tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the LORD hath spoken.

52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth.

53 And the servant brought forth 10 jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. 54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, "Send me away unto my master.

55 And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us 12 a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go.

56 And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the LORD hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my

master.

57 And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth.

58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.

59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.

60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.

61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.

62 And Isaac came from the way of the 13 well Lahai-roi; for he dwelt in the south country.

63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.

64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she lighted off the camel.

65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.

67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

14 Or, to pray.

10 Heb. vessels. 11 Vers. 56, and 59. 12 Or, a full year, or ten months. 13 Chap. 16. 14, and 25. 11. Verse 2. "Put...thy hand under my thigh.”—This action in the person taking an oath is not elsewhere mentioned except where Jacob requires the same service from his son Joseph (chap. xlvii. 29); but Josephus says that the same usage was retained in his time. Mr. Harmer's illustration on this instance is perhaps rather far-fetched. He conceives that it is illustrated by the action of the Arabs, who, in swearing, place the left hand underneath, and the right hand over the Koran. The signification of the act has been variously understood.

4. "Go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac."-The great anxiety of the patriarchs to secure the marriage of their sons to women of their own clan or family appears everywhere, and is even indicated in the precise mention which is made of marriages which took place against this regulation-as in the cases of Ishmael and Esau. Such a desire has always prevailed wherever the distinction of clans or tribes has been strongly marked, for the sake of keeping up its property, blood, and peculiar feelings, and of compacting its union and influence; and these ordinary motives acquired increased intensity in the instance of the Hebrew patriarchs in consequence of the general idolatry or superstition into which all the surrounding nations had fallen, and which alone would have sufficed to preclude intermarriages with them. This consideration, separately from any other, has always prevented the Jews from forming matrimonial connexions with any but the daughters of Israel. Their law forbade such marriages in the strictest manner; and we shall find instances of their being severely punished, and of the deep disgust which they inspired. They were neither to take the females of other nations, nor give their own females to them (Deut. vii. 3, 4); and the reason was, "For they will turn away thy sons from following me." While this principle inhibited marriages with other nations, there was another law which preserved the integrity of property in the respective tribes, by directing that daughters having any inheritance should not marry out of the tribe of their father. (Num. xxxvi.) "So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe." These principles, taken from the subsequent laws of the Hebrews, afford the best explanation of the conduct of the patriarchs with regard to the marriages of their sons. Among the Bedouin Arabs there is no regulation precluding the intermarriages of different tribes; but in practice a man seldom takes a wife from any other tribe than his own; and still more rarely, although there is no national or religious difference, will a Bedouin give his daughter in marriage to the inhabitant of a town, or to a cultivator or artizan. Some tribes never do so; but others are rather less strict. So, as Ward informs us, among the Hindoos, the parents who find employment at a distance from their original homes, always marry their children in their own country and among their old acquaintance.

10. "The city of Nahor”—that is, Haran, where Nahor continued to reside.

11. "He made his camels to kneel down.”—As this immediately precedes an act of prayer on the part of Eliezer, unin

formed persons are apt to conclude that this faithful servant of Abraham intended in some sort to make his camels participators in that act. But kneeling is not peculiarly an attitude of devotion in the East; and Eliezer himself did not kneel; for even in his prayer, he describes himself as standing by the well. He merely intended to give the wearied camels a little rest, kneeling being the posture in which camels always repose.

"The time that women go out to draw water.”—Water is usually drawn in the evening, and frequently in the cool of the morning also. Fetching water is one of the heaviest of the many heavy duties which devolve upon the females in the East, and one which the most sensibly impresses us with a sense of their degraded condition. The usage varies in different countries. Among the Arabs and other nomades, and also in many parts of India, it is the exclusive employment of the women, without distinction of rank. But in Turkey and Persia the poorer women only are subject to this servile employment, respectable families being supplied daily by men who make the supplying of water a distinct business. The tents of the Bedouins are seldom pitched quite near to the well from which they obtain their water; and if the distance is not more than a mile, the men do not think it necessary that the water should be brought upon the camels; and, unless there are asses to be employed on this service, the women must go every evening, sometimes twice, and bring home at their backs long and heavy leathern bags full of water. The wells are the property of tribes or individuals, who are not always willing that caravans should take water from them; and in that case, a girl is sometimes posted at the well to exact presents from those who wish to have water. It is not likely that Abraham's servant travelled without a leathern bucket to draw water, and it is therefore probable that he abstained from watering his ten camels until he should have obtained permission. The women, when they are at the wells in the evening, are generally obliging to travellers, and ready to supply such water as they may require for themselves or their beasts. The women of towns in Turkey and Persia have seldom far to go, except under peculiar circumstances in the situation or soil of the place, or quality of its water. Their water-vessel depends much upon the distance; if rather far, a skin will probably be preferred as most convenient for carrying a good quantity; but if near, an earthen jar will often be chosen. The present well seems to have been quite near the town, and we concur in the translation which renders Rebekah's vessel "a pitcher." The word (kad) is different from that (chemitz) rendered "bottle" in the narrative of Hagar's expulsion; and is the same word used to describe the vessels in which Gideon's soldiers concealed their torches, and which they broke to produce a crashing and alarming noise. The women contrive to draw an enjoyment even out of this irksome duty, as it affords the best opportunity they have of meeting and talking together, and of displaying their finery to each other. They by no means appear to the worst advantage, as to dress, at the wells; and this circumstance shows that Abraham's servant might there, without any incongruity, invest Rebekah with the ornaments he had brought. To a traveller in the East, the best opportunities of making his observations on the females will occur in the evening at the wells. Eliezer was aware of this, and regarded the opportunity as favourable for his purpose. It appears that the unmarried females even of towns went unveiled, or only partially veiled, on ordinary occasions, in these early times. Now all go veiled; and the more extended use of the veil in modern times has probably, in one respect, operated favourably for the women, by exonerating those in families decently circumstanced from the very heavy duty of fetching water, the proper management of the veil being scarcely compatible with the performance of this laborious office. Accordingly we find that this duty devolves more exclusively on the females, without distinction of rank, in those Asiatic countries or tribes where the women are not obliged to veil their faces, as in India, and among the Arabian and other nomade tribes. We have already noticed the Arabian usage. In consequence of the modifications which we venture to think that the extended use of the veil has produced among the inhabitants of towns west of the Indus, it is perhaps in India we are to look for the most precise parallels to the patriarchal customs. Accordingly we find, that in many parts of India, women of the first distinction draw water daily from the public wells. They always fetch it in earthen jars carried upon their heads. Sometimes two or three jars are thus carried at once, one upon the other, forming a pillar upon the bearer's head. As this necessarily requires the most perfect steadiness, 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, however, 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.

16. "Went down to the well, and 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 rain-water, although we must allow the probabilities to be in favour of his supposition.

20. "Emptied her pitcher into the trough."-Troughs of stone or wood are sometimes, but not often, found near wells in 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 precluding 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 which the necessary concavity is given by scraping a hollow in the sand over which it is placed, or by propping up the edges with sand, earth, or stones. What sort of trough is intended here and in Exod. ii. 16, does not appear.

22. "A golden earring of half a shekel weight."-Our generally excellent translation sometimes indicates the painful difficulties in which the translators were occasionally involved, in consequence of the ignorance of eastern countries which then generally prevailed, and which often left them in great doubt about the true renderings. Here we have "a golden earring," that is, an odd earring. This being felt as somewhat of an absurdity, the marginal rendering is, "a

jewel for the face;" but again, in verse 47, it is, "I put the earring upon her face," which is rather a curious disposition of an earring. The thing really intended seems to be a ring or jewel for the nose; but our translators having no knowledge of such an ornament, which seemed to them to imply an absurdity, have carefully avoided the true idea everywhere except in Isaiah iii. 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. xi. 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 "nosering,” as is done in the Arabic and Persian versions. Such rings are generally of silver or gold, but sometimes of coral, mother-of-pearl, 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 are set with a ruby between two pearls; we do not recollect, however, to have seen rubies in them; but the turquoise is common. curious ornament varies considerably in size and thickness; but it is always circular, and is worn, not from the middle cartilage of the nose, but from the external cartilage of the left nostril, which is pierced for the purpose. We have also seen an ornament for the nose worn by the Koordish and Bedouin females, which has escaped the notice of illustrators of Scripture, but which we should prefer to consider as the "nose-jewel," when a ring is not expressly mentioned. It is a thin circular plate of gold, frequently a coin, about the size of half a crown piece, and in appearance not unlike the large fancy buttons which decorated the coats of a past generation. A turquoise is often set in the centre over the pin by which it is attached to the side of the nose, where its appearance is sufficiently striking, and it always seemed to us much less pleasing than even the nose-ring.

This

"Two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold.”—That is, about four ounces and a half, which seems an extraordinary weight for a pair of bracelets. But they are worn as heavy, or indeed much heavier, in the East, resembling, as Chardin remarks, rather manacles than bracelets. They are sometimes flat in shape, but more usually round or semicircular, taking a cubical form at the section where they open to admit the hand. They have no fastenings, but open and compress by their own elasticity alone; they are, in fact, enormous rings, which we have often seen not less than an inch in diameter; but their weight, although great, is not commensurate to their size, as they are usually hollow. The weight which a woman carries on her arms is, however, not to be estimated by that of a single pair of bracelets; for no woman who can possibly get more is contented with one pair. It is not unusual to see five or six bracelets on the same arm, covering it from the wrist nearly to the elbow. These and their other ornaments form the sole wealth of the bulk of the women; and they are anxious, on all occasions, to accumulate it, and loath to part with it; hence on comparatively poor women, living and dressing meanly, it is not uncommon to see a considerable quantity of precious metal in the ornaments of her head-dress, and of her arms and ankles; and whatever ornaments she possesses are not treasured up to be produced on grand occasions, but are worn daily as parts of her ordinary costume. Thus she puts all her bracelets on her arms at once, all her anklets on her legs, and all her earrings in her ears. Such ornaments form her whole personal wealth, and on their value she rests her claim to permanent consideration. This is particularly the case with the Bedouin females, who are generally well supplied with all kinds of trinkets of personal ornament; for although the Arab cares little about his own dress, he is anxious to deck his wife as richly as possible, that honour may be reflected upon himself, and his circumstances properly estimated. This use of ornaments on all occasions seems to explain why Eliezer placed the nose-ring at once on the nose of Rebekah, and the bracelets on her hands, instead of giving them to her as things to be treasured up. The material of the bracelets is exceedingly various. Gold is necessarily rare; silver is the most common, but many that seemed to be silver we have found to be plated steel. Amber, coral, mother-of-pearl, and beads, are also used for bracelets, particularly for the upper part of the arm, for, whatever be the material of the others, it is usually desired that the one on the wrist should be of silver. The poorer sort of women are, however, often obliged to content themselves with rings of copper, horn, common glass beads, and other articles of inferior description. Estimating the gold by its weight, nearly five ounces, Eliezer's present was altogether very valuable.

25. "Straw and provender."-The straw, teben, Arab. tibn, seems to have been "cut straw," to render it more portable. The Septuagint renders it by xuga, chaff, which is a name applied to straw after it has been cut fine by the use of a chaff-cutter. The "provender" was, it would seem, a mixture of several kinds of fodder, cut-straw, barley, beans, &c. so combined as to render the whole palatable. The original word is mispo, which the Septuagint translates by xorasuara, which is a derivative from xgros, grass, and hence signifies fodder, of which herbage is the principal ingredient. Hay is not made in the East. Cattle continue at the present day to be fed with chopped straw mixed with barley. The common reader would suppose the "straw" to be for litter; but straw is never so employed in the East, dung, dried and pounded, being used for that purpose.

6

33. "I will not ea', until I have told mine errand.”—A striking illustration of this is furnished by Mr. Frazer, who, in his work, the Kuzzilbash,' and its sequel, The Persian Adventurer,' has noticed many oriental usages which were but little known in this country. The Persian noble, Ishmael Khan, having occasion to claim the protection of an Affghaun chief, who was known to dislike the Persians, was advised to throw himself upon the protection of this formidable person, and claim his safe conduct as a boon of hospitality. In reply, Ishmael observed,-" I might take the sanctuary of his table. The Affghauns, I believe, regard it as sacredly as we Persians.” "No," replied he, "that is not the Affghaun custom; but they have a custom which is of equal sacredness and force: they term it nunnawautee. If you desire to receive a favour from any man among these clans, be he khan or ryot, you must repair before him and proclaim yourself his guest; but at the same time declare that you will accept of no office of hospitality; that you will neither taste of his salt, nor share his carpet, unless he consents to grant your request; and this request, so demanded, be it for protection only, or for more efficient assistance, he cannot, consistently with Affghaun honour, deny, provided it be at all within the bounds of reason."

48. "My master's brother's daughter."-Rebekah was not Abraham's brother's daughter, but grand-daughter. Here Bethuel, who was Abraham's nephew, is called his brother, as Lot was before.

51. "Take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife."-The whole conduct of this affair is calculated to surprise an European reader. A servant is sent on a distant journey, with full powers to select a wife and conclude a marriage for his master's son. The servant addresses himself to the lady's father and brother, and they agree to his proposals without consulting Rebekah. The agent then makes valuable presents to the lady and her relations, and carries her away, and Isaac and Rebekah meet as man and wife without having ever seen each other before. But all this is most precisely analogous to usages which still prevail in the East, with some small diversity in different nations. We will state the process of a marriage of a young couple in Persia, which seems, on the whole, to present a very close parallel to this patriarchal procedure. When a young man becomes marriageable, his parents begin to look about among their

kindred and acquaintance for a suitable partner for him, frequently assisting their inquiries or leaving the matter entirely to a confidential servant-generally the young man's old nurse, who goes about from house to house, and having found a suitable object, endeavours to create a mutual prepossession by speaking to each of the other. Very often, however, the whole matter is concluded without any reference to the parties most immediately interested. When the parents have found a suitable female, they proceed to the house of her father, and make their overtures to him; and if they are acceptable, he denotes his acquiescence by ordering sweetmeats to be brought. A few days after, another meeting is held at the same place, and there it is finally settled what the parents of the young man are to give in his behalf to the bride [for the principle of such gifts, see note on chap. xxxiv. 12]; and this is a matter of great importance, as these presents remain with the lady, and form her dower or provision in case of a divorce from her husband. It consists of fine dresses and shawls [raiment in the text, v. 53], with female ornaments, some money, and a complete outfit of domestic utensils. Among some of the Arab tribes, the present or dower received for the bride on such occasions is called the "five articles," and consists of a carpet, a silver nose-ring, a silver neck-chain, silver bracelets, and a camel-bag. As to the consent of the woman, the usage varies in different nations. In Persia, after all has been concluded, the woman has nominally the power, almost never exercised, of expressing her dissent before the connexion receives its final sanction; but among many Bedouin tribes, the woman is seldom suffered to know, until the betrothing ceremonies announce it to her, who is to be her husband, and then she has no power of negativing the contract; but she may, if she pleases, withdraw the day after her marriage from her husband's tent to that of her father; and, being divorced, is thenceforward regarded as a widow. In the instance before us, it does not appear to us that the consent of Rebekah was required to her own marriage. The question which was asked her the next day"Wilt thou go with this man?" (verse 58)-we consider to mean no more than to ask whether she were willing to set out so soon as Eliezer desired, or would rather insist on staying a few days longer with her relations, as they had wished. 60. "Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them."-That is, Let them hold in subjection those that hate them. In this and several other passages the gate is emblematic of authority and dominion; even as, in Europe, the delivery of the keys of a town is a formal act of submission to a conquering or superior power. Sometimes the word "gate" denotes "power" in a more general and absolute sense. A familiar instance of this is when we speak of the Turkish power as "the Porte," "the Sublime Porte," "the Ottoman Porte." This denomination is derived from the principal gate or "porte" of the Turkish sultan's palace at Constantinople. When the writer saw this gate it did not seem to him very "sublime;" but the mention of the gate involves the idea of the palace itself, and of the power which resides therein.

64. "When she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel."-Isaac was walking, and it would therefore have been the highest breach of oriental good manners to have remained on the camel when presented to him. No doubt, they all alighted and walked to meet him, conducting Rebecca as a bride to meet the bridegroom. It is a customary mark of respect to great personages for a person to alight from the animal on which he is riding, and lead it until the superior has rid by; and as no conventional superiority is in the East conceded to women, as in Europe, this will show that it would have been highly improper to have rid directly up to Isaac when he was on foot. This would have been treating him as an inferior. In Persia, on occasions when it is thought necessary to stand upon punctilio, two persons of equal rank, after having been riding side by side, will take care when both dismount that it shall be at precisely the same moment; for he whose foot first touches the ground is considered to admit his inferiority to the other.

65. "She took a vail, and covered herself.”—Whether veiled before or not, she now "covered herself”—her whole person-with the ample enveloping veil with which brides are still conducted to the bridegroom. Rosenmuller, in illustration of this passage, quotes an ancient father (Tertullian), who, with an express reference to the same text, observes, as a custom still existing in his time, that the heathen brides were also conducted to their husbands covered with a veil. It is still all but universal in the East, and it will be observed that it is used not only by the females whose faces are always concealed both before and after marriage, but by those who display part or the whole of their faces on all ordinary occasions. It is, in fact, the indispensable costume for the occasion. Whether the bridal veil was distinguished from other veils does not appear, but we observe that one of red silk or muslin is affected by the Persians on such an occasion, although the ordinary veils are white or blue; and Dr. Russel, in his account of a Maronite marriage, observes that the bride's veil was of the same colour. Thus we see that Rebecca, by enveloping her person in a veil, put herself into the costume usual for a bride when conducted to the tent or house of her husband. 67. "He loved her."-The force of this first expression of such an attachment seems to have escaped notice. Isaac, from all that appears, was the only one of the patriarchs who had no opportunity of exhibiting a preference to his wife before marriage. He had never seen her till she stood unveiled in his tent as his wife. It seemed, therefore, necessary to add, that "he loved her" when he did see her. It is remarkable, that what merely arose from circumstances in the case of Isaac, is now amply illustrated by the established practices of the East. The women being completely secluded, and never seen without veils, no opportunity of personal acquaintance, or even of inspection before marriage, is afforded. The man sees his wife for the first time unveiled when he enters the room into which she has been received on her arrival at his house. Having previously formed no idea of her person and qualifications, but from the general and exaggerated praises of the old nurse, who is usually his agent, this is a critical and anxious moment; and it is a most happy circumstance for both, when the account of such a transaction can conclude with the emphatic words" he loved her."

CHAPTER XXV.

1 The sons of Abraham by Keturah. 5 The divi-
sion of his goods. 7 His age, and death. 9 His
burial. 12 The generations of Ishmael. 17 His
age, and death. 19 Isaac prayeth for Rebekah,
being barren. 22 The children strive in her womb.
24 The birth of Esau and Jacob. 27 Their differ-
ence. 29 Esau selleth his birthright.
THEN again Abraham took a wife, and her
name was Keturah.

2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

3 AndJokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 11 Chron. 1. 32.