{"id":"01KFXVB79SR6AMCY0EE2YZZQ4H","cid":"bafkreibwpf2bth7o4zxwd3njqnznz7axz3pl5lt3yarlhezfokllhdxyoi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":250,"extracted_at":"2026-01-26T19:09:01.968Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFXVA454RTKCJEQJMP0QKNKY","start_line":232,"text":"\n 168\t19\n 169\t\n 170\tnow when men lived one hundred and eighty years, as Isaac did. All that the Bible says of Abraham's relations in this long time is that Abraham knew his brother had children and grandchildren. But I believe the two families knew more than this of each other.\n 171\t\n 172\tWhen Abraham dwelt in the plain of Mamre, where afterwards the city of Hebron was built, he was on the caravan road from Canaan into Mesopotamia, and Haran was a stopping-place for caravans going farther. We know this because Hebron still stands, and is still a starting-place for caravans. Haran has disappeared, but travellers think they have found the site of it on a small river flowing into the upper part of the Euphrates. That it was a centre of caravan trade we know from old writers. If this be so, the two families could send messages back and forth, and I think Rebekah knew more than we are told about Isaac when she said so readily, “I will go,” and started right off.\n\n\n 173\t20\n 174\t\n 175\tTo go back to the servant setting out with the camels loaded with presents in search of a wife for his master’s son. He had no easy task, for besides picking out the right wife, a matter which greatly troubled him, as the story tells us, he had, what the story does not say, but what other travellers have found out for themselves, a hard and dangerous journey of between four and five hundred miles through a country probably as beset with robbers then as now. No one can go directly from Palestine to Mesopotamia, for a great desert lies between. Travellers in these days, like those in ancient times, have to go up to the mountains north of Palestine, then through them until they must turn towards Damascus, then again north from Damascus as far as possible, in order to cross as little of the desert as they can. A lady who once took part of this trip told me that it was the most dangerous and trying journey she ever had, and she rode a horse instead of a camel, which is far worse to ride.\n\n\n 176\t21\n 177\tWhen the servant drew near Haran, he stopped at the well, placed, as wells are now, just outside the town. Customs in the East do not change. A rich man today would send to his relations for a wife for his son in exactly the manner Abraham did, and the servant would stop where this man halted, for the well is the place to see all the people of a town, and to learn all the news. It is, at evening, to an Oriental village the same meeting-spot that the post-office at mail time is to small towns here. The women come for water with which to cook the supper, and the men bring their flocks to give them drink, before shutting them up for the night.\n 178\t\n 179\tNow how would the servant set about his business in a country so different from ours? In this perplexity he prayed to God, and said: “Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. And let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher,\n 180\t2\n","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFXVAZJAV0PQ1Z869591QF06","peer_label":"Chapter 1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-26T19:09:02.454Z","ts":"2026-01-26T19:09:02.454Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}