창세기 24:2의 주석

זקן ביתו THE ELDER OF HIS HOUSE — Because the noun is in the construct state the ק is punctuated with a Patach.

PUT YOUR HAND UNDER MY THIGH. And similarly with Yosef when he swore to Ya'akov. The making of a covenant or an oath of a son, or of a slave to his master was in this fashion, for they shared the aspect of subjugation, and it is thus written (Mal. 1:6), "A son should honor his father, and a slave his master." However, handshaking or cutting an object in two for a covenant and passing between the pieces is found with other persons.

ויאמר...זקן ביתו, the word zekan is a genitive (adjective) of the word zaken just as the word kevod is a genitive of the word kavod. Its meaning here is that this servant had grown up in Avraham’s household until he himself had become elderly. Or, its meaning could be that this servant was older (in the sense of senior) to all Avraham’s other servants.

שים נא ידך תחת ירכי, “please place your hand beneath my hip.” This was a request to swear an oath to his master by placing his hand on the site of the circumcision. Although in Jewish law, someone who needlessly touches his own or someone else’s male organ deserves to have that hand cut off, Avraham explained that in light of his having become an old man there was no chance that touching him there would result in the wasteful ejaculation of his semen. Ibn Ezra writes that in those days servants (slaves) used to place their hands under the hip of their master as a sign of obeisance. The master, by sitting on the servant’s hand signaled the fact that the servant had to do his bidding. The servant, by complying signaled his acknowledgment of his status.

עבדו: er war ihm untertänig, war rechtlich zur pünktlichen Ausführung des Willens seines Herrn verpflichtet; זקן ביתו: wie Abraham durch die Führungen Gottes, so war er durch das Leben im Hause Abrahams gereift, war ganz in dieses Leben ein- und aufgegangen, darum war er: מושל usw. wie das Wort heißt: erteilte allem und jedem in Abrahams häuslichem Kreise die Stellung und Bestimmung, die sie nach Abrahams Willen und in seinem Sinne haben sollten (siehe Kap.4,7).

זקן ביתו, “the senior servant of his household;” Eliezer was old enough so that Avraham did not have to worry that he would take advantage of his position to indulge in incestuous conduct.

תחת ירכי UNDER MY THIGH — because whoever takes an oath must take in his hand some sacred object. such as a Scroll of the Law or Tefillin (Shevuot 38b). As circumcision was the first commandment given to him and became his only through much pain it was consequently dear to him and therefore he selected this as the object upon which to take the oath (Genesis Rabbah 59:8).

מושל בכל אשר לו, he deserved to be entrusted with this task.

Lege doch deine Hand unter meine Hüfte; kommt nur hier, und noch einmal bei Jakob in seiner Aufforderung an Josef (1. B. M. 47, 29) vor. Es scheint nicht eine örtliche Hinweisung auf Mila zu sein. Die Örtlichkeit selbst entspräche nicht, es heißt ja: תחת ירכי. Warum kommt es sonst nicht bei irgend einer Zusicherung vor? ist vielmehr derjenige Körperteil, welcher, wenn man sich setzt oder legt, zuerst in ירך Berührung mit dem Boden kommt, (er ist insofern das Gegenteil von שכם, der Schulter, die beim Aufstehen aus der liegenden Stellung zuerst gehoben wird, woher השכים), es ist lautverwandt mit ירק und bezeichnet das nach hinten oder unten "geworfene" Ende, im Gegensatz zu פנים, daher ירכתים das Hinterteil eines Gebäudes. So heißt auch die Basis des Leuchters: 2) .ירכה. B. M. 25, 31). In beiden Stellen, in welchen dieser Ausdruck vorkommt, ist es ein Sterbender, oder ein dem Tode naher, der einem Überlebenden ein Versprechen abnimmt, ohne dessen zugesagte Erfüllung er nicht ruhig sterben könnte. Sollte nun nicht das: שים נא ידך תחת ירכי wörtlich heißen: "Lass mich auf deiner Hand ruhen"? d. i. gib mir die ganze Kraft und Macht, die du in deiner Hand hast, als Unterlage, damit ich darauf mich ruhig niederlegen könne. Dafür spricht auch, dass die Handlung des Handunterlegens nicht die Handlung des Schwörens ist, sondern dieser vorangeht.

תחת ירכי, according to the plain meaning of the word it has nothing to do with the place where Avraham had circumcised himself, although it was the most sacred symbol of his body. If it had, why did Avraham not make him swear an oath by using it as the focus instead of using Hashem as his focus? It simply was the custom in those days that any person who was subservient to another person would place his had under the thigh of his master as a symbol that he acknowledged him as such. Having done this was equivalent to a promise to carry out his master’s wishes. This custom was still in use in India in our author’s time.

שים נא ידך תחת ירכי, it was customary to make a person reinforce the promise that he would carry out an assignment by his placing his hand within the control of his master. This was a symbolic gesture meaning that just as his hand was under the control of his master so his personality would be under the control of his master to carry out his assignment. This was such a firmly established custom that the gesture itself was equivalent to swearing an oath. We find that in Genesis 47,29 when Yaakov wants an assurance from his son Joseph that he would not bury him in Egypt but in the land of Canaan, that he requests the same symbolic gesture from Joseph. There are commentators who understand this verse as Avraham requesting an oath from Eliezer. If that were correct, the Torah should have used the familiar formula of ואשביעך בה' אלוקי השמים, “I want you to swear in the name of the Lord of the Heavens to carry out this specific task.” [we must understand the author to mean that the oath and the symbol should have been part of the same verse if indeed placing his hand within the control of his master had been part of the oath. Ed.]