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Genesis 24:38

in Genesis 24

but you shall go to my father’s house and to my kindred to take a wife for my son.’

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

but thou shalt go unto my father’s house, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son.

KJV

But thou shalt go unto my father’s house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.

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This verse in Genesis 24

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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."

This site's exposition

My master made me swear an oath

on Genesis 24:37-41

The servant repeats the oath exactly: no wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, and a wife from his master's kindred and his father's house. He includes the clause that sets him free if the family refuses to give her. He tells them an angel was promised for the road. The retelling runs to sixteen verses in a book that can cover a century in a line.

This site's exposition

to my kindred to take a wife

The country of verse 4 becomes my father's house in the retelling, a family claim on the people listening. Matthew Henry saw the servant answering a question before they could ask it, why a son so well placed had to take a wife from so far. The answer is the ban on the Canaanites.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

But when he has the desired success, he worships God, not the angel. Whatever benefit we have by the ministration of angels, all the glory must be given to the Lord of the angels, Rev. xxii.

A commentator

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

proposed

But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son. See Gill on Gen 24:4.
But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son. See Gill on Gen 24:4.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • לֹ֧אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • בֵּית־[the] house of

    beit-H1004 →2046 times

  • אָבִ֛יfather my

    ʾaviH1 →1212 times

  • תֵּלֵ֖ךְyou will go

    telekhH1980 →1546 times

  • וְאֶל־and to

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • מִשְׁפַּחְתִּ֑יfamily my

    mishpachtiH4940 →303 times

  • וְלָקַחְתָּ֥and you will take

    velakachtaH3947 →966 times

  • אִשָּׁ֖הa wife

    ʾishahH802 →781 times

  • לִבְנִֽי׃for son my

    livniH1121 →4930 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 12:1

    Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 11:8

      By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

    • Nehemiah 9:7

      You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

    • Acts 7:2–6

      And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

    • Isaiah 51:2

      Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

    • Joshua 24:2–3

      And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and…

  • Through

    Genesis 31:19

    Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 19:13

      Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

    • Hosea 3:4

      For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

    • Genesis 31:30

      Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

Eliezer and Rebekah at the Well — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Eliezer and Rebekah at the Well — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 24 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 24 →