Bere'shiyth (Genesis) - Chapter 24 & 25

Presented by Dr. Stephen Pidgeon

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to Zephyr commentaries. Today we're going to comment on
Genesis better sheath chapters 24 and 25.
And Abraham was old and well stricken in age.

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And Iowa had blessed Abraham in all things, and Abraham said to
his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all, he had put
I pray your hand under my thigh.Now, this is an interesting
phrase in the Hebrew. This is Simana Yitka Tak yakir,

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literally meaning to put your hand under my thigh.
At least that's how it's best translated, I suppose.
But when we look at this word yuck here or yuck ache, we see
this word it, this. I'm just going to read what
Strong says about it, then you can make your own decisions.

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This is from an unused route, meaning to be soft, the thigh
from its fleshy softness by euphemistically the generative
parts, figuratively A Shank, flank side, if for example body
loins, shaft side or thigh. Now some commentators construe

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this as essentially swearing by the circumcision, and this may
be an implication that this was how it was being done.
But nonetheless, let's continue on and I will make you swear 7
oaths. I will make you swear 7 oaths by

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Yahwah, the L i.e. of heaven andthe L i.e. of the earth, that
you shall not take a woman to myson of the daughters of the
Canaanim, among whom I dwell. OK, now again, this word is an
extremely important word, and itgoes to really the whole
sevenfold doctrine of the creation and really the

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sevenfold aspect of the character of Yahwah, because we
see here this word is shabba andit's a primitive route properly
to be complete, to be complete. This is why people say that the
number 7 is the number of completeness, but used only as a

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denominative from the word sheba, which is the the
primitive cardinal #7. Also seven times by implication
a week, by extension and indefinite number.
Yeah, by implication a week. That's by a modern implication a

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week. It means the 7th, and so Sheba
Shabba in its plural form. Shabbat Shabbat or Shabbat
Shabbat? Yes, Shabbat is the plural form
of sevens Shabbat. And so here we see that this is

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to swear 7 oaths all right, 27 oneself, IE to swear as if by
repeating a declaration 7 times to a juror charged by oath with
an oath feed to the full, take an oath or cause to make swear.

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So This is why the sufferer usesthe phrase wherever this term
Shabbat is found, to swear 7 oaths by Yahwah, the LAE of
heaven and the LAE birth, that you shall not take a woman to my
son of the daughters of the Canaan, among whom I dwell.
So we might reckon that this is particularly critically
important to Abraham. Now we see that Yitzhak would

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pay close attention to this because remember that Abraham is
speaking to his eldest servant, and he's saying, and he's going
to go on to say in verse 4, But you shall go to my country and
to my kindred and take a woman to my son Yitzhak.
And the servant said to him, Perchance a woman will not be
willing to follow me to this land.
Do I need to bring your son again to the land from where you

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came? And Abraham said to him, Beware
that you do not bring my son there again.
Interesting. I want you to go get someone
from my tribe, but do not bring my son there.
These are extremely important things when you look at this, at
the scheme of this and how Abraham is dealing with this.

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Because we're going to see that Yitzhak is in fact going to take
your wife from this tribe. And Yitzhak would then would
then give birth to two children.Two nations is how it's going to
read and one of those the very first thing he's going to do is
marry two of the Kenai name women and and Ishmaelim yes, he

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didn't seem to think that Abraham Abraham's 7 oath issue
up here in chapter 24 was particularly relevant to him.
Verse 7 Yahweh Elahi of heaven, which took me from my father's
house, and from the land of my kindred, which spoke to me, that
swore 7 oaths to me, saying, To your seed, will I give this

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land? And he shall send his messenger
before you, and you shall take awoman to my son from there.
And if the woman will not be willing to follow you, then you
shall be cleared from my oath. Only do not bring my son there
again. And the servant put his hand
under the thigh of Abraham his Adonai, and swore 7 oaths to him
concerning that matter. And the servant took 10 camels

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of the camels of his Adonai and departed, for all the goods of
his Adonai were in his hand. So at this point you can look at
this from kind of a position in the modern world.
All the goods of Abraham were inhis hand.
He had the delegated authority of Abraham to dispose of the
entirety of Abraham's estate. You might call it a power of

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attorney. And he arose and he went to Aram
Nahar Rahim. Aram Nahar Rahim.
So we can see that Abraham's family came out of Abram, out of
Aram. Now for those of you to recall,
again, a critical part of understanding any of the tribal

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relationships is to know the children of the sons of Noah.
And I'm just going to take a second to go back and review
that real quick. We're going to let's drop back
into Chapter 10 because this is going to become a very important
OK. So in Chapter 10, these are the

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generations of the sons of Noah.They're told that Shem, Ham and
Yefet and to them were born sonsafter the flood.
So we'll start with the youngestYefet.
And Yefet had the sons Gimer, sometimes called Gomer Magog.

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Magog is often said in the Christian Church, and Madai and
Yavan and Tubal and Meshech and Therais.
And the sons of Gimmer were Ashkenaz, Raiphath and Togarmah,
OK, and the sons of Yavan, Elisha and Tarshish, Kitim and

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Dodineen. So this is going to give you an
idea when we talk about these names here, these are the
progenitors of massive tribes that are going to dominate
history, and in particular, they're going to dominate the
region of the north. By these were the Isles of the
other nations divided in their lands.

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And everyone after his tongue, and after their families, and
after their nations. And the sons of Ham, not Ham,
but Ham, Kush, Mitzrayim, put, and Canaan.
And the sons of Kush, Seva and Kavila, and Kafta, and RA, AMA,

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and Savteka. And the sons of RA, AMA, Sheva
and Didan. Now you might recall the queen
of Sheva, right? The queen of Sheva and Kush
fathered Nimrod, and he began tobe a warrior and 100 and the
earth OK now and Canaan fatheredSaidon, his first born, and Het

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and the MUC and the Emory and the Girgashi.
Now Het would become the leader of what would be called the
Hittites or the Hittites. And there's kind of two
distinguishing groups of the Hittites.
We have to talk about the ancient Hittites and then the
more modern Hittites and the Hibi and the Archaean, the Semi

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and the Arvadi and the Samadhi and the Hamathi.
These were the family of the Caninee spread abroad.
OK now. And to Shem also the father of
all the children of a brew. So the children of Shem are
going to be called Hebrews. OK, The children of Shem would

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be called Hebrews. To Shem also the father of all
the children of Ebrew, the brother of Ephed the elder, even
to him were children born. And the children of Shem were a
Lamb Assure, Araf, Cassed, Lewd and Aram, And the children of

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Aram Oots and Hool and gather and Mash and Arafka said
fathered Sheilac, and Sheilac fathered Ebru.
OK. And so this is the lineage that
is important to recognize what we're talking about when we
start talking about going into the land of Aram Naharaim.

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We're talking about the land of one of the tribes of Shem, which
you could also refer to as a Shematic tribe, not Semitic.
Semitic is a mispronunciation inmy view.
If you're calling him Shem, thenif he's of Shem, it should be
Shemitic at to the city of Nakor.

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Now you might recall Nakor was two people in this lineage.
Nakor was Abraham's brother who had had twelve sons before
Abraham had even Ishmael. And so Nakor was a very
definitely a progenitor of 12 tribes and those 12 tribes are

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going to proliferate throughout the land of Iran.
Now this land of Iran was most likely in the most likely in the
northern Tigris Euphrates River Valley.
We're not certain of that, but that appears to be the case.
And that these tribes would dwell all the way up into the
Black Sea, into the Caspian Sea and into the into the mountains

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of Ararat and also in, you know,bordering into Turkey.
Now in Turkey we'd also see the presence of some of the tribes
of Yefet. And on the other side of the
Black Sea we would also see the tribes of Yefet.
OK. And he made his camels to to
kneel outside the city by a wellof water at the time of the

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evening, at the time that the woman go out to draw water.
And he said, now here we're going to see this servant.
We see the servant of Abraham isnow going to essentially what
they used to call, put out a fleece.
He's going to ask Yahwah to givehim a very definite sign as to
which woman he should pick for the son of his Adonai.

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So he prays this way. He says, oh Yahwah, Elahi Adonai
of Abraham, I pray send me goodspeed this day and show
kindness to my Adonai Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the will
of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out to
draw water. And let it come to pass that the
damn soul to whom I shall say, Let down your picture, I pray

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that I may drink. And she shall say drink, and I
will give your camels drink also.
Let the same be she that you have appointed for your servant
Yitzhak, and thereby shall I know that you have showed
kindness to my other night. OK, now in this passage that
we're going to see here that in the courting of Rivka, recording

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of Rivka is one of the most classic examples and possibly
the best example of how of a true marital relationship should
be done. If you're looking for a biblical
model and as to how a true relationship should be gone
should begin it. It begins with the man having a

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representative, and the representative then is going to
approach the family and the representative is going to
discuss the virtues of the person that he's representing to
the family, such that the familyrecognizes that this person who

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is courting the woman has the capability to replace the cover
that the woman has from her father.
And so this is the kind of thingthat you're looking to and that
this is the kind of thing that will be established and it's the
kind of thing that is to be evaluated and it's very
important to develop this relationship 1st.

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And it happened that before he had done speaking, that behold,
Rivka came out, who was born to Bethuel son of Milka the woman
of Nakur Abraham's brother, withher pitcher upon her shoulder.
And the damsel was very fair to look upon a virgin.
Neither had any man known her. And she went down to the well

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and filled her pitcher, and cameup, and the servant ran to meet
her, and said, Let me, I pray, drink a little water from your
pitcher. And she said, Drink my head, and
I. And she hastened and let down
her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink, and what she had
done giving him drink, she said,I will draw water for your
camels also, until they have done drinking.
And she hastened and emptied herpitcher into the through, and

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ran again to the well to draw water and do for all his camels.
And the man wondering at her held his peace to whit, whether
Yahwah had made his journey prosperous or not.
And it happened that as the camels had done drinking, that
the man took a golden earring of1/2 shekel of weight and two
bracelets for her hands of 10 shekels of weight of gold.

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And he said, whose daughter are you?
Tell me, I pray, is there room in your father's house for us to
lodge? And she said to him, I am the
daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milka, which she bore to Nakhor.
She said, moreover to him we have both straw and provender
enough in room to lodge. And the man bowed down his head,

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worshiped Yahwah. And he said, Blessed be Yahwah
Elohai, Adonai of Abraham, who is not left destitute by Adonai
of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, Yahwah led
me to the House of my adonized brethren and the damsel ram, and
told them of her mother's house,these things.
And Rivka had a brother, and hisname was Lavan.

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Now an important feature becausewe're going to be introduced to
Lavan and the bond, as you know,is going to pay play an
extremely important part in the life of of Yaakov.
And here we can see you can justimagine, you know, you come in,

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you're trying to court you, you trying to you trying to court my
sister. You know, I'll take that guy out
and pound him. You know, you know the the
approach of the brother, right? He's going to protect his
sister. Sometimes brothers are so
protective that the sister can never can't ever get married.
But Lavon, this is a this comes from the same word as Lavan and

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this means from H33835 it means white.
A primitive root also is demonitized from 3843 to be or
to become white. It also means to make bricks or
to be made white. Interesting.
Now, when it talks about being made white, that's a very

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interesting feature because it'svery possible that the natural
color of man was actually red, because we see that man was
called Adam. And of course Alabdalid men is
the same way you spell a Dome, which means red.
And so man's skin tone was probably a natural kind of red

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color. And that what we see is that we
see over the years, depending onwhere the tribes are located in
the climate of the earth, that one tribe is made white, one
tribe is retains its redness, one tribe becomes more brown,
one tribe becomes even darker that we would call black today.

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And, you know, so these kinds ofdifferent colorations in skin
tone are taking place from a number of factors, a lot of
which it has to do with the climate.
OK. And Lavon ran out to the man to
the well. And it happened that when he saw
the earrings and bracelet or theearring and bracelets upon his

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sister's hand. Now let's take a look at that
word there very quickly too. And we're talking about earring
because this is a big discussionpoint and among the community,
right? So this is the word netzem
netzem. And this word means actually a

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nose ring. It's construed as an earring or
a jewel, but in its initial meaning, it's a nose ring.
So this particular discussion goes around the community as to
whether or not a nose ring is anappropriate piercing.

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And in this case, So when you see quite often you'll see women
that'll have a very discreet nose ring and it won't be a nose
ring, rather it will be a nose piercing like a little diamond
on one side of the nose. I know every time I go to get a
cup of coffee anymore, I find a,what do they call them a

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barista? I find a barista and at least
half of them have a nose ring, only it's a half a ring.
So it's a half a ring, not completely enclosed, but it's
definitely a piercing in the center of the of the nose that
has this half a ring. Now, here we're talking about a
nose ring that was half a shekelof gold.

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So this is a quite an interesting feature.
So were the women in those days wearing these rings, these nose
rings that were of such a size that, you know, you could hook
up an oxy, oxy oxen, oxen yoke to the ring and carry the woman
around behind you? You know, I mean, I don't know.

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I mean, it seems to me that thiswas pretty significant.
All right. And it happened when he saw the
earring or nose ring and bracelets upon his sister's
hands. And when you think about
bracelets, remember that even though these are golden of the
bracelet is really kind of a, a cufflink.

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So when we see this, we can see in the Torah you have a couple
of things going on that when is when a person becomes a
bondservant, the person becomes a bondservant under the rules of
the Torah. They're a bondservant for seven
years and then in the 7th year they're released from that
servitude. And the rule says that if the

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bondservant comes into the relationship married and he has
children, will his wife and his children come with him out of
the servitude? But if he comes in unmarried and
his, you know, employer or his bondholder provides a wife for
him, the wife and the children belong to the bond holder and

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not to the bonded servant. So the proposition is then, OK,
here's your 7th year. You're free to go.
If you don't want to go, however, you're welcome to stay
as a bondservant for life. But the ear was to be pierced
with an all. And you can imagine that after
seven years you Pierce the otherear.

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So the ear piercings two ears being pierced represents and
means a bondservant and a voluntary agreed upon
bondservant for life. So the statement that's being
made from a biblical point of view, when a mother decides to
have her daughter's ears pierced, or the daughter says I

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want to have my ears pierced, what they're saying is, is
they're advertising to the community that as a young
maiden, when they are going to get married, they're going to be
a bond servant for life to that marriage.
Now you take 2 golden bracelets and you put a bracelet on either
side, may be attractive, may look good and so on and so

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forth. But a bracelet is essentially A
handcuff without the chain. So it is another marker that the
woman is in fact, a servant of this this person.
And then of course, once you puta nose ring in a golden nose
ring, well, you're, you know, you're a person who has already

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agreed by the piercings in your ear that you're going to be a
bond servant for life. Now you have handcuffs on either
hand and you have a nose ring where they can just run a rope
through it and haul you around by the nose, Right.
So these are the kinds of meanings that are inferred in
this kind of jewelry. OK, And so it happened that when

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he saw the earrings and bracelets upon his sister's
hands, and when he heard the words of Ripka, his sister
saying, Thus spoke the man to me, that he came to the man.
And behold, he stood by the camels at the well.
And he said, Come in, you who are blessed, if Yahwah,
Wherefore do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house
and room for the camels. And the man came into the house

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and he ungirded his camels and gave straw and provener for the
camels and water to wash his feet.
Now this is an interesting situation.
Who would you bring a camel intoyour house, right.
And of course the house is an interesting term here, because
this comes from the very famous term by it, by it.

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And this it can be construed as a house, a court, a door, a
dungeon. It could be a tent, it could be
a home, it could be a winter house, it could be a palace, it
could be a prison. It could be all of these things,
right? This by it.
And so, for instance, when we look at the, at the name of the
place, bait Lechem, the House ofbread, the House of bread bait

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Lechem. Well, when you're talking about
he came into the house, the bait, you, you know, think of
this at at this house may have been much more like a maybe like
a Spanish house where you have alarge patio in the middle.
And there were there were surrounds.
And it's very possible that the living provisions inside of this
were actually intense. And so this was a tent area that

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was completely enclosed where the camels could come in.
OK, verse 33. And there was set meat before
him to eat. And he said, I will not eat
until I have told my Aaron. And he said, we'll speak on.
He said I am Abraham's servant, and Yahwah has blessed my Adonai
greatly and he has become great,and he has given him flocks and

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herds and silver and gold and men, servants and maidservants
and camels and asses. OK, so the first representation
that the servant is making to Laban is, look, we've got
flocks, herds, silver, gold, man, servants, maidservants,
camels and asses. There's plenty of wealth going

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on here. And Sarah, my adonized woman,
bore a son to my Adonai when shewas old.
And to him he has given all thathe has.
So all of this stuff that he's just described is going to be in
the hands of the son. And my Adonai made me swear 7
oaths, saying, You shall not take a woman to my son of the

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daughters of the canine in whoseland I dwell, but you shall go
to my father's house and to my kindred, and take a woman to my
son. And I said to my ill Adonai,
perchance the woman will not follow me.
And he said to me, Yahwah, before whom I walk, will send
his messenger with you, and prosper your way, and you shall

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take a woman for my son of my kindred and of my father's
house. Then shall you be cleared from
this my oath when you come to mykindred.
And if they give not you one, you should be cleared from my
oath. And it came this day to the
well, I came this day to the well, and said, Oh, Yahwah,

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Elohai, Adonai of Abraham, if you do now if you do, prosper my
way, which I go, Behold, I standby the well of water.
And it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes forth to
draw the water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray a little
water of your pitcher to drink. And she says to me, Both of you
drink, and I will also draw for your camels.

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Let the same be the woman whom Yahwah has appointed for my
Adonai son. And before I had done speaking
in my heart, behold, Rifka came forth with her pitcher on her
shoulder, And she went down to the well and drew water.
And I said to her, Let me drink,I pray.
And she made haste, and she let down her pitcher from her
shoulder, and said, Drink, and Iwill give your camel's drink
also. So I drank, and she made the

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camel's drink. And I asked her and said, Whose
daughter are you? And she said, the daughter of
Beth Will Nachor's son, who milka board to him.
And I put the earring upon her face and the bracelets upon her
hands, and I bowed down my head and worshiped Yahwah.
So he's made the selection in accordance with the sign He

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asked from Yahwah. And then he essentially put a
ring in her nose and bracelets on her hands, although they were
very, very valuable bracelets. And I bowed down my head and
worshiped Yahwah, Blessed YahwahEli, Adonai of Abraham, which
had led me in the right way to take my Adonai's brother's

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daughter's son. And now, if you will deal kindly
and truly with my Adonai, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I
may turn to the right hand or tothe left.
Then Levon and Bethuel answered and said the thing proceeds from
Yahwah. We cannot speak to you, bad or
good. Behold, Rifka is before you.

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Take her and go, and let her be your Adonai's son's woman, as
Yahwah has spoken. And it happened that when
Abraham's sermons heard these words, he worshipped Yahwah,
bowing himself to the earth. And the servant brought forth
silver jewels, gold jewels, and Raymond and gave them to Rivka.
OK, now this is again establishing A dowry for the

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wife. This is again a part of this
engagement ceremony. So the servant has achieved
permission from both the father and the brother.
And now he bestows a very large dowry on Rivka.
He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious thanks.
And they did eat and drink, and he and the men that were with
him and tarried all night. And they rose up in the morning

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and said, Send me away to my adonai And her brother.
And her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days
at least 10, and after that she shall go.
And he said to them, hinder me, not seeing Yahwah has prospered
my way, send me a way that I maygo to my other eye.
And they said, we will call the dam Ster the damsel, and inquire

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at her mouth. Ah, we will also get permission
from the woman. At this point everyone else has
agreed. What does Rifka think?
And they called Rifka and said to her, Will you go with this
man? And she said, I will go.
And they sent away Rivka their sister, and her nurse, and

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Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rivka, and said
to her, You are our sister. Be the mother of thousands of
millions, and let your seed possess the gate of those which
hate them. And Rivka arose and her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels and followed the man.
And the servant took Rivka and went his way.

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And Yitshak came from the way ofthe well of Bear, Lakhai Royee,
for he dwelt in the country of the South.
And Yitzhak went out to meditatein the field in the evening and
lifted his eyes and he saw and behold, the camels were coming.

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All right, now before we continue, let's look at this, at
this well, the Air Lakai Royee, because this has historic men to
remember that Abraham was known for being a well digger and even
the Pellish team would fill in his wells and then argue, right?

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Fill in his wells and then arguewith him.
That was our well. I can't imagine filling in a
well. OK, so bear Lakhai Royee.
This is a well of a living one. My seer Lakhai Royee, a place in
the desert. OK, so the living Lakai Lakai
like Haim, you know, like Haim Royee.

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Of course, this idea of of Royeeis, is a comes from the word ro
a, which means a seer, a seer oreven a vision.
OK, all right. And Yitzhak went out into the
field to meditate in the field. And he lifted his eyes and saw,

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behold, the camels were coming. And Rivka lifted her eyes.
And when she saw Yitzhak, she lit off the camel.
For she had said to the servant,what man is this that walks in
the field to meet us? And the servant said, it is my
aunt and I. Therefore she took a veil and
covered herself. And the servant told Yitzhak at
all these things that he had done.
And Yitzhak brought her into hismother's Sarah's tent and took

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Rivka, and she became his woman and he loved her.
And Yitzhak was comforted after his mother's death.
OK. Now again, another important
part in this situation, because what you see here is you see
this extended courtship meeting the standards of courtship.

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And so the agent of the man finds the woman he stakes out
his claim with. You might call them engagement
gifts, but they're engagement gifts which are valuable,
beautiful, but they're also representative of this servitude

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that's going to be inside the relationship.
Then he goes to the father and goes to the brother and gives
the qualifications of the husband to be and the father and
the brother agree. Then the mother agrees.
Then they ask the the the daughter do you also agree and

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she does agree. And when she does agree, then
there is a dowry established forher.
And in this case, the dowry camefrom Yitzhak so that she would
have a dowry. And this will go into this part
of the intestacy later on. But the point is that she has
this dowry. What you don't see what you do

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not see here, Here's the entirety of the marital
ceremony. And Yitzhak brought her into his
mother Sara's tent and took Rivka, and she became his woman.
And he loved her. And Yitzhak was comforted after
his mother's death. There's no, you know, there's no
koopa, there's no stepping on the glass.
There's no screaming mazel tov. There's no, you know, doing A7

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circles. There's no oath.
There's no bridesmaids, there's no groomsmen.
There's, you know, no flower gold.
And none of this stuff, none, none of that stuff appears in
scripture at all. And in fact, she's not even
called a wife. She's called Isha his woman.
In fact, the word wife really doesn't even appear in either

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the Hebrew or the Greek. It's inferred, but it doesn't
really appear. So this chapter 24 is a very
great model for mothers. If you have sons and you're
concerned about how they're going to get into a relationship
with someone else, you know, an adult relationship with their

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future wife, this is the model to teach and this is the model
to to use that is going to yielda very strong and positive
blessed biblical result. OK All right.
Thank you today for joining me on separate commentaries in our

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discussion of only Genesis chapter 24.