Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 24:61 - 24:61
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
When the caravan arrived in Canaan with Rebekah and her maidens, Isaac had just come from going to the well Lahai-Roi (Gen 16:14), as he was then living in the south country; and he went towards evening (עֶרֶב לִפְנֹות, at the turning, coming on, of the evening, Deu 23:12) to the field “to meditate.” It is impossible to determine whether Isaac had been to the well of Hagar which called to mind the omnipresence of God, and there, in accordance with his contemplative character, had laid the question of his marriage before the Lord (Delitzsch), or whether he had merely travelled thither to look after his flocks and herds (Knobel). But the object of his going to the field to meditate, was undoubtedly to lay the question of his marriage before God in solitude. שׂוּחַ, meditari, is rendered “to pray” in the Chaldee, and by Luther and others, with substantial correctness. The caravan arrived at the time; and Rebekah, as soon as she saw the man in the field coming to meet them, sprang (נָפַל signifying a hasty descent, 2Ki 5:21) from the camel to receive him, according to Oriental custom, in the most respectful manner. She then inquired the name of the man; and as soon as she heard that it was Isaac, she enveloped herself in her veil, as became a bride when meeting the bridegroom. צָעִיף, θέπιστρον, the cloak-like veil of Arabia (see my Archäologie, §103, 5). The servant then related to Isaac the result of his journey; and Isaac conducted the maiden, who had been brought to him by God, into the tent of Sarah his mother, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and was consoled after his mother, i.e., for his mother's death. הָאֹהֱלָה, with ה local, in the construct state, as in Gen 20:1; Gen 28:2, etc.; and in addition to that, with the article prefixed (cf. Ges. Gram. §110, 2bc).