GroundedNarrativeGenesis 24

A wife for Isaac

Genesis 24 (selected)narrative

A wife for Isaac

The history

This is the longest single scene in Genesis, told with a leisure the book usually denies itself, and it is built on a pattern you will see again: a man meets his future bride at a well (Jacob will, and Moses will too). Abraham sends his servant back to the family in Mesopotamia, since marriage was meant to stay within the kin, and the chapter watches providence work not through miracles but through ordinary hospitality, a girl who offers to water the camels.

Alter · Sarna

2So Abraham instructed the chief servant of his household, who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh, 3and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling, 4but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.” 12“O LORD, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “please grant me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 14Now may it happen that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels as well’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. By this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.” 15Before the servant had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 19After she had given him a drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels, until they have had enough to drink.” 67And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.