Genesis (New Cambridge Bible Commentary) by Bill T. Arnold

Author:Bill T. Arnold [Arnold, Bill T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2008-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

Abraham has become a God-fearer and Isaac is prepared to become a patriarch in his own right (Gen 22). Sarah has died and been buried in the new ancestral burial plot in the field of Machpelah near Hebron (Gen 23). There remains only the need to find Isaac a suitable wife. Yet the theme of the narrative is not simply finding a suitable wife, but that of divine guidance for Israel's ancestors, a theme that has been central to the extended narrative since Abraham's call in Gen 12.246 This chapter is the longest in Genesis and among the longest in the Bible, leading early Jewish interpreters puzzled over why it demanded so much space.247 Interpreters have also most often assumed a late composition for this chapter when compared to other ancestral narratives, although the basis for this argument has been overstated.248

The opening verse is comprised of two circumstantial clauses, one for Abraham and one for Yahweh (v. 1). The Hebrew word order marks the beginning of a new scene and provides pertinent background information for the episode to follow in vv. 2–67.249 Abraham has reached an advanced age, which sounds as though the narrator is preparing to announce his death and burial. This, however, is delayed until 25:7–11, and his age becomes background information for the intervening episode.

The second clause of v. 1 is the narrator's assertion that Yahweh has blessed Abraham in every way, illustrated most immediately by his relationship with the Hittites (Gen 23). The theme of blessing has, of course, been constant in Genesis since the fifth day of creation (1:20–23, where see commentary). Specifically the blessing of Abraham has included direct blessing of the patriarch himself, blessings continued diachronically through his line, and blessings to others through Abraham's descendants.250 In this passage, the narrator asserts that Yahweh has blessed Abraham “in all things” (v. 1), and the servant's voice explains that Yahweh has blessed Abraham with great wealth and a son in his old age (vv. 35–36).

The servant who undertook this errand for his master is anonymous throughout, even though commentaries through the ages have identified him with Eliezer (cf. 15:2).251 The origins of the idiom “to place one's hand under another's thigh” (vv. 2 and 9) are obscure, but it seems to enact or ritualize the oath by the organ of procreation.252 Oath-taking is often accompanied by solemn gestures, but it is difficult to know how placing one's hand under another's thigh should confirm the oath. Nevertheless, even without origins or cultural background, the significance of this particular gesture is explained in v. 3 because it accompanies the swearing of a solemn oath. Elsewhere in the chapter, the sworn commitment, together with its ratifying gesture, is an “oath” (v. 8, šĕbûʿâ) and a curse under which the servant has been placed (v. 41, ʾālâ).

The oath is taken in the name of Yahweh, God of heaven and earth (v. 3). Israel's national God is thus identified as the Sovereign of the observable cosmos (Hebrew merism “heaven and earth”), for which there is no separate word in Biblical Hebrew.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.