What Does Genesis 24:33 Mean?

So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse, with Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, "Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies." The family's blessing on Rebekah at her departure is the covenantal farewell of a woman leaving her household to found a new one. The content of the blessing, "increase to thousands upon thousands, possess the gates of your enemies", echoes the covenant blessings given to Abraham at the completion of the Akedah in chapter 22:17. The family in Mesopotamia blesses with the vocabulary of the Abrahamic covenant, demonstrating that Nahor's household knows the covenant promises that govern the family they are allying with.

The departure of Rebekah with her nurse and her female servants is the social form of the bride's legitimate departure: she leaves her father's household with the proper attendants, with the family's blessing, and with the legal consent of all parties. The nurse who goes with her will be mentioned again in chapter 35:8 at her death, where the oak where she was buried is named, suggesting that she remained with Rebekah throughout her life. The servant's mission has been executed with complete attention to the social and legal forms appropriate to a covenant alliance of this significance.

The blessing "possess the gates of your enemies" is the blessing of covenant victory: gates were the seat of military and legal authority in the ancient city, and to possess them was to control the city's power. This is the same blessing promised in Genesis 22:17, "your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies." The family in Mesopotamia is sending Rebekah toward exactly this inheritance. The bride of the covenant heir carries the covenant's promise with her as she travels toward the land where it will be fulfilled. Jesus's declaration that "the gates of Hades will not overcome" his church (Matthew 16:18) is the New Testament's most direct allusion to this covenant-victory promise embedded in the blessing of the departing bride.