The Holy Bible

Isaac and Rebekah

was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way.  2  He said to the chief servant of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Place your hand under my thigh,  3  and I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,  4  but you will go to my country and to my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

5 The servant asked him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to come back with me to this land? Should I then take your son back to the land you came from?”

6  Abraham said to him, “Make sure that you do not take my son back there.  7  The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—He will send His angel before you, so that you can get a wife for my son from there.  8  But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will released from my oath. Only do not take may son back there.”  9  So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

10  Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram-naharaim and made his way to the city of Nahor.  11  He made the camels kneel down beside a well of water outside the city; it was toward evening, the time when the women go out to draw water.

12  Then he prayed,

15  Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor.  16  The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had known her intimately. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.

17  The servant hurried to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water to drink from your jar.”

18  “Drink, my lord,” she replied, and quickly lowered her jar down to her hands and gave him a drink.

19  When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”  20  So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels.  21  The man remained silent, and watched her closely to learn whether Lord had made his journey successful.

22  When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold.  23  Then he asked, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?

24  She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor.”  25  Then she added, “We have plenty of straw and feed, and room enough for you to spend the night.”

26  Then the man bowed his head and worshipped the Lord,  27  and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

28  The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.  29  Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring.  30  As soon as he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he had heard his sister Rebekah say—“This is what the man said to me!”—he went out to the man and found him standing with the camels at the spring.  31  Laban said, “Come in, you who are blessed by the Lord. Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”

32  So the man went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and feed were given to the camels, and water was brought for him and his men to wash their feet.  33  Then food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say.”

So Laban said, “Then tell us.”

34  So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant.  35  The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.  36  My master’s wife Sarah bore a son to my master in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.  37  My master made me swear an oath and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,  38  but you are to go to my father’s household and to my own family to take a wife for my son’.

39  “Then I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not come back with me?’

40  “He replied, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with you to make your journey a success, and you will take a wife for my son from my own family and from my father’s household.  41  Then you will be released from my oath when you go to my own family, even if they will not give her to you—you will still be released from my oath’.

45  “But before I had finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her ‘Please let me have a drink’.

46  ”She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’. So I drank, and she also watered the camels.

47  “Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’

“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him’.

“So I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her wrists,  48  and I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord. I blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right path to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.  49  Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”

50  Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.  51  Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.”

52  When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed to the ground before the Lord.  53  Then the servant brought out silver and of gold jewellery, and articles of clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.  54  Then he and the men with him ate and drank and spent the night there.

When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”

55  But her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl remain with us for for ten days or so. Then she can go.”

56  But he said to them, “Do not delay me, now that the Lord has made my journey successful. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.”

57  Then they said, “We will talk to the girl and ask her about it.”  58  So they called in Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”

“I will go,” she said.

59  So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men.  60  And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“Our sister, may you increase to
thousands upon ten thousands. May your offspring possess
the gates of their enemies.”

61  Then Rebekah and her maidservants got up, mounted the camels, and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.

62  Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev.  63  One evening Isaac went out to walk in the field, and looking up, he saw camels approaching.  64  Rebekah also looked up, and when she saw Isaac she got down from her camel,  65  and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.

66  Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.  67  And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and he took Rebekah to be his wife. And Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.