Genesis 24:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 (A)Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all his possessions: “Put your hand under my thigh,[a] 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live,(B) 4 but that you will go to my own land and to my relatives to get a wife for my son Isaac.”
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- 24:2 Put your hand under my thigh: the symbolism of this act was apparently connected with the Hebrew concept of children issuing from their father’s “thigh” (the literal meaning of “direct descendants” in 46:26; Ex 1:5). Perhaps the man who took such an oath was thought to bring the curse of sterility on himself if he did not fulfill his sworn promise. Jacob made Joseph swear in the same way (Gn 47:29). In both these instances, the oath was taken to carry out the last request of a man upon his death.
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