Matthew Henry

Now the girl was very beautiful, a virgin who had not had relations with any man. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again.

“Secondly, It is good to take all opportunities of showing a humble, courteous, charitable, disposition, because, some time or other, it may turn more to our honour and benefit than we think of; some hereby have entertained angels, and Rebekah hereby, quite beyond her expectation…”

“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

“Note, Providence sometimes wonderfully directs those that by faith and prayer seek direction from heaven in the choice of suitable yoke-fellows: happy marriages those are likely to be that are made in the fear of God; and these, we are sure, are made in heaven.”

saying, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master.

“Note, God is to be acknowledged in providing suitable yoke-fellows, especially such as are agreeable in religion. (6.) He acknowledges that God, herein, had not left his master destitute of his mercy and truth.”

As soon as he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and heard Rebekah’s words, “The man said this to me,” he went and found the man…

“"O," thinks Laban, "here is a man that there is something to be got by, a man that is rich and generous; we will be sure to bid him welcome!"”

So the man came to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and feed were brought to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of…

“Both the house and stable were well furnished, and Abraham's servant was invited to the free use of both. Particular care was taken of the camels; for a good man regardeth the life of his beast, Prov. xii.”

Then a meal was set before the man, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told you what I came to say.” So Laban said, “Please speak.”

“How ingenious he was in the management of it; he approved himself, in this matter, both a prudent man and a man of integrity, faithful to his master by whom he was trusted, and just to those with whom he now treated.”

“I am Abraham’s servant,” he replied. “The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich.

“He was welcome before, but we may suppose him doubly welcome when he said, I am Abraham's servant. Abraham's name, no doubt, was well known among them and respected, and we might suppose them not altogether ignorant of his state, for Abraham knew theirs, ch.”

My master made me swear an oath and said, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell, but…

“He likewise obviates an objection, That, if Isaac were deserving, he needed not send so far off for a wife: why did he not marry nearer home? "For a good reason," says he; "my master's son must not match with a Canaanite."”

When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.

“Observe, First, As his good success went on, he went on to bless God. Those that pray without ceasing should in every thing give thanks, and own God in every step of mercy.”

But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so. After that, she may go.”

“They had consented to the marriage, and yet were loth to part with her. Note, It is an instance of the vanity of this world that there is nothing in it so agreeable but it has its alloy.”

But he replied, “Do not delay me, since the LORD has made my journey a success. Send me on my way so that I may go to my master.”

“He knew his master would expect him home with some impatience; he had business to do at home which wanted him, and therefore, as one that preferred his work before his pleasure, he was for hastening home.”

They called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?” “I will go,” she replied.

“We may hope that the notice she had taken of the servant's piety and devotion gave her such an idea of the prevalence of religion and godliness in the family she was to go to made her desirous to hasten thither, and willing to forget…”

And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”

“Note, When our relations are entering into a new condition, we ought by prayer to recommend them to the blessing and grace of God.”

Then Rebekah and her servant girls got ready, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.

“It seems, then, that when she went to the well for water it was not because she had not servants at command, but because she took a pleasure in works of humble industry.”

Early in the evening, Isaac went out to the field to meditate, and looking up, he saw the camels approaching.

“Meditation and prayer ought to be both our business and our delight when we are alone; while we have a God, a Christ, and a heaven, to acquaint ourselves with, and to secure our interest in, we need not want matter either for meditation or…”

and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “It is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.

“Those that by faith are espoused to Christ, and would be presented as chaste virgins to him, must, in conformity to his example, humble themselves, as Rebekah, who alighted when she saw Isaac on foot, and must put themselves into subjection to him who is…”

And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.

“What an affectionate son he was to his mother: it was about three years since her death, and yet he was not, till now, comforted concerning it; the wound which that affliction gave to his tender spirit bled so long, and was never healed till…”

Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac…

“In this all, which he settled upon Isaac, are perhaps included the promise of the land of Canaan, and the entail of the covenant. Or, God having already made him the heir of the promise, Abraham therefore made him heir of his estate.”

and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

“Isaac was forty years old when he was married; though he was an only son, and the person from whom the promised seed was to come, yet he made no haste to marry.”

Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

“The Jews have a tradition that Isaac, at length, took his wife with him to mount Moriah, where God had promised that he would multiply Abraham's seed ( ch. xxii.”

and He declared to her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the…

“Observe here, (1.) God is a free agent in dispensing his grace; it is his prerogative to make a difference between those who have not as yet themselves done either good or evil. This the apostle infers hence, Rom. ix. (2.)”

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

“He was attached to that safe and silent employment of keeping sheep, to which also he bred up his children, ch. xlvi. He frequented the tents of Melchizedek, or Heber, as some understand it, to be taught by them divine things.”

He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

“(3.) The gratifying of the sensual appetite is that which ruins thousands of precious souls: surely, if Esau was hungry and faint, he might have got a meal's meat cheaper than at the expense of his birthright; but he was unaccountably fond of the colour…”

“Swear to me first,” Jacob said. So Esau swore to Jacob and sold him the birthright.

“Esau's profane contempt of the birthright, and the foolish sale he made of it. He is called profane Esau for it ( Heb. xii.”

Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,

“He reaped a hundred fold; and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time: it was that same year when there was a famine in the land; while others scarcely reaped at all, he reaped thus plentifully.”