What Does Genesis 24:19 Mean?

The young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things. Rebekah's immediate action after meeting the servant, running home to tell her mother's household, is the correct social response to a significant encounter at the well. She does not invite the servant home unilaterally; she goes ahead to report and prepare the household for a guest. The mother's household is the center of domestic management in the ancient Near Eastern family, and Rebekah's report to that center is the proper channel for handling a significant social situation. She is neither passive nor reckless; she is appropriately active in the right direction.

The running corresponds to the running with which she returned to the well to draw water for the camels. Rebekah runs when the situation calls for speed: when there is a need to be met or news to be shared quickly. Her physical energy in service of others is a consistent characteristic. The woman who will become the dominant figure in the next generation's covenant household, more active in Isaac's household than Isaac himself, is already identifiable in these two acts of running: toward the need, and toward the family with the news.

The family the woman runs to report to will make the decision that the chapter requires: will they release Rebekah to go to an unknown land to marry a man they have never met? The mother's household and the brother Laban will be the human decision-makers whose "yes" or "no" will determine whether the servant's mission succeeds on the family side. Rebekah's run home is the news that initiates their process of decision. The chapter's theology of consent requires that the family hear before they decide, and that Rebekah herself hear and decide as well. The running sets all of this in motion.