Комментарий к Берешит 24:3

AND I WILL MAKE THEE SWEAR BY THE ETERNAL. It would have been proper for Abraham to command his son Isaac that he should not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. But since it was his wish to dispatch someone during his lifetime to his country and his family, and he made the servant swear to do so whether in his lifetime or after his death, therefore Abraham found it necessary in any case to make the servant swear to go there. In addition he found it necessary to say to him, “I command you that you should not take a woman for my son of the daughters of Canaan. Instead you are to go to my country and take for him a wife from my father’s house.” Now having required the servant to swear to this, he no longer found it necessary to command Isaac at all for he knew that he would not transgress his father’s wish or the oath which he made his servant swear, as the matter was indeed known to Isaac.
It is also possible that the servant Eliezer was the administrator of his possessions, and Abraham commanded him to marry off Isaac in accordance with his will and cause him to inherit his estate on this condition, [namely, that he marry in accordance with his father’s wish]. This is the significance of the expression, that ruled over all that he had.⁸⁰Verse 2 here.

Among whom I live. If Yitzchok lived near his wife’s family, either in Canaan or in Charan, he would be subject to their influence. But if he married a woman from Charan and they lived in Canaan he would not be influenced by them.

אלוקי השמים ואלוקי הארץ, a veiled warning to Eliezer that if he were to betray his trust, there would be a higher power to hold him accountable for such a betrayal.

אשר אנכי יושב בקרבו, "among whom I dwell." Abraham countered Eliezer's assumption that inasmuch as the very proximity of Abraham causes one to be included in the blessing G'd promised to Abraham this did not mean that one's basic status of being cursed (as a result of Noach's curse) had been revoked. Abraham also wanted to dispel the notion that his presence and his status among such people as Aner, Eshkol and Mamre would become endangered if he did not take a wife for Isaac from their families.

ואשביעך..ואלוקי הארץ, meaning that the same G’d Who is ruler in the heavens also exercises His control down here on earth. Do not think that if you do not honour an oath made to the G’d in heaven that failure to honour it would not have negative consequences for you here on earth. When Avraham speaks of his own self, as opposed to the need to make someone else take an oath, he only needs to refer to the “G’d of the heavens” (compare verse 7) Avraham was well aware of G’d being also the G’d on earth. In Bereshit Rabbah 59,8 Rabbi Pinchas is quoted as saying that until He revealed Himself to His creatures G’d was known only as the “G’d of the heavens,” whereas after He revealed Himself to His creatures [or to an individual creature by performing a miracle for such a person Ed.] He also became known as the ”G’d of the earth.”

ואשביעך, “so that I make you swear, etc.” Avraham anticipates Eliezer’s concern that no woman in her right mind would a follow someone’s servant to a distant country on the servant’s say so that he had been empowered to select her as a wife for the son of his master. Therefore, Avraham told Eliezer that he would give him irrevocable documents, oath-like, to prove to the girl’s family that if she were to come she would indeed become the wife of Avraham’s son Yitzchok. Eliezer would have the widest possible latitude in using his good judgment.

ה׳, in dessen Händen die Zukunft ruht. אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ, nicht אלקי השמים והארץ, welches Gott nur indirekt in Beziehung zur Erde setzen könnte, nur insofern er Gott des Himmels ist, durch welchen wiederum die Erde bedingt ist; sondern: ebenso unmittelbar Gott der Erde, wie er Gott des Himmels ist. —

מבנות הכנעני, “from among the daughters of the Canaanite nation.” Avraham did not want that in the future anyone could claim that his claim on the Holy Land was based on intermarriage with the previous owners of that land. It had to be established beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Israelites’ claim to the land was based on G-d having firmly promised it to me.

מבנות הכנעני, for the entire Canaanite tribe is cursed since the days of Noach, and Avraham’s seed is not to be merged with that of a cursed tribe.

אשר לא תקח אשה לבני מבנות הכנעני, “that you will not take a wife for my son from among the girls who are of Canaanite origin.” Actually, Avraham should have made Yitzchok swear an oath that he would not marry a Canaanite girl. The reason Avraham did not proceed in this fashion was that he wanted to send someone to his family in Charan or thereabouts, but he wanted to make his servant swear that he would perform the task either while he, Avraham, was still alive, or if necessary, even after his death. To this end he had to make Eliezer take an oath anyway. Seeing that he made Eliezer swear there was no longer any need to make Yitzchok swear to the same effect. He knew that Yitzchok would not violate the wishes of his father in this matter. Alternatively, Avraham actually appointed Eliezer to be his executor, ordering him to see that Yitzchok would get married and restricting his choices only by excluding women of Canaanite descent. To make this point quite clear to the reader, the Torah added the words המושל בכל אשר לו, describing Eliezer as having complete power of attorney concerning the affairs of Avraham. Some commentators believe that that at the time in question Yitzchok was simply not at hand, a view supported by the Torah when it described the chance meeting of Yitzchok and Eliezer when the former just returned from the well named by Hagar באר לחי רואי, (compare both 24,18 and 16,14) According to a Midrash (Yalkut), Yitzchok returned from Gan Eden at that time where the wounds inflicted upon him by his father when he had been lying bound on the altar had been healed.

THE G-D OF THE HEAVEN, AND THE G-D OF THE LAND.⁸¹“Of the land.” From Ramban’s commentary it becomes obvious that he understood the word ha’aretz (the land) to mean “the land of Israel.” The Holy One, blessed be He, is called the G-d of the Land of Israel, as it is written, They know not the manner of the G-d of the land,⁸²II Kings 17:26. and it is further written, And they spoke of the G-d of Jerusalem, as of the gods of the people of the earth.⁸³II Chronicles 32:19. There is a secret in this matter which I will yet explain⁸⁴See further, 26:5, and Leviticus 18:25. with the help of G-d. However [in Verse 7], further on where it says, Who took me from my father’s house, it does not say “the G-d of the land” because he [Abraham] was then in Haran or Ur of the Chaldees. So also the Rabbis have said:⁸⁵Ketuboth 110b. “He who lives outside the land of Israel is as if he had no G-d, as it said, For they have driven me out this day that I should not cleave unto the inheritance of the Eternal, saying, Go, serve other gods.⁸⁶I Samuel 26:19. But who said to David, Go serve other gods? However this verse teaches you that he who lives outside of the land of Israel is considered as if he worshipped idols. (Ibid.)

מבנות הכנעני, zwischen einer בת כנעני und einem בן אברהם ist die geistige und sittliche Kluft eine so große, dass sie nie und nimmer zu einander passen. Der Einfluss einer kanaanitischen Frau auf meinen Sohn wird aber ein um so größerer sein, als "ich mitten unter dem Kenaani wohne" somit nicht nur die Frau, sondern die ganze Verwandtschaft und Bekanntschaft ihren Einfluss geltend machen würden. Dass sich dieses letztere auf den Familieneinfluss bezieht, ist auch daran erkennbar, dass Elieser später so feinfühlend ist, statt בארצו :בקרבו zu sagen, in deren Land ich wohne und somit deren Sitten kenne. בקרבו wäre eine Beleidigung gewesen: Ich komme zu euch, weil ihr weit weg wohnet, in der Nähe möchten wir auch euch nicht haben!

יושב בקרבו, compare the verses 36 in our chapter as well as Genesis 48,16 where one or the other of these words is used to describe the environment in which our patriarchs lived.

ואשביעך בה' אלוקי השמים ואלוקי הארץ, “I will make you swear in the name of the Lord of heaven and earth.” The simile was apt as marriages are made in heaven before they are consummated on earth.