Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 24:10 - 24:10

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 24:10 - 24:10


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The servant then went, with ten camels and things of every description belonging to his master, into Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor, i.e., Haran, where Nahor dwelt (Gen 11:31, and Gen 12:4). On his arrival there, he made the camels kneel down, or rest, without the city by the well, “at the time of evening, the time at which the women come out to draw water,” and at which, now as then, women and girls are in the habit of fetching the water required for the house (vid., Robinson's Palestine ii. 368ff.). He then prayed to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, “Let there come to meet me to-day,” sc., the person desired, the object of my mission. He then fixed upon a sign connected with the custom of the country, by the occurrence of which he might decide upon the maiden (הַנַּעַר puella, used in the Pentateuch for both sexes, except in Deu 22:19, where נַעֲרָה occurs) whom Jehovah had indicated as the wife appointed for His servant Isaac. הֹוכִיחַ (Gen 24:14) to set right, then to point out as right; not merely to appoint. He had scarcely ended his prayer when his request was granted. Rebekah did just what he had fixed upon as a token, not only giving him to drink, but offering to water his camels, and with youthful vivacity carrying out her promise. Niebuhr met with similar kindness in those regions (see also Robinson, Pal. ii. 351, etc.). The servant did not give himself blindly up to first impressions, however, but tested the circumstances.