Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/201

 183

The Wooing of RcbckaJi

NOTES V.

The XV,

2.

tioned in

servant here would seem to be the same Eliezer men-

"Elder of the house"

2.

probably a technical term

is

for steward or chief servant.

Vv.

Solemnizing an oath by putting the hand upon the loins of the person to whom the oath was given, was a It was probably practice in the ancient Semitic world.

2-3.

thigh

or the

common

based upon the conception of the peculiar sanctity of certain parts or

members of V.

for him.

An

the body.

In

4.

Cf.

Cf. also

Orient

the

XXI,

interesting

21;

a

XLVII,

man's

XXVIII,

29.

parents If;

and illuminating

parallel

to

wife

choose

a

mission

of

generally

XXXVIII,

6.

this

the

servant to secure a suitable wife for Isaac from the relatives of his The Blunts father, is to be found in Blunt, A Pilgrimage to Nejd.

undertook

a long

and dangerous journey from Tadmor, the

ancient and' important city in the wilderness of northern

Nejd

in central

whom

site

of an

Syria,

to

Arabia, partly in order "to secure for 'a young Arab

among his blood relatives, he had never seen." V. 10. Aram Naliaraim, i. e. Mesopotamia, the country lying between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The name means "Aram of the two rivers". The city of Nahor here referred to must have been located somewhere in the northwestern part of Mesopotamia, in It might the vicinity of the large and important city of Haran. stimulate the children's interest to point out on the map the course taken by the servant, and by him and Rebekah on the return trip. It must have led northwards by way of Damascus, and then northeastward, until the Euphrates was reached and crossed at Carchemish, and then eastward to the appointed spot. V. 11. Camels kneel for their riders to mount or dismount, and attendant

the Ibn Arooks,

they valued, a wife from

whom

lo be loaded or unloaded.

As has been scarce.

And

said before,

in

many

since cities are generally located

Orient water is water from one well.

parts of the

Frequently a village or city gets

all

its

on the tops of hills for purfrom which they draw

poses of defense, and the wells or springs,

water are usually at the lowest point, at the foot of the

hills,

it

liappens frequently, as here, that the wells are outside the city walls

Often the water must be carried for considerable distances. This w^ork generally falls to the women or girls. As a rule thev go for water once or twice a da}', generally, as here, in the evening, or in the morning and evening; hence the expression, "at the time of

or limits.

evening, the time that

women go

out to draw- water".