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12 And he said, " O LORD, God send me good speed this day, and of my master Abraham, I pray thee, shew kindness unto my master Abraham.

r ver. 27. ch. 26. 24. & 28. 13. & 32. 9. Exod. 3. 6, 15.

veil has produced among the inhabitants
of towns west of the Indus, it is perhaps
in India we are to look for the most pre-
cise parallels to the patriarchal customs.
Accordingly we find, that in many paris
of India, women of the first distinction
draw water daily from the public wells.
They always fetch it in earthern jars
carried upon their heads. Sometimes
two or three jars are thus carried at
once, one upon the other, forming a pl-
lar
upon the bearer's head. As this ne-
cessarily requires the most perfect steadi-
ness, the habit gives to the females a
remarkably erect and stately air. It
seems that it is a distinction to carry the
jar on the shoulder; and Forbes, in his
'Oriental Memoirs,' relates an anecdote
of an intelligent native who, when this
highly interesting passage was read to
him, inferred that Rebekah was of high
caste,' from her carrying the pitcher on
her shoulder (verse 15). The text, how-
ever, does not necessarily imply that she
carried the jar erect upon her shoulder,
but quite as probably means that it was
carried at the back, the handle being
held over the shoulder by the hand or a
leathern strap.'-Pict. Bible.

s Neh. 1.11. Ps. 37. 5.

be brought to know and love that of which they would otherwise have remained ignorant and negligent. This was doubtless the case with this headservant of the patriarch, who shows his concern for the welfare of his master's household, not by an ostentatious parade of his services, but by praying devoutly to God for success upon the mission confided to him. The prayer is remarkable for (1) The faith in which it is offered. He speaks all along under a full persuasion that the providence of God extended to the minutest events, and that there was no presumption in appealing to him on the present occasion. His words are full of confidence that God would direct him in a matter of so much importance to his church in all future ages. (2) The correct views of the character of Jehovah which he expresses. He addresses him as the covenant God of Abraham, who had given him exceeding great and precious promises. In approaching him in this character, he would occupy the best possible vantage ground for urging his request, as any promise made to Abraham would furnish a plea which could scarcely fail to be effectual. 12. O Lord God, &c. or rather as be- (3) The sign which he presumed to ask fore, v. 7. ‘O Lord, the God,' &c. The for. A better, he could not well have character of Eliezer, if he were indeed desired; for such an offer freely made the person charged with the present to a stranger would indicate a most commission, shines brighter at every amiable disposition. It would demonstep. He shews himself throughout, to strate at once the humility, the industry, have been eminently worthy of being the courtesy, the extreme kindness of entrusted with so momentous a negoti- the female, and would be a pledge that ation. And not only so, but his conduct she possessed all the qualifications which reflects additional credit upon Abraham, he deemed most desirable in a companthe influence of whose pious example ion worthy of his master's son. is to be recognized in the humble and devout deportment of his servant. A devoted and exemplary master will seldom fail to make religion respected in his household, and domestics will often

She

who could be thus complaisant and obliging to a stranger, would certainly conduct herself well in the relation of a wife. It is a natural inquiry, whether the servant did right in thus fixing in

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הקרה

his own mind upon a sign, and apparent- he undertook, is evidently no rule for ly prescribing it to God as a test of the us in the ordinary transactions of life. selection about to be made. In reply ¶ Send me good speed. Heb. we may observe, (1.) That the event hakreh, bring it to pass, or cause it to hapseems clearly to prove that the proceed-pen; i. e. the object of the journey. ing received the divine approbation, if Gr. svodwoov Evavтiov εpov prosperously it were not in fact of divine sugges-direct before me. Chal. Meet me this tion. (?) Let the circumstances of day.' The same word occurs in the the case be considered. It does not ap-original, Gen. 27. 20, ' And Isaac said pear that any particular individual or unto his son, How is it that thou hast particular family had been designated found it so quickly, my son? And he by Abraham, to whom his servant was said, Because the Lord thy God brought to apply. All was uncertainty in this it to me'; i. e. made it to occur. It is respect; and yet a choice was to be used in speaking of events and occurmade without any great delay, which rences, which, though ordered by the might have been attended with special special providence of God, befall men inconveniences on all sides. The exi- so little in consequence of their own gency, therefore, was peculiar, and the skill or foresight, that in common disservant seems to have determined to course they are ascribed to chance. do what common prudence would have Thus, Luke 10. 31, ' And by chance there dictated to any sensible man under sim- came down a certain priest that way.' ilar circumstances. Being an entire When Eliezer repeats the incidents of stranger to all the people of the city, he his journey, v. 42, the parallel word emresolved to take his stand at the public ployed is 'prosper watering place, and judge as well as he could from the deportment of the young women, which of them, promised fairest to possess the requisite endowments of person, temper, and manners. All this, as far as we can see, was both proper and politic under the circumstances; and being an habitually pious man, when once he had fixed upon a definite course of action, he looks up to God, and implores his blessing upon it. This was all. But his conduct, except in imploring the divine blessing upon whatever

13. Well of water. Heb, auin hammayim, fountain of water. 'Well' and 'fountain' are often used in the scriptures interchangeably. The original has 'well,' v. 11, and fountain,' v. 13. The primary and common signification of y ayin is eye; but as the eye is the source from which tears flow, so an opening in the earth from which waters gush out has the same term applied to it,

14. Hast appointed. Heb. i hokahta; a term having the import of demonstratively prepared.

16 And the damsel y was very fair to look upon, a virgin; neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.

her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.

18 2 And she said, Drink, my lord and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave

17 And the servant ran to meet him drink. y ch. 26. 7.

15. It came to pass before he had done speaking. In the subsequent recital, v. 45, Eliezer says, 'Before I had done speaking in mine heart,' from which it appears that this was a mental instead of a verbal prayer; and in reference to the speedy answer with which it met, we may cite the very apposite remark of Bochart, that'so forward is God to bestow his benefits upon us, that they do not so much follow our prayers, as prevent and go before them.' Is. 65. 24, 'And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Her pitcher upon her shoulder. "The Eastern women, according to Dr. Pococke, sometimes carry their jars upon their heads; but Rebecca's was carried on her shoulder. In such a case, the jar is not to be supposed to have been placed upright on the shoulder, but held by one of the handles, with the hand over the shoulder, and suspended in this manner on the back; held, I should imagine, by the right hand over the left shoulder. Consequently, when it was to be presented to Abraham's servant, that he might drink out of it, it was to be gently moved over the left arm, and being suspended by one hand, while the other, probably, was placed under the bottom of the jar, it was in that position presented to Abraham's servant, and his attendants, to drink out of. She said, Drink, my lord; and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him to drink.' v. 18.-Harmer.

16. Very fair to look upon. Heb. Ha a tobath mareh, good of countenance, or visage. Comp. Gen. 26. 7. Ex. 2. 2.---T Went down to the well and

z 1 Pet. 3. 8. & 4. 9.

filled her pitcher. 'It would seem that this well had a descending stair. Such wells are not very common in the East, except in India, where they occur frequently enough. Chardin, as quoted by Harmer, is disposed to understand, that where steps to a well are mentioned, a reservoir of rain-water is always to be understood. Such reservoirs being seldom of the great depth of wells, it is convenient to have steps, so that the surface of the water may be reached by the hand as its quantity diminishes. All reservoirs have not, however, such steps, nor are all wells without them. The grand well at Cairo in Egypt, called 'Joseph's Well,' has a descent of about one hundred and fifty feet, by a winding staircase six feet in width. It is however true, that steps to wells occur but rarely in the East. Their greater frequency in India is probably because the Hindoos do not use leathern buckets to draw water, and their earthen vessels would be very liable to be broken if let down into wells by a rope. Neither Chardin nor any other traveller seems to have noticed the existence of steps to streams of running water in the East; yet in Persia we have ourselves sometimes obtained water from a covered stream, access to which was afforded by descending steps, protected by a vaulted superstructure of brick. We are, upon the whole, disposed to decide less positively than Chardin, that the present 'well' could be nothing else than a reservoir of rainwater, although we must allow the probabilities to be in favor of his supposition.’—Pict. Bible,

18. My lord. The Hebrew is used in

19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.

a

the LORD had made his journey prosperous, or not,

b

22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the 20 And she hasted, and emptied man took a golden ear-ring of half her pitcher into the trough, and ran a shekel weight, and two bracelets again unto the well to draw water, | for her hands of ten shekels weight and drew for all his camels.

21 And the man, wondering at her, held his peace, to wit whether

addresses of politeness and civility, equivalent to our 'Sir.'

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of gold,

a v r. 12, 56. b Exod. 32. 2. 3. Isai. 3. 19, 20, 21. Ezek. 16. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 3. 3.

was accompanied and assisted by other inmates of the family of her own sex, or that the water was principally drawn by Eliezer's attendants under her superintendence.

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so exactly in unison with his previous wishes, struck him with a kind of amazement, accompanied by a momentary hesitation whether all could be

19. Will draw water for thy camels alSo. Had Rebekah done no more than Eliezer had prayed for, we might have supposed that she acted not as a free 21. Wondering at her, held his peace. agent, but was impelled to it by the ab- Heb. 3 mishtaeh lah solutely controlling power of God: but maharish, amazed on account of her, holdas she exceeds all that was requested, ing his peace. Gr. Considered her, we see that it sprang from her native be- and held his peace.' Chal. Was silent nevolence, and sets her conduct in a in contemplation.' He was rapt in admost amiable point of view.'-A. Clarke. miration of the divine providence, which 20. Emptied her pitcher into the trough. had made the event to correspond so 'Troughs of stone or wood are some-remarkably with his desires. The times, but not often, found near wells in maiden's conduct so amiable in itself, and the East. When found, they are commonly at wells near towns, and, like the descending steps, are more common in India than elsewhere. This also may arise from the prejudices of the Hindoos true. Thus the disciples of Jesus wonprecluding the use of the leathers which the Arabs and travellers through deserts employ in watering their cattle at wells. As the cattle can seldom get direct access to the water in a well, they are usually supplied by the water being thrown into a sort of leathern trough used for the express purpose; but very commonly a simple skin is used, to 22. The man took a golden ear-ring, &c. which the necessary concavity is given It would seem from v. 47, that although by scraping a hollow in the sand he now 'took' or drew out, and had over which it is placed, or by propping in readiness the jewels, yet he did up the edges with sand, earth, or stones. not actually present them till after What sort of trough is intended here he had proposed the ensuing quesand in Exod 2. 16, does not appear.'-tions. Our generally excellent transPict. Bible.- Drew for all his camels. lation sometimes indicates the painIn view of the arduousness of such a ful difficulties in which the translators task for a young female, we know not were occasionally involved, in consehow to resist the impression that she quence of the ignorance of eastern

dered when Peter was cast into prison ; and when their prayers were heard, and Peter stood without knocking at the gate, they could not credit the joyful news, but said, 'It is his angel.' We pray for blessings, and when our prayers are answered, we can scarcely believe them to be so.

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countries which then generally prevail- as the 'nose-jewel,' when a ring is not ed, and which often left them in great expressly mentioned. It is a thin cirdoubt about the true renderings. Here cular plate of gold, frequently a coin, we have a golden ear-ring,' that is, an about the size of half a crown piece, odd ear-ring. This being felt as some- and in appearance not unlike the large what of an absurdity, the marginal ren- fancy buttons which decorated the coats dering is, a jewel for the face;' but of a past generation. A turquoise is again, in v. 47, it is, 'I put the ear-ring often set in the centre over the pin by upon her face,' which is rather a curious which it is attached to the side of disposition of an ear-ring. The thing the nose, where its appearance is suffireally intended seems to be a ring or ciently striking, and it always seemed jewel for the nose; but our translators to us much less pleasing than even the having no knowledge of such an orna- nose-ring.'-Pict. Bible. ment, which seemed to them to imply an absurdity, have carefully avoided the true idea everywhere except in Isaiah 3. 21, the translator of which portion had probably gained some information not possessed by the others, of this peculiarity of oriental ornament. Yet all their care could not preclude an occasional allusion to it, as where Prov. 11. 22, could not but be rendered 'a jewel in a swine's snout.' The extensive use of nose-ornaments among the Arabian and other females of the East having now become known, modern translators render the present text 'nose-ring,' as is done in the Arabic and Persian versions. Such rings are generally of silver or gold, but sometimes of coral, mother-ofpearl, or even horn, according to the taste or means of the wearer. Chardin, who was professionally a jeweller, must have been conversant with this subject; and he says that the better sort of rings - Two bracelets for her hands of ten are set with a ruby between two pearls ; shekels weight of gold.—' That is, about we do not recollect, however, to have four ounces and a half, which seems an seen rubies in them; but the turquoise extraordinary weight for a pair of braceis common. This curious ornament va- lets. But they are worn as heavy, or ries considerably in size and thickness; indeed, much heavier, in the East, rebut it is always circular, and is worn,sembling, as Chardin remarks, rather not from the middle cartilage of the manacles than bracelets. They are nose, but from the external cartilage of sometimes flat in shape, but more usuthe left nostril, which is pierced for the ally round or semicircular, taking a cupurpose. We have also seen an orna-bical form at the section where they ment for the nose worn by the Koordish open to admit the hand. They have and Bedouin females, which has escap-no fastenings, but open and compress ed the notice of illustrators of Scripture, by their own elasticity alone; they are, but which we should prefer to consider in fact, enormous rings, which we have

NOSE-RING.

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