אלי לא תלך האשה. פירש"י ז"ל שלכך כתיב אלי חסר וא"ו למדרש שהיתה בת לאליעזר וכו'. ותימה שגם ר' שלמה פי' על קרא דונקית משבועתי זאת ותקח אשה לבני מבנות ענר אשכול וממרא וגם הם כנעניים היו. וי"ל שבו נתקיימה כבר הקללה שהרי הוא עבד אבל הם לא היו עבדים. ועוד י"ל דזילא ביה מילתא טפי למשיא לבנו בת עבדו. ועוד אמרינן בב"ר אליעזר בנו של חם היה. ובפרקי ר' אליעזר אומר אליעזר עבד אברהם הוא עוג מלך הבשן והכי איתמר התם זקן ביתו של אברהם אבינו היה אליעזר וכתב עליו עבד עולם וכשגמל חסד עם יצחק הוציאו לחירות עולם ונתן לו הקב"ה שכרו בעולם הזה והעמידו מלך והוא עוג מלך הבשן וקשה שהרי עוג רשע היה ומשה הרגו ואליעזר היה צדיק וגם במס' סופרים חשיב ליה מתשעה שנכנסו בגן עדן מחיים ועל דבר זה נכנס כי כשהביא רבקה ולא מצא לה יצחק בתולים כמו שאפ' בע"ה היה חושדו שבא עליה ואמר לו כן תחיה ותכנס בגן עדן כמו שאתה נקי ממנה ונתקיים לו אותה ברכה ונכנס חי בגן עדן וצ"ל ששני עוג מלך הבשן היו אחד רשע שהרגו משה ואחד שהיה עבד ומלך וכשמלך נקרא שמו עוג כי כל מלכי הבשן נקראים עוג כמו שמצינו בכל מלכי מצרים שנקראין פרעה: אלי לא תלך האשה אחרי, “perhaps the woman (that I chose) will not follow me. (to this land).” Rashi comments on this that it is remarkable that the word: ulay here is spelled without the letter ו after the first letter as we would have expected, and that this is a hint by Eliezer who had a daughter, that he secretly hoped that the refusal of a potential bride from Avraham’s family to move to the land of Canaan, might make his master Avraham willing to let her become Yitzchok’s wife. [Rashi bases himself on an interpretation by B’reshit Rabbah on why in the report of the conversation between Avraham and Eliezer on the same subject in 24,5 that letter ו is not missing. Ed.] It is difficult to understand why he did not write this comment already on verse eight in this chapter where Avraham had not excluded a marital union with the daughters of any of his three friends Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre, although they were Canaanites, and not slaves from Damascus, and Avraham had Eliezer released him from his oath in the event that a girl from Charan were to refuse to move to the land of Canaan. We must assume that Avraham had felt that the curse that rested on Canaan had already run its course, whereas the curse on Eliezer’s antecedents had not yet run its course, so that marriage into that family would be spiritually much more dangerous. B’reshit Rabbah 59,9, states specifically that Eliezer was a descendant of Cham, whose son Canaan Noach had cursed. In the book: Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 15, Eliezer is identified with Og King of Bashan, whom the Israelites slew in a battle during their last year in the desert. [My edition of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer does not have this, and my research of a lengthy article about Og by Dr Admiel Kosman of the Bar Ilan university, also does not bring any source for that statement. Ed.] According to our author, the following is the text in his edition of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. “Eliezer has been described as the most senior servant, and added that he was a servant for evermore. When he did Yitzchok a great favour by choosing a wonderful wife for him, Yitzchok freed him forever. G–d then rewarded Og by making him King of Bashan. If this is true, why did G–d order Moses to kill Og as a punishment for defending his country against invaders? According to Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer he was a perfectly righteous man! We also know from the Talmud, tractate Sofrim chapter 21, as well as from Derech Eretz zuttah, tractate Sotah, 1, that he was one of only nine people who immediately upon drawing their last breath had their souls transferred to the spiritual hereafter. This matter was discussed in connection with a tradition that when Yitzchok first joined Rivkah in the marital bed, and found that she was not a virgin, he suspected Eliezer as having been to blame for this. He said to him: “may you live as long and enter paradise as you are innocent of my accusation!” In light of all the above, we must assume that there had been two Kings called King of Bashan, one during Avraham’s lifetime and another during Moses’ lifetime. It was the former who was so righteous. Each one of these two persons, once crowned king, used the title King of Bashan, seeing that all of Bashan’s king were called Og, just as all of Egypt’s kings were called Pharaoh.