Genesis 24:4

4. my country … kindred] Here, as in Gen_28:2 (P), the country and kindred of Abraham are to be sought, not in Ur of the Chaldees, but in the land of Haran, or Paddan-aram; cf. Gen_24:7.

take a wife for my son Isaac] It was customary for the father to select a bride for his son; cf. Gen_34:4; Jdg_14:2. The same custom prevailed in Babylon, as appears from the Code of Hammurabi, § 155, “if a man betroth a maiden to his son,” &c.

“Marriage between cousins has been and still is particularly common in the East (cp. Gen_24:4; Gen_29:19; 1Ki_14:31; 1Ki_15:2), and the tie between them is closer and more sacred than that between an ordinary couple” (Burckhardt, Ar. Prov., quoted in Stanley Cook, p. 99).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 24:4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

Ver. 4. But thou shalt go unto my country, &c.] Nahor’s stock were neither pure in religion nor precise in life, {Jos 24:2 Gen 31:30} yet far better in both than those cursed Canaanites. Some knowledge they retained of the true God, of whom they speak much in this chapter, and concerning whom they hear Eliezer here relating how he had answered his prayer, and prospered his journey. And for their manners, we find them hospitable, and their daughter, though fair, yet a pure virgin. Now,

“Lis est, cure forma, magna pudicitiae.”

Like unto these are the Greek Church at this day, which is far greater than the Roman: and though in some points unsound, and in others very superstitious, yet holdeth sufficient for salvation. Cyril, their good patriarch of Constantinople, set forth the confession of the faith of those Eastern churches anno 1629, agreeable in all things for most part to the reformed Protestant religion, but diametrically opposite to that they call the Roman Catholic. He is also busy about a general reformation among them, and hath done much good. {a}

{a} Brerewood’s Enquiries, p. 139. - Bp. Ussher’s Ser. at Wanstead. - D. Field, Of the Church. - Jac. Revius, De Vit. Pontif., p. 320.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He would not that his son should marry out of the godly family: for the inconveniences that come by marrying with the ungodly are set forth in sundry places of the Scriptures.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 4. My country] Mesopotamia, called here Abraham's country, because it was the place where the family of Haran, his brother, had settled; and where himself had remained a considerable time with his father Terah. In this family, as well as in that of Nahor, the true religion had been in some sort preserved, though afterwards considerably corrupted; see Ge 31:19.

And take a wife unto my son] A young man in Bengal is precisely in the same circumstances as Isaac; he has nothing to do in the choice of a wife; parents employ others to seek wives for their sons. Those who leave their homes in search of employment always marry their children in their own country, and among their acquaintance at home; never among the people with whom they reside. In Asiatic countries this custom has prevailed from the infancy of the human race. See Ward's Hindoo Customs.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred. It seems that, in the choice of the place, Abraham was influenced by the thought, that a wife would more willingly come from thence to be married to his son, when she knew that she was to marry one of her own race and country. But because it afterwards follows that the servant came to Padan Aram, some hence infer that Mesopotamia was Abraham’s country. The solution, however, of this difficulty is easy. We know that Mesopotamia was not only the region contained between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but that a part also of Chaldea was comprehended in it; for Babylon is often placed there by profane writers. The Hebrew name simply means, “Syria of the rivers.” They give the name Aram to that part of Syria which, beginning near Judea, embraces Armenia and other extensive regions, and reaches almost to the Euxine Sea. But when they especially designate those lands which are washed or traversed by the Tigris and Euphrates, they add the name “Padan:” for we know that Moses did not speak scientifically, but in a popular style. Since, however, he afterwards relates that Laban, the son of Nahor, dwelt at Charran, (Genesis 29:4,) it seems to me probable that Nahor, who had remained in Chaldea, because it would be troublesome to leave his native soil, in process of time changed his mind; either because filial piety constrained him to attend to his decrepit and declining father, or because he had learned that he might have there a home as commodious as in his own country. It certainly appears from the eleventh chapter Genesis 11:1 that he had not migrated at the same time with his father.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

But thou shalt go unto my country,.... Not Canaan, which though his by promise, yet not in possession, but Mesopotamia, as appears from Gen 24:10; which taken largely included the Chaldea, see Act 7:2, the country where Abraham was born, and from whence he came:

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

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 hinderance to such a marriage, the laws relating to marriage not being given till the time of Moses.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Country. Huran, where Abraham had dwelt with Thare, &c. There Nachor’s family still resided, and had more respect for the true God than the Chanaanites, (Haydock) though they gave way to some sort of idolatry. (Menochius) --- Hence Abraham was in hopes that a partner worthy of Isaac might be found among his relations, better than among those devoted nations; and thus he has left an instruction to all parents, to be solicitous for the real welfare of their children; and to dissuade them earnestly from marrying with infidels; a thing which God forbade in the old law, as the Church still does in the new. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

My country, i.e. Mesopotomia, Gen 24:10, which being largely taken for the country between those two famous rivers Euphrates and Tigris, from which situation it hath that name; so Chaldea, whence Abraham came, Gen 11:31; 12:1, was a part of it.

My kindred, the family of Nahor, concerning the increase whereof he had received information, Gen 22:20, &c., which he justly preferred before the Canaanites, partly because though they were idolaters, as appears from Gen 31:19,30-35; Jos 24:2, yet they did worship the true God together with idols, as may be gathered from Gen 24:31,50, and from other places; and therefore there was more hopes of the conversion of one of that family; and partly because they lived at a great distance from the place where Abraham and his posterity did and should live, and therefore one of that stock would be more easily disentangled from her superstition and idolatry, because she was removed from the influences of the evil counsels and examples of her nearest relations, and partly because they were of the race of blessed Shem, and not of cursed Canaan.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

כי אם אל ארצי, he referred to Aram Naharyim.

ואל מולדתי, the town in which I was born, i.e. Ur Kasdim. Avraham meant to say that there Eliezer would find his family; he hinted at Rivkah, seeing that he had been informed of her birth. According to Rabbi Yitzchok in Bereshit Rabbah 59,8 the words “to my land” reflect a well known proverb according to which people prefer to plant seed originating in their own backyard even though the strain is known to be inferior to those available elsewhere.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.