A servant's prayer at a well
1 Abraham was old, and well advanced in age. Yahweh had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh. 3 I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live. 4 But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant said to him, “What if the woman isn’t willing to follow me to this land? Must I bring your son again to the land you came from?” 6 Abraham said to him, “Beware that you don’t bring my son there again. 7 Yahweh, the God of heaven—who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your offspring—he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman isn’t willing to follow you, then you shall be clear from this oath to me. Only you shall not bring my son there again.” 9 The servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. 10 The servant took ten of his master’s camels, and departed, having a variety of good things of his master’s with him. He arose, and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. 11 He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. 12 He said, “Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, please give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I am standing by the spring of water. The daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Let it happen, that the young lady to whom I will say, ‘Please let down your pitcher, that I may drink,’ then she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink,’—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.” 15 Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder. 16 The young lady was very beautiful to look at, a virgin. No man had known her. She went down to the spring, filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 The servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please give me a drink, a little water from your pitcher.” 18 She said, “Drink, my lord.” She hurried, and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they have finished drinking.” 20 She hurried, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. 21 The man looked steadfastly at her, remaining silent, to know whether Yahweh had made his journey prosperous or not. 22 As the camels had finished drinking, the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold, 23 and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father’s house for us to stay?” 24 She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She said moreover to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge in.” 26 The man bowed his head, and worshiped Yahweh. 27 He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me on the way to the house of my master’s relatives.”
An unnamed servant is sent eight hundred miles on an oath, prays a specific prayer, and is answered before he has finished praying.
The chapter is the longest in Genesis and its central figure is never named. He is the servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had — the man Abraham once expected to inherit everything Genesis 15:2 — and he is trusted with the future of the promise.
The oath is sworn in the old form, with a hand under the thigh, and its terms have two halves. No wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, and no return of Isaac to Mesopotamia under any circumstances. Abraham repeats the second twice, and the reason is not sentiment about the homeland: God had brought him out of it, and a son taken back would undo the leaving. The wife must come to the land; the heir must not leave it.
What Abraham rests the errand on is not the servant's skill. Yahweh, the God of heaven — who took me from my father's house... he will send his angel before you. And he builds in a release clause: if the woman will not come, the oath is discharged. He is not requiring a result, only that the man go and not bring Isaac back.
The servant's prayer at the well is worth reading closely, because it is a model of a particular kind. He begins by naming whose God he is addressing — the God of my master Abraham — and asks for two things, success today, and kindness shown to Abraham. His concern throughout the chapter is his master's interest and not his own.
Then the sign he proposes. It is often described as fleece-laying, and it is more careful than that. He does not ask for a portent; he devises a test of character. A girl who offers unasked to water ten camels after a day's work is offering something enormous — a thirsty camel drinks many gallons, and ten of them means dozens of trips down to the spring and up, by hand, for a stranger. What he is asking God for is not a random selection but a woman with a particular disposition, and the sign is designed so that only generosity of that scale can produce it.
Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah came out. The timing is stated, and the servant himself repeats it later — before I had finished speaking in my heart Genesis 24:45. She was already walking to the well while the prayer was being said.
And she does the whole thing. She gives him a drink, then volunteers: I will also draw for your camels, until they have finished drinking. She hurried, emptied her pitcher, ran again to the well, and drew for all of them.
The servant's reaction is the finest detail in the passage: The man looked steadfastly at her, remaining silent, to know whether Yahweh had made his journey prosperous or not. He watches, and says nothing, and does not help. He is letting the sign complete itself rather than hurrying it, and he does not speak until the camels are finished.
Only then does he give the gold and ask whose daughter she is — and she turns out to be Abraham's brother's granddaughter. He bowed his head, and worshiped Yahweh on the spot, in front of her, before anything has been agreed.
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