XXIV. MARRIAGE OF ISAAC AND REBEKAH. (1) ABRAHAM WAS OLD. — As Isaac was thirty-seven years of age when Sarah died (Genesis 23:1), and forty at his marriage (Genesis 25:20), Abraham, who was a centenarian at Isaac’s birth, would _now_ be nearly 140. As he lived to be 175 (Genesis 25:7), he survived... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO HIS ELDEST SERVANT OF HIS HOUSE. — Heb., _his servant, the elder of his house._ It is the name of an office; and though one holding so confidential a post would be a man of ripe years, yet it is not probable that Abraham would send any one who was not still vigorous on so distant a journey. Eli... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SERVANT. — Why did not Isaac go himself in search of a wife? We must not conclude from his inactivity that the matter had not his full concurrence; but he was the heir, and according to Oriental manners it was fit that the choice should be left to a trusty deputy. What is peculiar in the nar... [ Continue Reading ]
HE MADE HIS CAMELS TO KNEEL DOWN. — Camels rest kneeling, but the servant did not unlade them till he knew that God had heard his prayer. (See Genesis 24:32.) BY A WELL OF WATER. — The well was the property of the whole city, and might be used only at a fixed hour; and the servant therefore waits t... [ Continue Reading ]
(12-14) O LORD GOD... — Heb., _Jehovah, God of my lord Abraham._ The word translated “master” throughout this chapter is _‘donai,_ the ordinary word for _lord,_ and it is so rendered in Genesis 24:18. As a circumcised member of Abraham’s household, the servant prays to Jehovah, Abraham’s God; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE WENT DOWN TO THE WELL. — The water, therefore, was reached by a flight of steps, the usual rule wherever the well was fed by a natural spring. Cisterns, on the contrary, supplied from the rains were narrower at the top than at the bottom. Mr. Malan (_Philosophy or Truth,_ p. 93), in an interesti... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE MAN WONDERING AT HER... — The verb is rare, and the LXX., Syr., and Vulg., followed by Gesenius and Fürst, translate, “And the man gazed attentively at her, keeping silence, that he might know,” &c. The servant, we may well believe, was astonished at the exactness and quickness with which hi... [ Continue Reading ]
EARRING. — Really _nose-ring;_ for in Genesis 24:47 the man places it on her nose, wrongly translated _face_ in our version. The word occurs again in Ezekiel 16:12, where it is rendered _jewel,_ and again is placed “on the nose;” it is also similarly translated _jewel_ in Proverbs 11:22, where it is... [ Continue Reading ]
BETHUEL THE SON OF MILCAH, WHICH SHE BARE UNTO NAHOR. — Rebekah mentions her father’s mother to show that she was descended from a highborn wife; but the servant would welcome it as proving that not only on the father’s side, but also on the mother’s, she was Isaac’s cousin, Milcah being the daughte... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAMSEL RAN, AND TOLD (THEM OF) HER MOTHER’S HOUSE. — The words inserted in italics are worse than useless. The wife of a sheik has a separate tent (Genesis 24:67), and the result of polygamy is to make each family hold closely together. Naturally, too, the maiden would first show her mother and... [ Continue Reading ]
LABAN RAN OUT UNTO THE MAN. — Not until he had seen Rebekah, as narrated in the next verse — this being a brief summary, followed by a more detailed account. Milcah had probably sent and summoned him to her tent, where his sister showed him her presents, and told him what had happened. He then hurri... [ Continue Reading ]
COME IN, THOU BLESSED OF THE LORD. — This hospitality was in the East almost a matter of course, though Laban’s earnestness may have been increased by the sight of his sister’s golden ornaments. More remarkable is it that Laban addresses the servant as “blessed of Jehovah;” for we learn in Joshua 24... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL NOT EAT, UNTIL I HAVE TOLD MINE ERRAND. — Two points in Oriental manners are here brought into view: the first, that hospitality, so necessary in a country where there are no inns, was, and still is, a religion to the Bedouin; the second, that consequently he will concede anything rather than... [ Continue Reading ]
KINDRED. — Not the word so translated in Genesis 24:4; Genesis 24:7, but that rendered _family_ in Genesis 8:19, marg., 10:5, 12:3, &c. Strictly, it signifies a subdivision of a tribe (Numbers 1:18).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VIRGIN. — Not the word used in Genesis 24:16, nor that rendered _damsel_ there and in Genesis 24:14, but _almah,_ a young woman just ripening for marriage. It is applied to Miriam in Exodus 2:8, where it is rendered _maid,_ and to the mother of the Immanuel in Isaiah 7:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAKING IN MINE HEART — The Heb. idiom is far more exact and true: namely, _before I had done speaking to my heart. _... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON HER FACE. — Heb., _upon her nose._ This mistranslation explains the strange rendering _jewel for the forehead_ in the margin of Genesis 24:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
LABAN AND BETHUEL. — See Note on Genesis 24:28. Even when thus tardily mentioned, the father is placed after the brother; and of this we need look for no further explanation than that by polygamy the father was estranged from his own children, while each separate family held very closely together. T... [ Continue Reading ]
JEWELS OF SILVER, AND JEWELS OF GOLD. — Heb., _vessels._ In ancient times a wife had to be bought (Genesis 34:12), and the presents given were not mere ornaments and jewellery, but articles of substantial use and value. Quickly indeed in a country of such ceremonial politeness the purchase took a mo... [ Continue Reading ]
A FEW DAYS, AT THE LEAST TEN. — Heb., _days or a decade,_ which Onkelos, Saadja, Rashi, and others translate as in the margin: “a year or ten months.” But while this rendering has high Jewish authority for it, yet more probably _decade_ was the name for the third part of a month. It would be curious... [ Continue Reading ]
WILT THOU GO WITH THIS MAN? — A woman in the East has little choice in the matter of her marriage, and here, moreover, everything was so plainly providential, that Rebekah, like her father and brother (Genesis 24:50), would have felt it wrong to make difficulties, and she expresses her readiness to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR SISTER. — Bethuel may have had other sons, though Laban only is mentioned. HER NURSE. — How dear Deborah was, first to Rebekah, and afterwards to Jacob, may be seen by the lamentation at her death (Genesis 35:8).... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS. — Heb., _thousands of ten thousands._ A million was a number which at this early period the Hebrews had no means of expressing. The blessing contains two parts: the first, the hope of fruitfulness founded on the primæval command (Genesis 1:28); the second, that of victory in w... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WELL LAHAI-ROI. — Hagar’s well (Genesis 16:14), situated in the “south country,” that is, the Negeb (see Genesis 12:9). The oasis round it became Isaac’s favourite residence (Genesis 25:11), and was in the neighbourhood of Beer-sheba, where Abraham was dwelling when Sarah died at Hebron (Genesis... [ Continue Reading ]
TO MEDITATE. — Many Jewish commentators translate _to pray,_ and derive one of the three Jewish forms of prayer from this act of Isaac. But though the verb is rare, the substantive is used in Psalms 104:34 of religious meditation; and this sense well agrees with the whole character of the calm, peac... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE LIGHTED OFF. — Heb., _fell:_ descended hastily from her camel. It is still the custom in the East for an inferior when meeting a superior to dismount, and advance on foot. Rebekah, therefore, would have been thought bold and disrespectful had she not acknowledged the superiority of her lord. Bes... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE TOOK A VAIL, AND·COVERED HERSELF. — Brides are usually taken to the bridegroom enveloped in a vail, which covers the whole body, and is far larger than that ordinarily worn. At the present time the bride-vail is usually red, the ordinary vail blue or white. By wrapping herself in this vail Rebek... [ Continue Reading ]
SARAH’S TENT. — So Leah and Rachel had each her own tent (Genesis 31:33; but see on Genesis 24:28).... [ Continue Reading ]