripture calls him dead, for the wicked, even in their lifetime are called dead, whereas the righteous, even in their death, are called living, as it is said (II Sam. 23: 20):“And Benayahu the son of Jehoiada, the son of a living man.” - [from Gen. Rabbah 39:7, Ber. 18b] Note that the keri is בֶּן אִישׁ חַיִל, a valiant man. The Rabbis here expound on the kethib: בֶּן אִישׁ חַי. ***************************************************************************************************** The death of Terah, Abraham's father, was mentioned in the wrong chronological place in the Torah (much earlier) so that the reader should not be upset at Abraham for leaving his elderly father? If Terah's death had been mentioned in its proper chronological place, Abraham's absence would have been more noticeable, which the Torah tried to avoid. How are we to understand this?