John Gill Commentary Genesis 24

And Abraham was old, [and] well stricken in age
Being now one hundred and forty years of age, for as he was an hundred years old when Isaac was born, and Isaac was forty years of age when he married Rebekah, which was at this time, Abraham must be of the age mentioned, see (Genesis 21:5) (25:20) ; and the Lord has blessed Abraham in all things ;
with all kind of blessings, with temporal and spiritual blessings; the former seems chiefly designed here, because of what follows; God has blessed him, as Aben Ezra observes, with long life, and riches, and honour, and children, things desirable by men.

And Abraham said to his eldest servant of his house
To Eliezer his servant, according to the Targum of Jonathan, and as is generally thought; and who may well be called an old servant, and his oldest servant, since he must have lived with him fifty years and upwards; one may trace him near sixty years in Abraham's family, and it is highly probable he lived much longer; he was his servant when he had the vision between the pieces, (Genesis 15:2) ; and then he was the steward of his house, and bid fair to be his heir; which was some time before Hagar was given to Abraham; and Ishmael his son by Hagar was fourteen years of age when Isaac was born, and he was now forty years old, which make fifty five years, or thereabout.

Bishop Usher places the vision of the pieces in A. M. 2092, and the marriage of Isaac in 2148, some fifty six years from each other; and so long Eliezer, if he is the servant here meant, must have been in Abraham's family, and how much longer cannot with certainty be said:

that ruled over all that he had ;
had the care and management of his house, and the affairs of it under him; this agrees with the character of Eliezer in (Genesis 15:2) :

put, I pray thee, your hand under my thigh :
as a token of his subjection to him as a servant, and of his readiness, willingness, and fidelity to execute any commands he should lay upon him, and in order to take an oath, as appears by what follows; for it seems this rite was used in swearing, and is still used in India, as Aben Ezra affirms; and some say among the Ethiopians. The Jewish writers are pretty much of opinion that respect is had to the covenant of circumcision, by which Abraham made his servant to swear, which is not likely:

rather respect is had to his seed, the promised Messiah, that should spring from his thigh, by whom the adjuration was made, as follows: though Dr. Clayton ^F11 thinks this is no other than an equivalent term for approaching in an humble servile manner, and means no more than "come near me", and I will make thee swear; and that, as a respectable method of approach with the Egyptian, as Herodotus ^F12 relates, was by bowing the body reciprocally when they met, and saluted one another, and by carrying their hands to each other's knee; so some such like ceremony as embracing the knee, and putting the hand under or round the thigh, might be used by servants when they approached their masters; but it should be observed, that this same rite or ceremony was required of Joseph, governor of Egypt, by his father Jacob; see (Genesis 47:29) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 130, 131.
• F12: Euterpe sive, l. 2.

And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and
the God of earth
The Maker and possessor of heaven and earth, by whom Abraham used to swear whenever he did, and by whom only men should swear, see (Genesis 14:22). The Targum of Jonathan is, ``I will make thee swear by the name of the Word of the Lord God,'' which strengthens the sense given of the rite before observed:

that thou wilt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the
Canaanites, among whom I dwell ;
these being not only idolaters, and very wicked people, degenerated yet more and more, but were the seed of the accursed Canaan; and who in process of time would be dispossessed of the land, and be destroyed.

Now though Isaac was forty years of age, and one would think at an age sufficient to have chosen a wife for himself; but as Abraham knew that he had a great respect for this servant, and would be influenced by him in such a choice, and especially as this affair was now about to be committed to his care, and no doubt with the consent of Isaac, therefore he thus charges and adjures him.

But you shall go unto my country Not Canaan, which though his by promise, yet not in possession, but Mesopotamia, as appears from (Genesis 24:10); which taken largely included the Chaldea, see (Acts 7:2), the country where Abraham was born, and from where he came.

and to my kindred the family of Nahor his brother, which now dwelt at Haran in Mesopotamia, called the city of Nahor, (Genesis 24:10); see (Genesis 29:4Genesis 29:5); of the increase of whose family Abraham had heard a few years ago, (Genesis 22:20–24).

and take a wife to my son Isaac from among them, who though they were not clear of superstition and idolatry, yet they worshipped the true God with their "idols"; and a woman taken out of such a family, and removed at a distance from it, it might be reasonably concluded would be brought off of those things, and adhere to the pure and undefiled religion; and the rather this family was chosen, not only because related to Abraham, but because it had sprung from Shem, who was blessed of God, and whose God the Lord was; nearness of kin was no objection and hindrance to such a marriage, the laws relating to marriage not being given till the time of Moses.

And the servant said to him
Before he would take the oath, being cautious of it, and desirous of knowing how far it reached, and what it would or would not require of him, which was prudently done:

peradventure the woman will not be to follow me into this land ;
supposing this should be the case, as it is not unlikely that the woman would object to coming with him to the land of Canaan, and insist upon Isaac's coming into her country, and dwelling there, what must then be done?

must I needs bring your son again to the land from where you
came ?
that is, must I agree with the woman on these terms, and promise that Isaac shall come and dwell with her in Mesopotamia? Now there was good reason for the servant's putting this question, since he was neither ignorant of the call of Abraham out of that land, and not to return to it, nor of the promise of the land of Canaan to him and his posterity:

and as for bringing Isaac "again", where he never had been in person, this may be accounted for by his being in the loins of Abraham when he was there, and came from there, as Levi is said to be in his loins when he paid tithes to Melchizedek, and to pay them in him, (Hebrews 7:9Hebrews 7:10) ; and in like manner he might be said to be brought again, or return to Abraham's country, should he ever go there, as all the seed of Abraham are said in the fourth generation to come to Canaan again, though they had none of them been in person there before, (Genesis 15:16) ; besides, as Drusius observes, to bring again, or return, signifies sometimes only to bring on, or to go to some certain place, see (Ruth 1:10Ruth 1:22) ; however, the justness of the expression is confirmed by Abraham's answer in the next words.