Commentaire sur La Genèse 24:37

לא תקח אשה לבני מבנות הכנעני THOU SHALT NOT TAKE A WIFE FOR MY SON FROM THE DAUGHTERS OF THE CANAANITES if you do not first go to my father’s house and to my family that thou mayest take a wife to my son and she will not be willing to follow you.

וישביעני, if you were to ask that if all this is true, why is that I come all this way to find a wife for this man, the reason is that my master made me swear to find a suitable wife for his son from among members of his own family.

וישביעני אדוני, seeing that my master despises the people in his own land and has chosen you to become his in-laws, he has sent me on this errand.

And she will not be willing to follow you. [This comment] solves three problems. First, [in v. 38] it connects תלך to לא, as if it were written אם לא תלך אל בית אבי. [This solves the problem] that לא does not fit with [its following word] אל. Second, [Rashi’s addition of] “And she will not be willing to follow you” [solves the problem] that otherwise it would imply: as soon as you go to my father’s house you will be absolved of the oath not to take a wife from the Canaanites, whether or not she is willing to follow you. [Third, in the phrase, “Unless you first go...”] Rashi adds the word “first” [to solve the problem] that otherwise it would imply: if you take a wife from the Canaanites, and afterwards go [to my family,] and she is not willing to follow you, you still will be absolved of my oath. But this is not so, as Eliezer was not allowed [to take a Canaanite wife] unless he first went [to Avraham’s family] and she would not be willing to follow him. [Accordingly, the final phrase in v. 38,] “Take a wife for my son,” begins a new sentence. It is as if saying: “Rather, you should take a wife for my son from my family, as mentioned above.”