Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 45
24:16-37
G enesis
33
Milcah. Rebekah was very beautiful and old enough to be married, but she
was still a virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up
again. Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a little drink
of water from your jug.”
“Yes, my lord,” she answered, “have a drink.” And she quickly lowered
her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink. When she had given him
a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had
enough to drink.” So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough
and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.
The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord
had given him success in his mission. Then at last, when the camels had
finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold
bracelets for her wrists.
“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “And please tell me, would your
father have any room to put us up for the night?”
“I am the daughter of Bethuel,” she replied. “My grandparents are Nahor
and Milcah. Yes, we have plenty of straw and feed for the camels, and we
have room for guests.”
The man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. “Praise the Lord, the
God of my master, Abraham,” he said. “The Lord has shown unfailing
love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s
relatives.”
The young woman ran home to tell her family everything that had happened. Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who ran out to meet
the man at the spring. He had seen the n ose-ring and the bracelets on
his sister’s wrists, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man had said. So
he rushed out to the spring, where the man was still standing beside his
camels. Laban said to him, “Come and stay with us, you who are blessed
by the Lord! Why are you standing here outside the town when I have a
room all ready for you and a place prepared for the camels?”
So the man went home with Laban, and Laban unloaded the camels,
gave him straw for their bedding, fed them, and provided water for the
man and the camel drivers to wash their feet. Then food was served. But
Abraham’s servant said, “I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I
have come.”
“All right,” Laban said, “tell us.”
“I am Abraham’s servant,” he explained. “And the Lord has greatly
blessed my master; he has become a wealthy man. The Lord has given
him flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, a fortune in silver and gold,
and many male and female servants and camels and donkeys.
“When Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. And my master
