Genesis 24:2-28

Darby Translation

² And Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put thy hand, I pray thee, under my thigh,

³ and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth, that thou take not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am dwelling;

⁴ but thou shalt go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.

⁵ And the servant said to him, Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land: must I, then, bring thy son again in any case to the land from which thou hast removed?

⁶ And Abraham said to him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again.

⁷ Jehovah the God of the heavens, who took me out of my father's house, and out of the land of my nativity, and who has spoken to me, and who has sworn to me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land—he will send his angel before thee, that thou mayest take a wife for my son thence.

⁸ And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be quit of this my oath: only, bring not my son thither again.

⁹ And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore unto him concerning that matter.

¹⁰ And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; now all the treasure of his master was under his hand; and he arose and went to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor.

¹¹ And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water, at the time of the evening, when the women came out to draw [water].

¹² And he said, Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, meet me, I pray thee, [with thy blessing] this day, and deal kindly with my master Abraham.

¹³ Behold, I stand [here] by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water.

¹⁴ And let it come to pass, [that] the maiden to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink, and who will say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also, be she whom thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and hereby I shall know that thou hast dealt kindly with my master.

¹⁵ And it came to pass before he had ended speaking, that behold, Rebecca came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother; and [she had] her pitcher upon her shoulder.

¹⁶ And the maiden was very fair in countenance; a virgin, and no man had known her. And she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.

¹⁷ And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, sip a little water out of thy pitcher.

¹⁸ And she said, Drink, my lord! And she hasted and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink.

¹⁹ And when she had given him enough to drink, she said, I will draw [water] for thy camels also, until they have drunk enough.

²⁰ And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw [water]; and she drew for all his camels.

²¹ And the man was astonished at her, remaining silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not.

²² And it came to pass when the camels had drunk enough, that the man took a gold ring, of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, ten [shekels] weight of gold,

²³ and said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room [in] thy father's house for us to lodge?

²⁴ And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.

²⁵ And she said to him, There is straw, and also much provender with us; also room to lodge.

²⁶ And the man stooped, and bowed down before Jehovah,

²⁷ and said, Blessed be Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, who has not withdrawn his loving-kindness and his faithfulness from my master; I being in the way, Jehovah has led me to the house of my master's brethren.

²⁸ And the maiden ran and told these things to her mother's house.