Genesis 24:2

A Bride for Isaac

1 Now Abraham ^awas old, well advanced in age; and the Lord ^bhad blessed Abraham in all things.

2 So Abraham said ^ato the oldest servant of his house, who ^bruled over all that he had, “Please, ^cput your hand under my thigh,

3 and I will make you ^aswear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that ^byou will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell;

4 ^abut you shall go ^bto my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

5 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”

6 But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there.

7 The Lord God of heaven, who ^atook me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ^b‘To your descendants I give this land,’ ^cHe will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then ^ayou will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.”

9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, ^afor all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to ^bthe city of Nahor.

11 And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time ^awhen women go out to draw water.

12 Then he ^asaid, “O Lord God of my master Abraham, please ^bgive me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

13 Behold, here ^aI stand by the well of water, and ^bthe daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And ^aby this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

15 And it happened, ^abefore he had finished speaking, that behold, ^bRebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of ^cMilcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.

16 Now the young woman ^awas very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up.

17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”

18 ^aSo she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink.

19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”

20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.

21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether ^athe Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.

22 So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden ^anose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold,

23 and said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please, is there room in your father’s house for us¹ to lodge?”

24 So she said to him, ^a“I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.”

25 Moreover she said to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge.”

26 Then the man ^abowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.

27 And he said, ^a“Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken ^bHis mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord ^cled me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

28 So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things.

29 Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was ^aLaban, and Laban ran out to the man by the well.

30 So it came to pass, when he saw the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, saying, “Thus the man spoke to me,” that he went to the man. And there he stood by the camels at the well.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
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What Does Genesis 24:2 Mean?

Genesis 24:1-4

In America and other places in the Western world, oath-takers raise their right hands and pledge to perform certain actions, sometimes placing their left hands on a Bible. On other occasions, people promise to do something—pay back a loan, perform a service, hold wealth in trust, etc.—by signing their names to a legal document before witnesses. Some promises are made with a Boy Scout oath. Young girlfriends make pinky promises.

These were not the norm four thousand years ago in the land of Canaan. As the Old Testament attests, oaths and vows were taken far more seriously than they are today in our winner-take-all, I'll-do-what's-best-for-me world. One's word was truly his bond, and oaths were not to be taken lightly or frivolously. In some modern Bibles, "oath" or "vow" is often accompanied by a modifier like "solemn," especially since they usually invoke God to bind them on the oath-taker.

The next two verses confirm Abraham's reason for requiring his servant's oath: "I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac” (Genesis 24:3-4). The patriarch desired to bind his servant to his wish to have his son marry a daughter of his own people, a woman from among those who had migrated with Terah and Abram to the area of Haran in Mesopotamia. There was no stronger way to bind him than to have him make an oath with his hand under the patriarch's thigh.

We see the same kind of oath in Genesis 47:29, when aged Jacob requires Joseph to promise to bury him in Canaan. In both situations, the instigators of these oaths are patriarchs of a clan, and it is this fact that provides understanding about the symbolism of placing a hand "under the thigh." The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament fills us in on what this placement represented: "by placing his hand inside Abraham's thigh (in the vicinity of or on the genitals), the servant ties his oath of obedience to the acquisition of a wife for Isaac and thus the perpetuation of Abraham's line."

Evidently, this kind of oath—called by some a "bodily oath"—was made for matters pertaining to the most important family and clan matters. Abraham's oath is easily seen in this light, as he desired his only son by Sarah, his heir, Isaac, to marry and have children from among his own people, those from the line of Shem and Eber (the progenitor of the Hebrews). He binds his servants actions on his behalf to considering young women only from that narrow ethnic group.

Jacob's demand for a similar oath is more difficult to explain, but he, too, requests it for the good of his clan. The patriarch knew the prophecy God gave to Abram in Genesis 15:13-21, that his descendants would "be strangers in a land that is not theirs. . . . But in the fourth generation they shall return here." Jacob's desire that his bones be buried in Canaan makes a statement that the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were then living, was not the tribal inheritance of Abraham's people, but they must return to the land of Canaan, where the bones of Israel were interred. Later, Joseph also told the Israelites to "carry up my bones from here" (Genesis 50:25), passing to the next generations the expectation of returning to Israel's promised land.

Faced with fulfilling such a solemn oath, Abraham's servant, likely Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2), takes great care to choose a suitable mate for Isaac, placing his trust in God to lead him to the right woman. In fulfilling his oath, Eliezer is blessed by God and led directly to the family of Nahor, Abraham's brother. And so, in the course of events, Rebekah travels to Canaan with Eliezer, marrying Isaac, and perpetuating the line that ultimately leads to Jesus Christ.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh

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A Bride for Isaac

What Does Genesis 24:2 Mean?

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

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Every Morning