Chapter Twenty-Four

Abraham sends his steward the slave to fetch a wife for Isaac

Genesis 24:1. Now Abraham was old, and advanced in years. According to Gen 25:20, Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah; and since he was born in the hundredth year of Abraham’s life, Abraham was accordingly around 140 years old at this time.

Genesis 24:2. And Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his house, who ruled all that he had: Based on the preceding context, we can see here Eliezer (Gen 15:2). Put your hand under my thigh This is a rather unusual form of oath, which appears again in the same book of Genesis (Gen 47:29). Of the various explanations of its meaning, the most successful must be recognized as the one that sees in it a symbol of an oath on a sword, which, as is known, is worn at the thigh. He who swore in this way thereby, as it were, said: if I break this oath, let the sword strike me (Exod 32:27; Ps 45:4 and others).

Genesis 24:3. And swear to me by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son [Isaac] from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, This is the first, negative side of Eliezer’s mission: he was forbidden to take for Isaac a wife from among the ungodly and corrupt Canaanites, who were not to be mixed with the pure descendants of the God-chosen people.

Genesis 24:4. But go to my country and my kindred [and to my people], and take a wife for my son Isaac [from there]. Not to Ur of the Chaldees, but to Haran, lying in Paddan-aram or in northern Mesopotamia, where Abraham left his brother Nahor (Gen 11:31). To see here a reference to Ur of the Chaldees is not permitted chiefly by the fact that if God once led Abraham out from there and thus forced him to break all ties and relations with his homeland infected with idolatry, He could not now restore those relations for the same reasons.

Genesis 24:5. The servant said to him: Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land; should I then take your son back to the land from which you came? This expression characterizes the foresight of the servant, who foresees a strong and entirely natural difficulty regarding which he wants to receive instructions beforehand.

Genesis 24:6. Genesis 24:6, 8. And Abraham said to him: Take care that you do not take my son back there; and if the woman is not willing to follow you [into this land], you shall be free from my oath; only you shall not take my son back there. Answering Eliezer’s question, Abraham twice and with particular force forbids him to leave his son Isaac there, even in the extreme case that the chosen bride was unwilling to leave her homeland. It is not the husband who should follow the wife, but the wife who should follow the husband.

Genesis 24:7. The Lord, the God of heaven [and God of earth], who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying: [To you and] to your offspring I will give this land, — He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son [Isaac] from there; This mysterious guide and leader can mean either a special inspiration of divine Providence, or else an actual angelic appearance.

The servant’s journey

Genesis 24:10. And the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking with him all kinds of gifts of his master. Such an arrangement of this bridal journey on the one hand presupposes its considerable distance, on the other imparts to it a particular solemnity and importance; finally, both the camels themselves and those gifts of which it is spoken here could be intended as presents for the bride. He arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor, In Hebrew — “Naharaim,” that is, to the country lying between two rivers: the Euphrates and the Tigris.

Genesis 24:11. And he made the camels kneel down outside the city, by the well of water, in the evening, at the time when women go out to draw [water], All these details are profoundly historical and lifelike.

His prayer

Genesis 24:12–14. And he said: Lord, God of my master Abraham! Let her come to meet me today and show kindness to my master Abraham; behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; let the young woman to whom I shall say, “Let down your jar, I pray, that I may drink” — and she shall say, “Drink, and I will water your camels too [until they have drunk enough]” — let her be the one whom you have designated for your servant Isaac; by this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master [Abraham].” Eliezer’s calling upon God is penetrated with a feeling of deep humility and living faith, in which evidently he tried to imitate his master. It is very characteristic the very address to God itself, in which Eliezer simultaneously calls Him both Elohim and Jehovah, giving this — on the one hand — proof of the identity of these divine names, and on the other — testifying that, living in the house of Abraham, he received correct knowledge of God. Against the rationalist criticism that dates this prayer of Eliezer to a later epoch, especially strongly speaks the word standing here in the original language hanarah (young woman), used without a special feminine suffix, which serves as a sign of its great antiquity.

Rebekah meets this servant

Genesis 24:15–19. And before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her jar upon her shoulder; the young woman was very fair to look upon, a virgin whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. And the servant ran toward her and said: Let me drink, I pray, a little water from your jar. She said: Drink, my lord. And she quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said: I will draw water for your camels too, until they have all drunk [their fill]. This entire episode of the meeting of Eliezer with Rebekah is depicted by the writer most vividly and in exactly the same characteristics that were beforehand prophetically foreseen and revealed to him by God.

Genesis 24:21. And the man looked at her in silence, to know This amazement was quite natural and understandable as the psychological state of Eliezer, who was absolutely struck by such a wonderful coincidence of fact with his prayer for it. whether the Lord had made his journey successful, or not. “He considered what was happening, in order to become better assured that Providence indeed responds to his petition” (Philaret).

Genesis 24:22. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring, In Hebrew nezem, which means a gold ring which was either inserted in the ears as an earring (Gen 35:4), or in the nose (Isa 3:20; Prov 11:22; Hos 2:13). From what follows it appears that this was more likely a nose ring (Gen 24:47). weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms, weighing ten shekels of gold; The monetary values, regardless of their value, also had the meaning of units of weight.

He displays his high kindness

Genesis 24:23–25. [And he asked her] and said: Whose daughter are you? She said: I am the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor. And she said further to him: We have plenty of straw and fodder, and room for lodging. By his question Eliezer wanted, evidently, to become finally assured that this girl was indeed the chosen one for his master.

The servant blesses God

Genesis 24:26–27. And the man bowed his head and worshipped the Lord. and said: Blessed be the Lord, God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken my master in His mercy and His faithfulness! The Lord has led me straight to the house of my master’s kinsman. Having received this last confirmation, Eliezer was assured that his mission was complete, and in a burst of ardent gratitude he bows in prayer before the Almighty Providence.

The mediation of Laban

Genesis 24:28–29. And the maiden ran and told her mother’s household about all these things. And Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring. “There is much reason to think that Rebekah’s father — Bethuel has already died, and that for this reason the house is here called not of the father but of the mother. This is consistent with the whole course of the narrative, in which Laban played a leading role, apparently replacing his father” (see verse 53, Vlastov).

Genesis 24:30–31. And when he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and heard the words of his sister Rebekah, which she spoke, “Thus the man spoke to me,” he went to the man; and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring; and said to him: Come in, blessed of the Lord; why do you stand outside? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels. Although Laban was an idolater (Gen 31:30), nonetheless, being in kinship relation with the house from which Abraham once came forth, he had not yet lost some traces of true knowledge of God. It is also possible that Laban addresses his guest in this way on the word of his sister Rebekah, who had heard the name of the Lord from the mouth of Eliezer himself (Gen 24:27).

Genesis 24:32–33. So the man came into the house. And Laban unsaddled the camels and gave straw and fodder to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him; and food was set before him; but he said: I will not eat until I have told my errand. All the details of this picture are fully lifelike and authentic.

The servant reveals to him the purpose of his embassy

Genesis 24:35. And the Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great; the Lord has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys; Seeing how the Lord had miraculously granted Abraham a son in his old age, how He had prospered him in multiplying his flocks and in increasing his influence among the surrounding tribes, Eliezer could speak these words with full justification.

Genesis 24:40. He said to me: The Lord [God], before whom I have walked, This is a characteristic biblical expression: to walk before God means to please Him, or to live in complete accord with His holy will (Gen 5:24; Ps 50:13 and others). Gen 24:41-48. This quite significant biblical section contains a repetition of the previous narrative, by which Eliezer thoroughly acquaints his new hospitable hosts with the entire history of the matter, wishing thereby to show them as well that here the providential hand of God is evident. And I bowed down and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, God of my master Abraham, who has led me by the right way to get the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. Rebekah is here called the niece of Abraham, daughter of his brother Nahor; and yet before she was repeatedly called the daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor. Obviously, in this case the term “daughter” should be understood not in a narrow sense but in the broader sense: a blood relative in a descending line.

Genesis 24:49. So now tell me if you are going to show kindness and truth to my master or not; tell me, that I may turn to the right or to the left. This is a peculiar Hebraism, the meaning of which can be paraphrased as: do me a favor and preserve your own interests.

Laban and Bethuel approve of her

Genesis 24:50. And Laban and Bethuel answered and said: The matter comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you bad or good; The LXX instead of the word “brother” has — “brothers,” from which some exegetes draw the assumption that Bethuel, of whom it is spoken here, was not the father of Rebekah, but her brother, bearing this name in honor of his father.

Genesis 24:57. Then they said: Let us call the girl and ask her what she thinks. This is a very characteristic biblical trait, clearly attesting that among the ancient Semites the woman was far from being in that slavery in which later history found her among other Eastern peoples.

Genesis 24:59. And they sent away Rebekah, their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. Probably the reference is to Deborah (Gen 35:8); although the LXX and the Slavic translation replace this indication with another — “and her possessions” (LXX: ὑπάρχοντα αὐτῆς).

Genesis 24:60. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her: Our sister, may you increase to thousands of tens of thousands, and may your descendants possess the gates of their enemies! This prayerful blessing had a prophetic character, insofar as Rebekah, as the wife of Isaac, became one of the matriarchs of the numerous Hebrew people and of an even greater multitude of all believers.

Genesis 24:62. And Isaac came from the way to Beer-lahai-roi, for he dwelt in the land of the south. That is, to the spring “of the Living One who sees me,” as Hagar named it, in memory of the theophany that occurred to her there (Gen 16:14).

Genesis 24:63. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening, and he lifted up his eyes and looked; and behold, there were camels coming. In some translations the latter verb is replaced by a synonym from the Hebrew language — “to pray,” (in the Slavic — “to joke,” that is to think about), which even better characterizes the devout-religious and meek nature of Isaac.

Genesis 24:64–65. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel. And she said to the servant: Who is that man walking in the field toward us? The servant said: It is my master. Then she took her veil and covered herself. Upon meeting Isaac, Rebekah alighted from the camel and covered herself with a veil; the former, probably, was her respect for her future husband, while the latter symbolized his right to possess her (1 Cor 11:10).

Genesis 24:67. And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her; Behold a brief, yet at the same time powerful, characterization of the family relations of the patriarchal period.