Genesis 24:16

And the damsel [was] very fair to look upon,.... Of a good countenance and beautiful aspect: a virgin, neither had any man known her; not only was reckoned a virgin, but was really one, pure and

And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

She was a virgin not only in title and show, but in truth, for no man had known her, i.e. corrupted her.

Genesis 24:16 And the damsel [was] very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.Ver. 16. And the damsel was very fair.] Kαληκαισοφη, Fair and wise, as it was said of Aspasia Milesia. Here beauty was not ill-bestowed, as a gold ring in a swine’ s snout, but (as the history reports of the Lady Jane Gray) adorned with all variety of moral virtues, as a clear sky with stars, as a princely diadem with jewels. Beauty is of itself very attractive, as the poet hath it. For which cause, Heraclonas, the young emperor of Constantinople, being sent into banishment, together with Martina his mother, had his nose cut off, lest his beauty should move the people to pity. And Angli tanquam Angeli, said Gregory the Great, of the English boys presented to him. How much more when accompanied and accomplished with chastity, as in this damsel. A virgin, neither had any man known her.] This latter clause is added, because many pass for virgins that are not so; if that of the poet be true, especially “ Quae, quia non licuit, non facit, illa facit.” - Ovid. And that of the orator, Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit. The Romans cashiered a vestal virgin for uttering this verse - “ Foelices nuptae! moriar, nisi nubere dulce est.” The strumpet when she eats stolen bread, hath such dexterity in wiping her lips, that not the least crumb shall be seen to her shame. So that Solomon shows it to be as hard to find it out, "As the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid," that is a close and chaste virgin; one that should be chaste at least, as being kept close from the access of strangers. Filled her pitcher, and came up.] Here was no tarrying, gazing, gossiping. Not slothful in business. She had not been delicately or wantonly bred, but inured to hard labour, and she followed it closely. Thucydides scribit Lacedaemoniis πατριοςγεγονεναιεκστωντονωνταςαρεταςκταθαι. Aelian, Var. Hist., lib. xii., cap. 1. Life of Edward VI., p. 176. Oττικαλονφιλονεστι. - Bucholcer. Aγνεια ab αγνος, quod ab ανος veneratio. Sic castus quasi καστος, ornatus. Senec., in Declama. Thucyd., lib. ii.

(16) She went down to the well.—The water, therefore, was reached by a flight of steps, the usual rule wherever the well was fed by a natural spring. Cisterns, on the contrary, supplied from the rains were narrower at the top than at the bottom. Mr. Malan (Philosophy or Truth, p. 93), in an interesting account of his visit to this well, says that on going out from Haran in the evening to examine it, he found “a group of women filling, no longer their pitchers, since the steps down which Rebekah went to fetch the water are now blocked up, but their water-skins by drawing water at the well’s mouth. Everything around that well bears signs of age and of the wear of time; for as it is the only well of drinkable water there, it is much resorted to. Other wells are only for watering the flocks. There we find the troughs of various height for camels, for sheep and for goats, for kids and for lambs; there the women wear nose-rings and bracelets on their arms, some of gold or of silver, and others of brass, or even of glass.”

16. Went down to the well — The water, perhaps, was reached, as is often the case, by a flight of steps. Hence the use of the terms going down and coming up.