Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/209

XXIV.] 12. THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC.

After the death of Sarah, say some, Abraham had a daughter named Bakila, by Hagar, who returned to him now that her enemy was dead; but, according to others, the great blessing of Abraham consisted in this, that he had no daughters. Ishmael abandoned his disorderly ways, and loved and respected his brother. Isaac mourned his mother three years. When this time was elapsed, Abraham called to him his faithful servant Eliezer, and said to him, "I am old, and I know not the day of my death; therefore must I no longer delay the marriage of my son Isaac. Lay thine hand upon my thigh, and swear to me by God Almighty to fulfil my commission. Do not take for my son a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites, but go to Haran, to the place whence I came, and bring thence a wife for my son Isaac." And he added the proverb, "When you have wheat of your own, do not sow your field with your neighbour's corn."

Eliezer asked, "But how, if a woman of that place will not accompany me hither?" But Abraham said, "Fear not; go, and the Lord be with thee." So the servant of Abraham went with ten camels, and he reached Haran in three hours, for the earth fled under the feet of his camels, and Michael, the angel, protected him on his way. When he reached Haran, he besought the Lord to give him a sign, by which he might know the maiden who was to be the wife of Isaac. "Let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and 1 will give thy camels drink also; let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac."

And there were many damsels by the fountain. And the servant said to them, "Let down the pitcher that I may drink." But they all said, "We may not tarry, for we must take the water home."

Then came Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, out to the well, and she chid the maidens for their churlishness; and lo! the water in the well leaped to the margin, and she let down her pitcher and offered it to the man, and said, "Drink; and I will give