וַיֹּ֗אמֶר בָּר֤וּךְ יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵי֙ אֲדֹנִ֣י אַבְרָהָ֔ם אֲ֠שֶׁר לֹֽא־עָזַ֥ב חַסְדּ֛וֹ וַאֲמִתּ֖וֹ מֵעִ֣ם אֲדֹנִ֑י אָנֹכִ֗י בַּדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ נָחַ֣נִי יְהוָ֔ה בֵּ֖ית אֲחֵ֥י אֲדֹנִֽי׃
Lalu ia berkata, “Terpujilah Yang Mahakekal, Allah tuanku Abraham, yang tidak menarik kasih setia dan kesetiaan-Nya dari tuanku. Adapun aku, Yang Mahakekal telah menuntun aku di jalan ini ke rumah saudara-saudara tuanku.”
Kedushat Levi
Genesis 24,28. “when I was already on the way, Hashem guided me to the house of my master’s brothers.” It is noteworthy that the word בדרך, “on the way,” is written with the vowel patach, instead of the semi vowel sheva that we would have expected. The former refers to a “definitive path, way, one that was commonly known.” Surely no highway led from Kiryat Arba to Aram Naharayim! We must assume therefore that what Eliezer meant to convey by choosing this word בדרך, is not the route that led from Kiryat Arba to Aram Naharayim, but the feeling that he progressed with unnatural speed to his goal, or as the sages in Bereshit rabbah 60,6 say that Eliezer covered a two week journey in a single day, so that he realized that this miracle was proof that his mission would succeed. It was clear to him therefore that the house that he was taken to must be the house of Avraham’s family.