Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) · 28 of 73 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
24:2-24:19
[24:2] And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
[24:3] and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou wilt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
[24:4] but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.
[24:5] And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest?
[24:6] And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.
[24:7] Jehovah, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spake unto me, and who sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he will send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence.
[24:8] And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath; only thou shalt not bring my son thither again.
[24:9] And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning this matter.
[24:10] And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed, having all goodly things of his master’s in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
[24:11] And he made the camels to kneel down without the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water.
[24:12] And he said, O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, send me, I pray thee, good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham.
[24:13] Behold, I am standing by the fountain of water; and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water:
[24:14] and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.
[24:15] And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
[24:16] And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
[24:17] And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water from thy pitcher.
[24:18] And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
[24:19] And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
The ritual practice of discerning hidden knowledge — future events, concealed causes, or the will of higher powers — through a structured technique applied to cards, lots, astrological configuration, entrails, oracle, or other sortilege, rather than through direct unmediated insight. Distinct from gnosis_direct_knowledge (unmediated inner apprehension of ultimate truth, not a technique applied to an external medium) and cosmic_sympathy (the underlying doctrine of hidden affinity that many divinatory techniques presuppose, rather than the practice of consulting it).
The servant sets a specific behavioral criterion (the woman who offers to water both him and the camels) as a structured technique for discerning which woman God has appointed, functioning as a form of divination by sign.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The entire narrative is structured around God's active ordering of human affairs: Abraham trusts God will 'send his angel before thee,' and the servant prays for divine direction to identify the chosen wife, presenting providence as the engine of the plot.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
Jehovah is portrayed as a personal, active, responsive deity who 'took me,' 'spake unto me,' 'sware unto me,' and 'will send his angel before thee,' embodying the divine as a dynamic, intervening reality rather than an abstract principle.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
The servant's petition at the well (vv. 12-14) is a clear instance of direct address to the divine, combining supplication ('send me good speed this day') with a specific request for a sign, constituting structured petitionary prayer.