Her mother's house— It seems very probable from this expression, that Bethuel the father was dead, and that the Bethuel mentioned after Laban, Genesis 24:50 was a younger brother of Rebekah's. In Genesis 24:53 no mention is made of the father.
REFLECTIONS.—No sooner had Eliezer spoken in his heart, than God answers; so ready is he to hear our prayers. The maid comes, fills her pitcher, and is returning; but on his accosting her, she readily assists him to water his camels. In these days the qualifications of the fair were humility, courtesy, and diligence: let the degenerate daughters of pride, luxury, and laziness, blush at the comparison. Thus providences remarkably concurred, and on inquiry he finds her a relation of his master, and is invited to the house. Happy they whom God thus brings together, not from the riotous assembly, or the market of public places, but by providential disposition, in answer to fervent prayer. Two things hereupon he does: 1. He makes her a handsome present for her kind assistance. 2. He blesses God for the mercy so graciously shewn him. Prayer and praise are like sound and echo. They who pray shall praise: and no earthly blessing is more matter of praise, than finding such a partner, who, to the amiableness of her person and manners, adds the crowning beauty of religion. This was a fresh mercy to Abraham; and Eliezer, like a good servant, makes his master's interests his own, and rejoices in God for his sake, that he had found a suitable wife for his son.