Genesis 24
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Summary
In Abraham’s old age, he makes the servant of his house swear to him that he will not take a wife for Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites. He commands the servant to go into Abraham’s country to take a wife from his kindred. The servant agrees and travels into Mesopotamia, where he stops at a well outside the city Nahor. The servant prays to the Lord God and asks that the woman who will help him draw water from the well will be the same woman that will be the wife of Isaac. Rebekah helps him and he comes to her home. He recounts the promise he made to Abraham and the event with Rebekah at the well. Laban offers her to Isaac. They return to Canaan and she and Isaac are married. Isaac loves Rebekah and she comforts him after his mother’s death.
Commentary
Bible Central Commentary
These free resources were developed for use in the free ScripturePlus app. Many of the contributors are professors of religion and ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, “Genesis 24,” in Genesis, Old Testament Minute Commentary Series, ed. Taylor Halverson (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2021).
Avram Shannon, “Camels,” in Old Testament Cultural Insights, ed. Taylor Halverson (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2022).
Historical Commentaries
Many of the commentaries below are in the public domain and were authored over 100 years ago. In many cases, they do not reflect the findings of modern scholarship, but they may be helpful for understanding the history of biblical scholarship.
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Historical Settings
Time
*All Dates Are Approximate, according to the narrative of the Bible. These dates may reflect literary significance as opposed to the precise dates of history.
See Biblical Chronology- 2026 BC*
Further Reading
Book of Mormon Central, “How Does the Book of Mormon Use an Ancient Storytelling Technique? (Alma 17:24-25),” KnoWhy 414 (March 8, 2018).
Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry (1706)
Commentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke (1831)
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable
Thomas Constable
Rashi’s Commentary
Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki)
Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes (1834)
Exposition of the Entire Bible
John Gill (1746–63)
Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch (1857–78)
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible
John Wesley (1754–65)