Camels - Genesis 24: 22-31

24:22-31 – Instead of proclaiming that he had found the girl he was going to take back with him to marry his master’s son, Eliezer goes at his task another way. Rebekah had just spent a lot of time and energy drawing water from the well for him and his camels, and presumably the other men in his group. I don’t think that she expected anything other than heartfelt “thank you,” but instead, probably to her great surprise, he “took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,” and asks her “whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in?” I read a historical fiction book once about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by Orson Scott Card, I think, and when describing this scene, the author implied that by accepting these gifts, whether for payment for her service in the water or not, Rebekah was creating an obligation to Eliezer, meaning that she was making a large commitment to him to do whatever he wanted. I don’t necessarily know if that is accurate but I do know that usually, gifts shift the power dynamic especially when they are disproportionate to the services rendered like in this case. The lecturer from the Torah Class suggested that Eliezer gave these large gifts to start demonstrating that the man he served was very wealthy, so that when he finally made his offer of marriage, both Rebekah and the family would know that she wasn’t going to be marrying into some impoverished clan, but instead would be well cared for and wealthy, and say what you want about love and all that, but flashing money around when looking for a wife is attractive. Anyway, for whatever reason Rebekah accepts the gifts and answers that she’s the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, and sure “we have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.” Now Eliezer knows that not only did God send the right woman because she met the criteria set out by answering correctly about the water, but she’s a member of Abraham’s family, just like his master had required as well. He must have felt so completely overwhelmed, much like we know that the brother of Jared was overwhelmed when his touching of the stones plan was fulfilled. Eliezer responded to her saying that she was Bethuel’s daughter but praying “aloud” thanking “the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” Eliezer uses the word “destitute” here which is another reference to prosperity so not only was this guy representing a very tangibly wealthy man, but he’s also spiritually wealthy, being favored by God and being led to his family’s house despite being needle in the haystack kind of odds like we discussed yesterday. After “overhearing” Eliezer’s prayer, Rebekah races home “and told them of her mother’s house these things.” I thought it was interesting that it’s referenced that she tells “her mother’s house,” even though the rest of the story is mostly about the male members of the family, Laban her brother and Bethuel her father, and indeed I would imagine that it would have been the male head of household who would have had to approve these strangers staying with them over night. When Laban hears about the incident at the well with his sister, he “ran out unto the man, unto the well.” This might seem a little strange because if the man is going to spend the night at Laban’s house, it would make more sense that the guest be the one acting eager to meet the men of the household, but the lecturer notes, “While meeting a stranger, a guest, is always a big deal in that day, the fact that this is a WEALTHY stranger is what excites Laban. Laying on the schmooze, Laban even invokes the name of Yahweh in greeting Eliezer. We shouldn’t be too impressed or draw too much from this: later we will find out that Laban possessed MANY gods, so he was just being cordial in using the name of the gos that Eliezer’s master worshipped. Laban gets to the well and finds him standing “by the camels at the well,” and tells them “come in, thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.” He’s basically saying, “well what are you waiting for, I personally have prepared everything to take care of you at my house.” It seems like Laban is taking a lot of credit here, maybe that’s appropriate here, maybe not I’m not really sure of the custom. Interestingly, the camels get mentioned a lot, drawing water for the camels, getting space and straw ready for the camels, it makes me wonder if the camels were a bigger deal than it is portrayed. What would people use if they didn’t used camels? Probably donkeys and mules. It seems that camels are very resource heavy, requiring a lot of food and water so people who didn’t have the kind of wealth that Abraham had probably used donkeys and mules so the fact that Abraham has a camel to send probably indicated his prosperity and that he had ten camels, well maybe that’s just flaunting it. And really, the only other time that I can think of where camels are invoked as an image is when the magi bring gifts to baby Jesus and they also bring very expensive gifts speaking to their wealth, so in my mind, any mention of camels is a subconscious reference to great wealth.