Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 8. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died] She was sent with Rebekah when taken by Abraham's servant to be wife to Isaac, chap. xxiv. 59. How she came to be in Jacob's family, expositors are greatly puzzled to find out; but the text does not state that she was in Jacob's family. Her death is mentioned merely because Jacob and his family had now arrived at the place where she was buried, and the name of that place was called Allon-bachuth, ""the oak of weeping,"" as it is likely her death had been greatly regretted, and a general and extraordinary mourning had taken place on the occasion. Of Rebekah's death we know nothing. After her counsel to her son, chap. xxvii. 5-17, 42-46, we hear no more of her history from the sacred writings, except of her burial in chap. xlix. 31. Her name is written in the dust. And is not this designed as a mark of the disapprobation of God? It seems strange that such an inconsiderable person as a nurse should be mentioned, when even the person she brought up is passed by unnoticed! It has been observed that the nurse of AEneas is mentioned nearly in the same way by the poet Virgil; and in the circumstances, in both cases, there is a striking resemblance.
""Tu quoque littoribus nostris, AEneia nutrix, AEternam moriens famam, Caleta, dedisti: Eet nunc servat honos sedem tunus; ossaque nomen, Hesperia in magna, (si qua est en gloria,) signat.
At pius exequils AEneas rite solutis, Aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt AEquora, tendit iter veils, portumque relinqult."" AEn., lib. vii., ver. 1, &c.
""Thou too, Cajeta, whose indulgent cares Nursed the great chief, and form'd his tender years, Expiring here (an ever- honour'd name!) Adorn Hesperia with immortal fame: Thy name survives, to please thy pensive ghost; Thy sacred relics grace the Latian coast.
Soon as her funeral rites the prince had paid, And raised a tomb in honour of the dead; The sea subsiding, and the tempests o'er, He spreads the flying sails, and leaves the shore."" PITT.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 6-15 - The comfort the saints have in holy ordinances, is not so much from Beth-el, the house of God, as from El-beth-el, the God of the house The ordinances are empty things, if we do not meet with God in them There Jacob buried Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. She died much lamented Old servants in a family, that have in their time been faithful an useful, ought to be respected. God appeared to Jacob. He renewed the covenant with him. I am God Almighty, God all-sufficient, able to make good the promise in due time, and to support thee and provide for the in the mean time. Two things are promised; that he should be the fathe of a great nation, and that he should be the master of a good land These two promises had a spiritual signification, which Jacob had some notion of, though not so clear and distinct as we now have. Christ is the promised Seed, and heaven is the promised land; the former is the foundation, and the latter the top-stone, of all God's favours.
Original Hebrew ותמת4191 דברה1683 מינקת3243 רבקה7259 ותקבר6912 מתחת8478 לבית אל1008 תחת8478 האלון437 ויקרא7121 שׁמו8034 אלון בכות׃439
