Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 24:24

The reason Eliezer had to proceed in this order was that he feared Abraham's family might deceive him and try to palm off one of their maidservants on him, claiming that she was their family. He therefore stipulated that the girl to be regarded as suitable for Isaac should proceed to do more than he asked of her by also offering to water his camels. This would be characteristic of a girl who was related to Abraham. In fact Rebeccah described herself immediately as a daughter of Bethuel (verse 24).

WHO WAS BORN TO BETHUEL THE SON OF MILCAH THE WIFE OF NAHOR, ABRAHAM’s BROTHER. Because Nahor also had children from his concubine Reumah,¹¹³Above, 22:24. they always described the lineage of Bethuel by saying that he was the son of Milcah who was the mistress of the household. And because the girl mentioned her father’s mother first, as it says, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah¹¹⁴Further, Verse 24. — for such was customary among the girls, analogous to the verse, And she told her mother’s house¹¹⁵Verse 28 here. — therefore Scripture mentions in the verse before us that he [Bethuel] was the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor. But the servant later said, And she said, The daughter of Bethuel Nahor’s son,¹¹⁶Verse 47 here. for he corrected the matter as is ethically proper. However, he did say, whom Milcah bore unto him,¹¹⁶Verse 47 here. in order to state that Bethuel was the son of the mistress and not the concubine.

AND THE MAN TOOK A GOLDEN RING… AND TWO BRACELETS UPON HER HANDS. This verse omits the deed for it should have said: “And the man took a golden ring and put it upon her nose¹²²So it says in Verse 47 here. and two bracelets upon her hands.” Therefore I say that the interpretation of the verse is as follows: And the man took a golden ring and two bracelets which would be upon her hands, and he said to her, Whose daughter art thou?¹²³Verse 23 here. And after she had told him, I am the daughter of Bethuel,¹²⁴Verse 24 here. he put the ring upon her nose and the bracelets upon her hands, as he told them.¹²⁵In Verse 47 here. He first asked her who she was, and then he gave her the presents. This interpretation differs from Rashi (in Verse 23) who says that after he had given her the presents, he asked her whose daughter she was, for he was confident that, on account of Abraham’s merit, G-d would make his journey successful. Later, however, in Verse 47, when he recounted the story, he changed the sequence of the two events so that they should not sense the inconsistency and say, “How could you give her anything when you did not know who she was?” Here, however, Scripture omits the actual giving, and similarly in many places.