Genesis 24:1-33 ▼

1 Abraham was old, having seen many days, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.

2 Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all his possessions: “Put your hand under my thigh,

3 and I will make 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 live,

4 but that you will go to my own land and to my relatives to get a wife for my son Isaac.”

5 The servant asked him: “What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Should I then take your son back to the land from which you came?”

6 Abraham told him, “Never take my son back there for any reason!

7 The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, and who confirmed by oath the promise he made to me, ‘I will give this land to your descendants’—he will send his angel before you, and you will get a wife for my son there.

8 If the woman is unwilling to follow you, you will be released from this oath to me. But never take my son back there!”

9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore to him concerning this matter.

10 The servant then took ten of his master’s camels, and bearing all kinds of gifts from his master, he made his way to the city of Nahor in Aram Naharaim.

11 Near evening, at the time when women go out to draw water, he made the camels kneel by the well outside the city.

12 Then he said: “LORD, God of my master Abraham, let it turn out favorably for me today and thus deal graciously with my master Abraham.

13 While I stand here at the spring and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water,

14 if I say to a young woman, ‘Please lower your jug, that I may drink,’ and she answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels, too,’ then she is the one whom you have decided upon for your servant Isaac. In this way I will know that you have dealt graciously with my master.”

15 He had scarcely finished speaking when Rebekah—who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—came out with a jug on her shoulder.

16 The young woman was very beautiful, a virgin, untouched by man. She went down to the spring and filled her jug. As she came up,

17 the servant ran toward her and said, “Please give me a sip of water from your jug.”

18 “Drink, sir,” she replied, and quickly lowering the jug into her hand, she gave him a drink.

19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels, too, until they have finished drinking.”

20 With that, she quickly emptied her jug into the drinking trough and ran back to the well to draw more water, until she had drawn enough for all the camels.

21 The man watched her the whole time, silently waiting to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose-ring weighing half a shekel, and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels for her wrists.

23 Then he asked her: “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please. And is there a place in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

24 She answered: “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.

25 We have plenty of straw and fodder,” she added, “and also a place to spend the night.”

26 The man then knelt and bowed down to the LORD,

27 saying: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not let his kindness and fidelity toward my master fail. As for me, the LORD has led me straight to the house of my master’s brother.”

28 Then the young woman ran off and told her mother’s household what had happened.

29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban. Laban rushed outside to the man at the spring.

30 When he saw the nose-ring and the bracelets on his sister’s arms and when he heard Rebekah repeating what the man had said to her, he went to him while he was standing by the camels at the spring.

31 He said: “Come, blessed of the LORD! Why are you standing outside when I have made the house ready, as well as a place for the camels?”

32 The man then went inside; and while the camels were being unloaded and provided with straw and fodder, water was brought to bathe his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

33 But when food was set before him, he said, “I will not eat until I have told my story.” “Go ahead,” they replied.