A Wife for Isaac

In context

Genesis 24 is the longest chapter in Genesis, and all of it is about finding a wife for Isaac. Abraham, now very old, sends his oldest servant to his own country, Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor, where his brother’s family lives, so that Isaac will not marry a Canaanite (Genesis 24:1–10). Putting a hand under someone’s thigh was a way of swearing a solemn oath; Jacob asks the same of Joseph years later (Genesis 47:29).

At the well the servant prays for a sign, and before he has finished speaking Rebekah comes out, gives him a drink, and draws water for all ten of his camels, emptying her jar into the trough and running back to the well for more (Genesis 24:10, 15–20). She turns out to be the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor. A shekel is about a third of an ounce, so the gold bracelets’ ten shekels come to about three and a half ounces (Genesis 24:22). Asked whether she will go with this man, Rebekah says, “I will go” (Genesis 24:58).

Abraham dies at 175, “at a good old age,” as God had promised him (Genesis 15:15; 25:7–8). The reading ends with Ishmael’s twelve sons, the “twelve princes” God had promised (Genesis 17:20; 25:16).