Old Testament Lesson
Genesis 24:50-67 (NRSV)
50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered, "The
thing comes from the LORD; we cannot speak to you anything bad
or good. 51 Look, Rebekah is before you, take her and go, and
let her be the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has spoken."
52 When Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself
to the ground before the LORD. 53 And the servant brought out
jewelry of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to
Rebekah; he also gave to her brother and to her mother costly
ornaments. 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank,
and they spent the night there. When they rose in the morning,
he said, "Send me back to my master." 55 Her brother
and her mother said, "Let the girl remain with us a while,
at least ten days; after that she may go." 56 But he said
to them, "Do not delay me, since the LORD has made my journey
successful; let me go that I may go to my master." 57 They
said, "We will call the girl, and ask her." 58 And
they called Rebekah, and said to her, "Will you go with this
man?" She said, "I will." 59 So they sent away
their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham's servant
and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
"May you, our sister, become
thousands of myriads;
may your offspring gain possession
of the gates of their foes."
61 Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and
followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his
way.
62 Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in
the Negeb. 63 Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field;
and looking up, he saw camels coming. 64 And Rebekah looked up,
and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, 65
and said to the servant, "Who is the man over there, walking
in the field to meet us?" The servant said, "It is my
master." So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 And
the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then
Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent. He took Rebekah,
and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted
after his mother's death.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.