(12-14) O Lord God... — Heb., Jehovah, God of my lord Abraham. The word translated “master” throughout this chapter is ‘donai, the ordinary word for lord, and it is so rendered in Genesis 24:18. As a circumcised member of Abraham’s household, the servant prays to Jehovah, Abraham’s God; and though in Genesis 24:5 he had suggested a difficulty, apparently it was from no want of faith, but that he might know whether under any circumstances Isaac might return to Aram-Naharaim. He now leaves the success of his mission to Jehovah; and while he would use his own discernment in selecting from the troop of advancing maidens one whose countenance gave promise of goodness of heart, the fulfilment of the appointed signal which was to mark God’s approval would also show that she was no churlish woman, but one active, generous, and kind.
Send me good speed this day. — Heb., cause it to meet me this day.
I stand. — This word here, and in Genesis 24:43, is not the same as that used in Genesis 24:30, but one that means I post myself, or I take my station.
Thereby. — Rather, by her: by her giving the appointed sign I shall know that thou hast showed kindness to my lord.
The damsel. — This word (Heb., Na’ar) is of the common gender in the Pentateuch, except in Deuteronomy 22:19, where it has the feminine termination. It is used of Abraham’s young men in Genesis 14:24; Genesis 18:7, &c., but no less than twenty-two times of women. In the rest of the Bible the gender is always marked, and even here it is read in the feminine in the Jewish synagogues. We have herein another of the many linguistic proofs of the extreme antiquity of the Pentateuch, and it is the more interesting because found in a Jehovistic section. The same word is used again in Genesis 24:16; Genesis 24:28. (See Note on Genesis 43:8.)