Bible Strands
Genesis 24:42
So when I came to the spring today, I prayed: O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if only You would make my journey a success!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The unnamed servant of Abraham speaks to God while standing at the well, immediately after receiving instructions about securing a bride for Isaac. He reports his arrival at the spring and the prayer he just offered to secure the journey’s outcome.
The words — The Hebrew phrase יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲדֹנִי אַבְרָהָם (Yahweh Elohei Adoni Avraham) literally renders “Yahweh, God of my master Abraham.” The servant uses this exact invocation to anchor his plea in the covenant relationship established with his former master.
The thread — This pattern of invoking God by a patriarch’s name to secure a specific mission appears in Genesis 24:12 and echoes Nehemiah 1:11, where prayer is tied to reverence for God’s name. Ezra 8:21 similarly links fasting and supplication to divine protection for a journey.
Why it lands — The text records a servant’s direct request for divine guidance in a high-stakes mission, leaving the outcome to God’s sovereign action. It requires the reader to recognize that faithful obedience includes explicit dependence on God rather than self-reliance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I came this day unto the well, and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go:
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)
- Genesis 24:12 “O LORD, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “please grant me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
- Ezra 8:21 And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
- Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.
- Psalms 90:17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands—yes, establish the work of our hands!
- Romans 1:10 in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you.
- Genesis 24:31 “Come, you who are blessed by the LORD,” said Laban. “Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”
- Genesis 39:3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and made him prosper in all he did,
- Acts 10:7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among his attendants.
- Acts 10:22 “Cornelius the centurion has sent us,” they said. “He is a righteous and God-fearing man with a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation. A holy angel instructed him to request your presence in his home so he could hear a message from you.”