We wrote this commentary introducing Chapter 25 in July 2012:
This chapter is supposed to be concerned with Isaac but it is dominated by Eliezer, the faithful servant who is commissioned by Abraham to bring back a wife from the land of his birth and from among his kindred. It is obvious Eliezer’s God is his master Abraham’s God, to whom he prays that his mission be successful. (We should not impose our faith on others but if others in our employ embrace our faith willingly because of what they observe from our life witness, that is better.)
Just a few observations about Isaac:
- he doesn’t make things happen, rather, things happen to him.
- He’s passive through the Mt. Moriah experience, except perhaps when he helped carry the wood;
- he’s passive at Sarah’s passing;
- he has no participation in seeking a wife for himself although that was Abraham’s decision, not his;
- he’s just there waiting to receive his prospective bride;
- about his one moment of greatness is as the passive compliant elevation offering, submitting to his father’s strange actuations.
- What was he thinking when he didn’t see any lamb offering and he was being bound and placed on the altar?
- To his credit, he must have had total faith in his father as well as in his father’s God.
His prospective bride Rebecca, on the other hand is a woman of action, observable from the time she fetched water from the well, interacted with a stranger, gave him a drink, watered all 10 of his camels, guided him home, then agreed to travel all the way to her prospective husbands home without having met him; she certainly more than makes up for Isaac’s passivity. It is a divinely-arranged match indeed.
The narrative is self-explanatory, no interpretation needed except perhaps for that strange custom of swearing an oath by placing the swearer’s hand on the sworn-to’s thigh, supposedly a euphemism for touching the genitalia, equivalent to raising the right hand with the left hand on the bible . . . which, thankfully, is what is done today.
Now that we’re reviewing/revisiting our reading of the TORAH books two years hence, here is an interesting commentary from Everett Fox whose translation we use in this website. This is from Part III of this The Five Books of Moses, his introduction to the cycle focusing on the third Patriarch, Yaakov;
BEFORE COMMENTING ON THE YAAKOV CYCLE, it is appropriate to consider why his father Yitzhak, the second of the Patriarchs, receives no true separate group of stories on his own.
Yizchak functions in Genesis as a classic second generation—-that is, as a transmitter and stabilizing force, rather than as an active participant in the process of building the people. There hardly exists a story about him in which he is anything but a son and heir, a husband, or a father. His main task in life seems to be to take roots in the land of Canaan, an admittedly important task in the larger context of God’s promises in Genesis. What this means, unfortunately, is that he has almost no personality of his own. By Chapter 27, a scant two chapters after his father dies, he appears as (prematurely?) old, blind in both a literal and figurative sense, and as we will see, he fades out of the text entirely, only to die several chapters, and many years, later.
The true dynamic figure of the second generation here is Rivka. It is she to whom God reveals his plan, and she who puts into motion the mechanism for seeing that it is properly carried out. She is ultimately the one responsible for bridging the gap between the dream, as typified by Avraham, and the hard-won reality, as realized by Yaakov.
—Admin1.
Genesis/Bereshith 2425 And she said to him: Yes, there is straw, yes, plenty of fodder with us, (and) yes, a place to spend the night. 26 In homage the man bowed low before YHVH
27 and said: Blessed be YHVH, God of my lord Avraham, who has not relinquished his faithfulness and his trustworthiness from my lord! While as for me, YHVH has led me on the journey to the house of my lord’s brothers! 28 The maiden ran and told her mother’s household according to these words. 29 Now Rivka had a brother, his name was Lavan. Lavan ran to the man, outside, to the spring: 30 and it was, as soon as he saw the nose-ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and as soon as he heard Rivka his sister’s words, saying: Thus the man spoke to me, that he came out to the man—there, he was still standing by the camels, by the spring— 31 and said: Come, you who are blessed by YHVH, why are you standing outside? I myself have cleared out the house and a place for the camels! 32 The man came into the house and unbridled the camels, they gave straw and fodder to the camels and water for washing his feet and the feet of the men that were with him. 33 (Food) was put before him to eat, but he said: I will not eat until I have spoken my words. He said: Speak!
34 He said: I am Avraham’s servant 35 YHVH has blessed my lord exceedingly, so that he has become great, he has given him sheep and oxen, silver and gold, servants and maids, camels and donkeys. 36 Sara, my lord’s wife, bore my lord a son after she had grown old, and he has given him all
that is his.
37 Now my lord had me swear, saying: You are not to take a wife for my son from the women of the Canaanites, in whose land I am settled!
38 No! To my father’s house you are to go, to my clan, and take a wife for my son. 39 I said to my lord: Perhaps the woman will not go after me! 40 He said to me: YHVH, in whose presence I have walked, will send his messenger with you, he will grant success to your journey, so that you take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house. 41 Only then will you be clear from my oath-curse: When you come to my clan, if they do not give her to you, you will be clear from my oath-curse. 42 Now I came to the well today and said: YHVH, God of my lord Avraham, pray, if you wish
to grant success to the journey on which I am going,
43 here: I have stationed myself by the water spring; may it be that the girl who comes out to draw, to whom I say: Pray give me a little water from your pitcher to drink, 44 and she says to me: You drink, and I will also draw for your camels— let her be the woman whom YHVH has decided on for the son of my lord.
45 (And) I, even before I had finished speaking in my heart, here, Rivka came out, her pitcher on her shoulder, she went down to the spring and drew. I said to her: Pray give me to drink!
46 In haste she let down her pitcher from herself and said: Drink, and I will also give your camels to drink. I drank, and she also gave the camels to drink.
47 Then I asked her, I said: Whose daughter are you? She said: The daughter of Betuel, son of Nahor, whom Milca bore to him. I put a ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. 48 and in homage I bowed low before YHWH, and blessed YHWH, God of my lord Abraham, who led me on the true journey to take the daughter of my lord’s brother for his son. 49 So now, if you wish to deal faithfully and truly with my lord, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may (know to) turn right or left. 50 Lavan and Betuel answered, they said: The matter has come from YHVH; we cannot speak anything to you evil or good. 51 Here is Rivka before you, take her and go, that she may be a wife for the son of your lord, as YHVH has spoken. 52 It was when Avraham’s servant heard their words, that he bowed to the ground before
YHVH.
53 And the servant brought out objects of silver and objects of gold and garments, and gave
them to Rivka, and he gave presents to her brother and to her mother. 54 They ate and drank, he and the men that were with him, and spent the night. When they arose at daybreak, he said: Send me off to my lord 55 But her brother and her mother said: Let the maiden stay with us a few days, perhaps ten-after that she may go. 56 He said to them: Do not delay me, for YHVH has granted success to my journey; send me off, that I may go back to my lord.
57 They said: Let us call the maiden and ask (for an answer from) her own mouth. 58 They called Rivka and said to her: Will you go with this man? She said: I will go.
59 They sent off Rivka their sister with her nurse, and Avraham’s servant with his men, 60 and they gave Rivka farewell-blessing and said to her: Our sister, may you become thousandfold myriads! May your seed inherit the gate of those who hate him! 61 Rivka and her maids arose, they mounted the camels and went after the man. The servant took Rivka and went away. 62 Now Yitzhak had come from where you come to the Well-of-the-Living-One Who-sees-me—for he had settled in the Negev. 63 And Yitzhak went out to stroll in the field around the turning of sunset. He lifted up his eyes and saw: here, camels coming! 64 Rivka lifted up her eyes and saw Yitzhak; 65 she got down from the camel and said to the servant: Who is the man over there that is walking in the field to meet us? The servant said: That is my lord. She took a veil and covered herself. 66 Now the servant recounted to Yitzhak all the things that he had done.
67 Yitzhak brought her into the tent of Sara his mother, he took Rivka and she became his wife, and he loved her. Thus was Yitzhak comforted after his mother.