A Wife for Isaac

¹Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in everything he did.

²He said to his oldest servant, who was in charge of all that he had, “Place your hand between my thighs and make a vow.

³I want you to make a vow in the name of the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the people here in Canaan.

⁴You must go back to the country where I was born and get a wife for my son Isaac from among my relatives.”

⁵But the servant asked, “What if the young woman will not leave home to come with me to this land? Shall I send your son back to the land you came from?”

⁶Abraham answered, “Make sure that you don't send my son back there!

⁷The Lord, the God of heaven, brought me from the home of my father and from the land of my relatives, and he solemnly promised me that he would give this land to my descendants. He will send his angel before you, so that you can get a wife there for my son.

⁸If the young woman is not willing to come with you, you will be free from this promise. But you must not under any circumstances take my son back there.”

⁹So the servant put his hand between the thighs of Abraham, his master, and made a vow to do what Abraham had asked.

¹⁰The servant, who was in charge of Abraham's property, took ten of his master's camels and went to the city where Nahor had lived in northern Mesopotamia.

¹¹When he arrived, he made the camels kneel down at the well outside the city. It was late afternoon, the time when women came out to get water.

¹²He prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master.

¹³Here I am at the well where the young women of the city will be coming to get water.

¹⁴I will say to one of them, ‘Please, lower your jar and let me have a drink.’ If she says, ‘Drink, and I will also bring water for your camels,’ may she be the one that you have chosen for your servant Isaac. If this happens, I will know that you have kept your promise to my master.”

¹⁵Before he had finished praying, Rebecca arrived with a water jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham's brother Nahor and his wife Milcah.

¹⁶She was a very beautiful young woman and still a virgin. She went down to the well, filled her jar, and came back.

¹⁷The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a drink of water from your jar.”

¹⁸She said, “Drink, sir,” and quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and held it while he drank.

¹⁹When he had finished, she said, “I will also bring water for your camels and let them have all they want.”

²⁰She quickly emptied her jar into the animals' drinking trough and ran to the well to get more water, until she had watered all his camels.

²¹The man kept watching her in silence, to see if the Lord had given him success.

²²When she had finished, the man took an expensive gold ring and put it in her nose and put two large gold bracelets on her arms.

²³He said, “Please tell me who your father is. Is there room in his house for my men and me to spend the night?”

²⁴“My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah,” she answered.

²⁵“There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house, and there is a place for you to stay.”

²⁶Then the man knelt down and worshiped the Lord.

²⁷He said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has faithfully kept his promise to my master. The Lord has led me straight to my master's relatives.”

²⁸The young woman ran to her mother's house and told the whole story.

²⁹Now Rebecca had a brother named Laban, and he ran outside to go to the well where Abraham's servant was.

³⁰Laban had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and had heard her say what the man had told her. He went to Abraham's servant, who was standing by his camels at the well,

³¹and said, “Come home with me. You are a man whom the Lord has blessed. Why are you standing out here? I have a room ready for you in my house, and there is a place for your camels.”

³²So the man went into the house, and Laban unloaded the camels and gave them straw and fodder. Then he brought water for Abraham's servant and his men to wash their feet.

³³When food was brought, the man said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.” Laban said, “Go on and speak.”

³⁴“I am the servant of Abraham,” he began.

³⁵“The Lord has greatly blessed my master and made him a rich man. He has given him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, silver, gold, male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys.

³⁶Sarah, my master's wife, bore him a son when she was old, and my master has given everything he owns to him.

³⁷My master made me promise with a vow to obey his command. He said, ‘Do not choose a wife for my son from the young women in the land of Canaan.

³⁸Instead, go to my father's people, to my relatives, and choose a wife for him.’

³⁹And I asked my master, ‘What if she will not come with me?’

⁴⁰He answered, ‘The Lord, whom I have always obeyed, will send his angel with you and give you success. You will get for my son a wife from my own people, from my father's family.

⁴¹There is only one way for you to be free from your vow: if you go to my relatives and they refuse you, then you will be free.’

⁴²“When I came to the well today, I prayed, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, please give me success in what I am doing.

⁴³Here I am at the well. When a young woman comes out to get water, I will ask her to give me a drink of water from her jar.

⁴⁴If she agrees and also offers to bring water for my camels, may she be the one that you have chosen as the wife for my master's son.’

⁴⁵Before I had finished my silent prayer, Rebecca came with a water jar on her shoulder and went down to the well to get water. I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

⁴⁶She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels.

⁴⁷I asked her, ‘Who is your father?’ And she answered, ‘My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah.’ Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms.

⁴⁸I knelt down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me straight to my master's relative, where I found his daughter for my master's son.

⁴⁹Now, if you intend to fulfill your responsibility toward my master and treat him fairly, please tell me; if not, say so, and I will decide what to do.”

⁵⁰Laban and Bethuel answered, “Since this matter comes from the Lord, it is not for us to make a decision.

⁵¹Here is Rebecca; take her and go. Let her become the wife of your master's son, as the Lord himself has said.”

⁵²When the servant of Abraham heard this, he bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

⁵³Then he brought out clothing and silver and gold jewelry, and gave them to Rebecca. He also gave expensive gifts to her brother and to her mother.

⁵⁴Then Abraham's servant and the men with him ate and drank, and spent the night there. When they got up in the morning, he said, “Let me go back to my master.”

⁵⁵But Rebecca's brother and her mother said, “Let her stay with us a week or ten days, and then she may go.”

⁵⁶But he said, “Don't make us stay. The Lord has made my journey a success; let me go back to my master.”

⁵⁷They answered, “Let's call her and find out what she has to say.”

⁵⁸So they called Rebecca and asked, “Do you want to go with this man?” “Yes,” she answered.

⁵⁹So they let Rebecca and her old family servant go with Abraham's servant and his men.

⁶⁰And they gave Rebecca their blessing in these words: “May you, sister, become the mother of millions! May your descendants conquer the cities of their enemies!”

⁶¹Then Rebecca and her young women got ready and mounted the camels to go with Abraham's servant, and they all started out.

⁶²Isaac had come into the wilderness of “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me” and was staying in the southern part of Canaan.

⁶³He went out in the early evening to take a walk in the fields and saw camels coming.

⁶⁴When Rebecca saw Isaac, she got down from her camel

⁶⁵and asked Abraham's servant, “Who is that man walking toward us in the field?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her scarf and covered her face.

⁶⁶The servant told Isaac everything he had done.

⁶⁷Then Isaac brought Rebecca into the tent that his mother Sarah had lived in, and she became his wife. Isaac loved Rebecca, and so he was comforted for the loss of his mother.

^1-2Everything you say, I have heard before. I understand it all; I know as much as you do. I'm not your inferior.

³But my dispute is with God, not you; I want to argue my case with him.

⁴You cover up your ignorance with lies; you are like doctors who can't heal anyone.

⁵Say nothing, and someone may think you are wise!

⁶Listen while I state my case.

⁷Why are you lying? Do you think your lies will benefit God?

⁸Are you trying to defend him? Are you going to argue his case in court?

⁹If God looks at you closely, will he find anything good? Do you think you can fool God the way you fool others?

¹⁰Even though your prejudice is hidden, he will reprimand you,

¹¹and his power will fill you with terror.

¹²Your proverbs are as useless as ashes; your arguments are as weak as clay.

¹³Be quiet and give me a chance to speak, and let the results be what they will.

¹⁴I am ready to risk my life.

¹⁵I've lost all hope, so what if God kills me? I am going to state my case to him.

¹⁶It may even be that my boldness will save me, since no wicked person would dare to face God.

¹⁷Now listen to my words of explanation.

¹⁸I am ready to state my case, because I know I am in the right.

¹⁹Are you coming to accuse me, God? If you do, I am ready to be silent and die.

²⁰Let me ask for two things; agree to them, and I will not try to hide from you:

²¹stop punishing me, and don't crush me with terror.

²²Speak first, O God, and I will answer. Or let me speak, and you answer me.

²³What are my sins? What wrongs have I done? What crimes am I charged with?

²⁴Why do you avoid me? Why do you treat me like an enemy?

²⁵Are you trying to frighten me? I'm nothing but a leaf; you are attacking a piece of dry straw.

²⁶You bring bitter charges against me, even for what I did when I was young.

²⁷You bind chains on my feet; you watch every step I take, and even examine my footprints.

²⁸As a result, I crumble like rotten wood, like a moth-eaten coat.

¹We are all born weak and helpless. All lead the same short, troubled life.

²We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows.

³Will you even look at me, God, or put me on trial and judge me?

⁴Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.

⁵The length of our lives is decided beforehand— the number of months we will live. You have settled it, and it can't be changed.

⁶Look away from us and leave us alone; let us enjoy our hard life—if we can.

⁷There is hope for a tree that has been cut down; it can come back to life and sprout.

⁸Even though its roots grow old, and its stump dies in the ground,

⁹with water it will sprout like a young plant.

¹⁰But we die, and that is the end of us; we die, and where are we then?

¹¹Like rivers that stop running, and lakes that go dry,

¹²people die, never to rise. They will never wake up while the sky endures; they will never stir from their sleep.

¹³I wish you would hide me in the world of the dead; let me be hidden until your anger is over, and then set a time to remember me.

¹⁴If a man dies, can he come back to life? But I will wait for better times, wait till this time of trouble is ended.

¹⁵Then you will call, and I will answer, and you will be pleased with me, your creature.

¹⁶Then you will watch every step I take, but you will not keep track of my sins.

¹⁷You will forgive them and put them away; you will wipe out all the wrongs I have done.

¹⁸There comes a time when mountains fall and solid cliffs are moved away.

¹⁹Water will wear down rocks, and heavy rain will wash away the soil; so you destroy our hope for life.

²⁰You overpower us and send us away forever; our faces are twisted in death.

²¹Our children win honor, but we never know it, nor are we told when they are disgraced.

²²We feel only the pain of our own bodies and the grief of our own minds.

¹⁶You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk,

¹⁷who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.

¹⁸If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.

¹⁹No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life.