Genesis 24:64. Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
1. The expression “lifted up” is often met with in the Scriptures in connection with the eyes. It does not always mean to look upward, but sometimes to look directly and earnestly at an object. Roberts says, it is to this day a common form of speech in India. We have in this text an illustration. Isaac may have looked upward when “he lifted up his eyes” and saw the caravan coming, for he was walking in the field, engaged in meditation (vs. 63), and very likely had his head inclined, and his eyes downward; but Rebekah, on the back of a camel, could hardly have looked upward when she saw Isaac. She simply looked directly and earnestly at him.
2. She quickly “lighted off” the camel when she discerned Isaac, thus giving him a customary mark of respect. In like manner Achsah alighted in the presence of Othniel and of Caleb (Josh. 15:18); Abigail thus alighted in the presence of David (1 Sam. 25:23), and even the haughty Naaman was so happy over his wonderful cure that he alighted from his chariot in the presence of Elisha’s servant (2 Kings 5:21), showing Gehazi the respect he would have shown to his master had he been present. Travelers tell us that this custom is still practiced.