Genesis 24:65
And said to the servant: Who is that man who cometh towards us along the field? And he said to her: That man is my master. But she quickly took her cloak, and covered herself.
Open Genesis 24:65 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et ait ad puerum : Quis est ille homo qui venit per agrum in occursum nobis ? Dixitque ei : Ipse est dominus meus. At illa tollens cito pallium, operuit se.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν τῷ παιδί Τίς ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος ὁ πορευόμενος ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ εἰς συνάντησιν ἡμῖν; εἶπεν δὲ ὁ παῖς Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κύριός μου· ἡ δὲ λαβοῦσα τὸ θέριστρον περιεβάλετο.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֶל הָעֶ֗בֶד מִֽי הָאִ֤ישׁ הַלָּזֶה֙ הַהֹלֵ֤ךְ בַּשָּׂדֶה֙ לִקְרָאתֵ֔נוּ וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הָעֶ֖בֶד ה֣וּא אֲדֹנִ֑י וַתִּקַּ֥ח הַצָּעִ֖יף וַתִּתְכָּֽס
Haydock's commentary
Cloak, or summer veil, covering the whole body, and leaving an opening only for the eyes; such as the Eastern ladies use. St. Jerome in Isai. iii, Rebecca does this out of modesty. (Haydock)
She prefigures the Gentiles, whom Jesus calls by his servants laden with his gifts, to become his spouse, or his Church, (Calmet) at the fountain of baptism. He adorns her with the ear-rings of obedience, and the bracelets of good works. (Du Hamel)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian On Prayer, Answer to the Foregoing Arguments
They who make this concession ought to reflect on the nature of the word itself, what is the meaning of “woman” from the very first records of the sacred writings. Here they find it to be the name of the sex , not a class of the sex : if, that is, God gave to Eve, when she had not yet known a man, the surname “woman” and “female”, (“female,” whereby the sex generally; “woman,” hereby a class of the sex, is marked). So, since at that time the as yet unwedded Eve was called by the word “woman,” that word has been made common even to a virgin. Nor is it wonderful that the apostle, guided, of course, by the same Spirit by whom, as all the divine Scripture, so that book Genesis, was drawn up, has used the selfsame word in writing “women,” which, by the example of Eve unwedded, is applicable too to a “virgin.” In fact, all the other passages are in consonance herewith. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Colossians 4:12,13
“Remember,” he saith, “my bonds.” Marriage is a bond, a bond ordained of God, a harlot is a severing and a dissolving. It is permitted you to embellish marriage with other things, such as full tables, and apparel. I do not cut off these things, lest I should seem to be clownish to an extreme; and yet Rebecca was content with her veil only ( Gen. xxiv. 65 .); still I do not cut them off. It is permitted you to embellish and set off marriage with apparel, with the presence of reverend men and reverend women. …
St Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter III. Virgins are exhorted to avoid visits, to observe modesty, to be silent during the celebration of the Mysteries after the example of Mary. Then after narrating the story of a heathen youth, and saying of a poet, St. Ambrose relates a miracle wrought by a holy priest
10. Was it a small sign of modesty that when Rebecca came to wed Isaac, and saw her bridegroom, she took a veil, that she might not be seen before they were united? Certainly the fair virgin feared not for her beauty, but for her modesty. What of Rachel, how she, when Jacob’s kiss had been taken, wept and groaned, and would not have ceased weeping had she not known him to be a kinsman? So she both observed what was due to modesty, and omitted not kindly affection. But if it is said to a man: “Gaze not on a maid, lest she cause thee to fall,” what is to be said to a consecrated virgin, who, if she loves, sins in mind; if she is loved, in act also?