The thing has come from Yahweh
28 The young lady ran, and told her mother’s house about these words. 29 Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring. 30 When he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, “This is what the man said to me,” he came to the man. Behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. 31 He said, “Come in, you blessed of Yahweh. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.” 32 The man came into the house, and he unloaded the camels. He gave straw and feed for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. 33 Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told my message.” Laban said, “Speak on.” 34 He said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 Yahweh has blessed my master greatly. He has become great. Yahweh has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys. 36 Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master when she was old. He has given all that he has to him. 37 My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, 38 but you shall go to my father’s house, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son.’ 39 I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not follow me?’ 40 He said to me, ‘Yahweh, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you, and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my relatives, and of my father’s house. 41 Then you will be clear from my oath, when you come to my relatives. If they don’t give her to you, you shall be clear from my oath.’ 42 I came today to the spring, and said, ‘Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, if now you do prosper my way which I go— 43 behold, I am standing by this spring of water. Let it happen, that the maiden who comes out to draw, to whom I will say, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” 44 then she tells me, “Drink, and I will also draw for your camels,”—let her be the woman whom Yahweh has appointed for my master’s son.’ 45 Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. She went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ 46 She hurried and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink.’ So I drank, and she also gave the camels a drink. 47 I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her hands. 48 I bowed my head, and worshiped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take my master’s brother’s daughter for his son. 49 Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.” 50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The thing proceeds from Yahweh. We can’t speak to you bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her, and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as Yahweh has spoken.” 52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth to Yahweh. 53 The servant brought out jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious things to her brother and her mother. 54 They ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed all night. They rose up in the morning, and he said, “Send me away to my master.” 55 Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young lady stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she will go.” 56 He said to them, “Don’t hinder me, since Yahweh has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” 57 They said, “We will call the young lady, and ask her.” 58 They called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” 59 They sent away Rebekah, their sister, with her nurse, Abraham’s servant, and his men. 60 They blessed Rebekah, and said to her, “Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.”
The servant refuses to eat until he has told his errand, and the family's answer is that the matter is out of their hands.
Laban appears for the first time in Scripture and the narrator introduces him with a detail that tells the reader everything: When he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister's hands... he came to the man. The welcome follows the jewelry. Laban will be a fixture of the next ten chapters and he is never once described doing anything that is not to his own advantage.
His greeting is warm and slightly overdone — Come in, you blessed of Yahweh — from a man who has known of this visitor for about a minute.
The servant's conduct in the house is the heart of the chapter. Food is set before him after a journey of hundreds of miles, and he will not touch it: I will not eat until I have told my message. An errand entrusted to him comes before his own hunger, and nothing in the account suggests he found this difficult.
What follows is the longest speech in Genesis, and it retells the whole of the previous scene. Retellings in this book are never mere repetition, and the differences here are all diplomatic. He identifies himself first — I am Abraham's servant — and establishes his master's wealth before anything else, which is what a family will want to know. He mentions that Isaac is the sole heir. He is careful to say that the prohibition was against Canaanite wives, not that their family was second choice. And he tells the story of the well as it happened, including the prayer and the timing, so that the family hears the evidence rather than a claim.
Then he closes with a question that leaves them free: if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. No pressure, and a stated willingness to leave.
The answer is one of the great sentences of the book: The thing proceeds from Yahweh. We can't speak to you bad or good.
They are saying that the matter has been decided somewhere above them and their opinion is not relevant. Coming from Laban, whose opinion is usually very relevant to Laban, it is a striking concession, and it is produced by evidence rather than by piety — the man told them what happened at the well and they could not find a way around it.
The morning brings the family's second thoughts, in the form of a delay: Let the young lady stay with us a few days, at least ten. The servant refuses again, on the same ground he has used throughout: Don't hinder me, since Yahweh has prospered my way.
And so the question is put to Rebekah, which is worth noting in a world where it need not have been. Will you go with this man?
Her answer is two words in Hebrew and it is the hinge of the chapter: I will go. She has met the servant the previous evening, has never seen Isaac, and is being asked to leave her family for a country eight hundred miles away. She says yes without conditions, which is the same thing her great-uncle did in Haran two generations earlier when he was told to leave his country and his relatives and his father's house.
settled What this mark means