Catholic Commentary
Gifts, Revelation, and Worship: Identity Confirmed
22As the camels had finished drinking, the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,23and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father’s house for us to stay?”24She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”25She said moreover to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge in.”26The man bowed his head, and worshiped Yahweh.27He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me on the way to the house of my master’s relatives.”
Genesis 24:22–27 describes Abraham's servant presenting Rebekah with gold ornaments before asking her identity, then receiving confirmation she is from Abraham's kindred and can provide hospitality. The servant's gift-giving and subsequent worship acknowledge God's faithfulness in providing exactly what was needed to fulfill Abraham's mission of finding a bride for Isaac.
The servant gives golden gifts before asking the woman's name—not social courtesy, but liturgical certainty that God has already answered his prayer.
Commentary
Genesis 24:22 — The Gifts Before the Question: A detail easily overlooked: the servant gives Rebekah the golden ring and bracelets before he asks her name. This is not impulsive generosity. The servant had prayed for a sign (vv. 12–14), and Rebekah had fulfilled it perfectly. The gifts are therefore not a social courtesy but a liturgical gesture — the outward sealing of an inward certainty already granted by God. The nose-ring (nézem, traditionally rendered "ring") weighing half a shekel and the two bracelets of ten shekels recall the precision of cultic donations in later Israelite law (Exodus 38:24–26), suggesting that even this act of betrothal gift-giving participates in a sacred economy. Gold in the ancient Near East signified royal dignity and covenantal worth; the servant is declaring, in metal, what God has already declared in providence: this woman is chosen.
Genesis 24:23 — The Question of Identity and Hospitality: The servant now asks the two questions that matter: Who are you? and Is there room? These questions are not mere travel logistics. "Whose daughter are you?" is a question about genealogical identity — is she of Abraham's kin, as the mission requires (v. 4)? "Is there room?" anticipates the full welcome of the covenant household. The two questions together ask: Are you the one, and will you receive us? — foreshadowing the very questions the Gospel will pose to every soul about its relationship to Christ and willingness to receive him.
Genesis 24:24 — Rebekah's Self-Disclosure: Rebekah's answer is compact but genealogically precise: she names her father (Bethuel), her grandmother (Milcah), and her grandfather (Nahor) — Abraham's own brother (22:20–23). Every name matters. She is not merely eligible; she is the fulfillment of a specific divine word. Her self-disclosure is calm and unaffected — she does not yet understand she is being evaluated as a bride. This unselfconsciousness is part of her virtue: she gives her true identity without calculation.
Genesis 24:25 — Abundance Offered: "We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge in." The threefold "enough" (straw, feed, room) echoes the providence just confirmed: God, who provided the right woman at the right well at the right moment, also provides the material necessities for the servant's mission to continue. Rebekah's household is a place of sufficiency. Spiritually, she prefigures the Church, which offers nourishment and dwelling to all whom Christ's Spirit draws.
Verses 26–27 — Worship and the Theology of ḥesed weʾemet: The servant's response to confirmation is immediate physical prostration: "he bowed his head and worshiped (wayyishtaḥû) Yahweh." This is the first act of formal liturgical worship in the chapter, and it occurs not in a sanctuary but at a well, in a foreign land — a reminder that true worship is not confined to sacred spaces but erupts wherever God's faithfulness is recognized. His blessing formula identifies God as "the God of my master Abraham" — a covenantal title — and praises two divine attributes: ḥesed (covenant loving-kindness, steadfast mercy) and ʾemet (truth, fidelity, reliability). These two words appear together throughout the Psalms (e.g., Ps 25:10; 85:11) and are eventually personified in the prologue of John's Gospel as "grace and truth" (χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας, John 1:14) — a Christological fulfillment of this very Old Testament pair. The servant concludes with a declaration of personal testimony: "Yahweh has led me on the way (derek) to the house of my master's relatives." The way is not incidental; in the Wisdom tradition and later in the New Testament, the derek of God's guidance becomes the hodos — the Way that is Christ himself (John 14:6).
Catholic Commentary
Catholic tradition reads this passage through multiple lenses that secular or purely historical criticism cannot fully access.
Typology of the Church and the Bride: The Fathers overwhelmingly read Genesis 24 as a nuptial allegory. St. Augustine (Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, I.73) identifies the servant as a type of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father to find a Bride for the Son. The gifts given to Rebekah — gold at a well, before she even knows she is chosen — typify the sacramental gifts given to the soul in Baptism before it fully comprehends the dignity conferred. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its treatment of the nuptial mystery, notes that "the entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church" (CCC 1617). These verses, where the servant adorns the chosen one and she reveals herself to be exactly who was sought, enact that mystery in miniature.
ḥesed weʾemet as Divine Attributes: The servant's blessing names God's ḥesed (mercy) and ʾemet (truth/fidelity) — the two foundational attributes of the covenant God. Pope Benedict XVI, in Deus Caritas Est (§9), traces the development of divine love from the Old Testament ḥesed through its New Testament fulfillment in agapē. St. John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor (§1) opens by invoking divine truth as the foundation of the moral life. These are not abstract concepts: they are the very attributes the servant praises at the well.
Spontaneous Worship as the Model of Prayer: The servant does not plan a thanksgiving ceremony — he bows where he stands. The Catechism teaches that "adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator" (CCC 2628). This verse is a lived illustration of that principle: recognition of divine providence immediately becomes adoration.
For Today
For contemporary Catholics, these verses offer a template for discernment and gratitude that is both practical and demanding. The servant's first instinct upon receiving confirmation is not to move to the next task on his list — it is to stop and worship. In an age of relentless efficiency and constant connectivity, this is countercultural and necessary. When God confirms a path — through prayer, through circumstances aligning, through a spouse, a vocation, an answer to a long-held petition — the first response invited is prostration, not immediate planning.
More concretely: Catholics engaged in discernment of vocation, marriage, or major life decisions can find in the servant a model of attentive waiting followed by grateful recognition. He prayed specifically (v. 12–14), watched carefully (v. 17–21), gave generously before demanding answers (v. 22), and worshiped before proceeding (v. 26). This is the rhythm of mature Christian discernment: specific prayer, attentive presence, generous trust, and worship as the response to confirmation. The golden gifts given before the name is known also challenge the transactional instinct in our spiritual lives — God gives before we disclose ourselves fully; grace precedes merit.
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