When a Well is not Just a Well: Meet Cute

¹⁰ Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose, and went to Mesopota′mia, to the city of Nahor. ¹¹ And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water. ¹² And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me success today, I pray thee, and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. ¹³ Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ Let the maiden to whom I shall say, ‘Pray let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. By this I shall know that thou hast shown steadfast love to my master.”

¹⁵ Before he had done speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethu′el the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar upon her shoulder. ¹⁶ The maiden was very fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, and filled her jar, and came up. ¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Pray give me a little water to drink from your jar.” ¹⁸ She said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly let down her jar upon her hand, and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw for your camels also, until they have done drinking.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. ²¹ The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

²² When the camels had done drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, ²³ and said, “Tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge in?” ²⁴ She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethu′el the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” ²⁵ She added, “We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.” ²⁶ The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord, ²⁷ and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”