24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. 1 Our wishes are of no concern. 2 24:51 Rebekah stands here before you. Take her and go so that she may become 3 the wife of your master’s son, just as the Lord has decided.” 4
24:52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. 24:53 Then he 5 brought out gold, silver jewelry, and clothing and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave valuable gifts to her brother and to her mother. 24:54 After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. 6
When they got up in the morning, he said, “Let me leave now so I can return to my master.” 7 24:55 But Rebekah’s 8 brother and her mother replied, “Let the girl stay with us a few more days, perhaps ten. Then she can go.” 24:56 But he said to them, “Don’t detain me – the Lord 9 has granted me success on my journey. Let me leave now so I may return 10 to my master.” 24:57 Then they said, “We’ll call the girl and find out what she wants to do.” 11 24:58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Do you want 12 to go with this man?” She replied, “I want to go.”
24:59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, accompanied by her female attendant, with Abraham’s servant and his men. 24:60 They blessed Rebekah with these words: 13
“Our sister, may you become the mother 14 of thousands of ten thousands!
May your descendants possess the strongholds 15 of their enemies.”
1 tn Heb “From the
2 tn Heb “We are not able to speak to you bad or good.” This means that Laban and Bethuel could not say one way or the other what they wanted, for they viewed it as God’s will.
3 tn Following the imperatives, the jussive with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
4 tn Heb “as the
5 tn Heb “the servant”; the noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “And they ate and drank, he and the men who [were] with him and they spent the night.”
8 tn Heb “Send me away to my master.”
9 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Rebekah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial, indicating a reason for the preceding request.
12 tn After the preceding imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
13 tn Heb “and we will ask her mouth.”
15 tn The imperfect verbal form here has a modal nuance, expressing desire.
17 tn Heb “and said to her.”
18 tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”
19 tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.