פרשת חיי שרה תשכ"ד - דברי אברהם לעבדו

'ה אלהי השמים אשר לקחני מבית אבי THE LORD, GOD OF HEAVEN, WHO TOOK ME FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE — Here he did not say “[The God of heaven] and the God of the earth”, whereas above (v. 3) he said, “And I will make thee swear etc. … [and the God of the earth]’’. But, in effect, Abraham said to him: Now He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, because I have made him (i. e. His Name) a familiar one in peoples’ mouths: but at the time when He took me from my father’s house He was God of heaven only and not God of the earth for people did not acknowledge Him and His Name was not commonly known on earth (Genesis Rabbah 59:7).

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 back thither.’

"Thou shalt not bring my son back thither." He must remain in the land of Israel. Abraham said, "you shall not bring my son back" because he (Abraham) was the root.

'ה אלהי השמים אשר לקחני מבית אבי THE LORD, GOD OF HEAVEN, WHO TOOK ME FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE — Here he did not say “[The God of heaven] and the God of the earth”, whereas above (v. 3) he said, “And I will make thee swear etc. … [and the God of the earth]’’. But, in effect, Abraham said to him: Now He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, because I have made him (i. e. His Name) a familiar one in peoples’ mouths: but at the time when He took me from my father’s house He was God of heaven only and not God of the earth for people did not acknowledge Him and His Name was not commonly known on earth (Genesis Rabbah 59:7).

ואשר דבר לי AND WHO SPOKE לי—The word לי means “in my interest”, just as (1 Kings 2:4) “which He spake concerning me (עלי)”. In the same way, in every case where לי or לו or להם follow after the verb דבר they must be explained in the sense of על “concerning” — and in the Targum they should be rendered by עלי or עלוהי or עליהון regarding me etc. — for with this verb דבר in the sense of speaking to a person, the expressions לי and לו and להם are not the appropriate ones, but אלי and אליו and אליהן, and their renderings in the Targum should be עמי and עמיה and עמהן i. e., to speak with me or him or them. In the case of the verb אמר, however, the expressions לי and לו and להם are the appropriate ones.

'ונקית משבעתי וגו THEN SHALT THOU BE CLEAR FROM THIS MY OATH etc. — and take a wife for him from the daughters of Aner or Eshcol or Mamre.

רק את בני וגו ONLY [BRING NOT] MY SON [THITHER] etc. — The word רק narrows and limits (מעוט) the sense: it is only my son who may not go back there, but Jacob, my son’s son, in the end will go back there to find a wife (Genesis Rabbah 59:10).

And Abraham rose up, and bowed down to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.