but whether she will go at all. The reference to the wishes of the bride may be exceptional (owing to the distance, etc.); but a discrepancy with 51 cannot easily be got rid of.—59. their sister] cf. 'your daughter,' 348, the relation to the family being determined by that to the head of the house. But it is better to read (Hebrew characters) (pl.) in 53. 55 with VS and MSS of G.—her nurse] see on 358.—60. The blessing on the marriage (cf. Ru. 411ff.), rhythmic in form, is perhaps an ancient fragment of tribal poetry associated with the name of Rebekah.—possess the gate] as 2217.—61a and 61b seem to be variants. For another solution (KS.), see on 62.—her maidens] parallel to 'her nurse?' in 59.
62-67. The home-bringing of Rebekah.—62. Now Isaac had come . . .] What follows is hardly intelligible. The most probable sense is that during the servant's absence Isaac had removed to Beer-laḥai-roi, and that near that well the meeting took place.
The difficulty lies partly in the corrupt (Hebrew characters) (v.i.), partly in the circumstantial
form of the sent., and partly in the unexplained disappearance
of Abraham. Keeping these points in mind, the most conservative
exegesis is that of De.: Isaac (supposed to be living with his father at
Beersheba) 'was coming from a walk in the direction of B.', when he
met the camels; this, however, makes (Hebrew characters) (63) plup., which is hardly
right. More recent writers proceed on the assumption that the death
of Abraham had been explicitly recorded. Ho. suggests that Isaac
had removed to Laḥairoi during his father's life (transposing 2511b before
242), and that now he comes from that place (reads (Hebrew characters)) on hearing of
Abraham's death. Di. reads 62a (Hebrew characters)[(Hebrew characters)](Hebrew characters), and finds in these
words the notice of Isaac's migration to B.—KS., reading as Di., but
making the servant implicit subj. of (Hebrew characters), puts the chief hiatus between
61a and 61b: the servant on his return learned that Abraham was dead;
—59. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters) = (Hebrew characters), a word of P.—60. (Hebrew characters) is appositional vocative, not subj. to (Hebrew characters) (soror nostra es, V).—(Hebrew characters)] with abnormal (Hebrew characters) (G-K. § 63 q).—(Hebrew characters)] [E] (Hebrew characters), as 2217.
62. (Hebrew characters)] cannot be inf. const. with (Hebrew characters); the French il vint d' arriver (Hupf. 29) has no analogy in Heb. idiom. Nor can it readily be supposed equivalent to (Hebrew characters) (1 Ki. 865; De. v.s.); for the direction in which Isaac took his walk is an utterly irrelevant circumstance, [E] and G ((Greek characters)) read (Hebrew characters), from which a fairly suitable text ((Hebrew characters) or (Hebrew characters)) could be obtained (cf. Di. and Ho. s.). Gu.'s (Hebrew characters) (as acc. of direction) has no parallel except the very remote one of (Hebrew characters), Ezk. 273 (of the situation of Tyre). Other suggestions are to delete the word as an uncorrected lapse of the pen; to read (Hebrew characters) with omission of the following (Hebrew characters)