Genesis 24:2

2. His eldest servant of his house Hebrews, his servant, the elder of his house . The word elder is here to be understood as an official title; the overseer, steward, prime minister of the household, who ruled over all that he had; had charge of all . The person was probably the Eliezer of Damascus, mentioned in Genesis 15:2. See note there .

Why hand under my thigh The thigh ( ירךְ ) is here used euphemistically for the genital member, regarded among the patriarchs as the most sacred part of the body . Compare, also, Genesis 47:29. “This member,” says Ginsburg, “was the symbol of union in the tenderest relation of matrimonial life, and the seat whence all issue proceeds, and the perpetuity so much coveted by the ancients . Compare the phrase יוצאי ירךְ , ‘coming out of the loins,’ (Hebrews, issues of the thigh,) in Genesis 46:26; Exodus 1:5; Judges 8:30. Hence the creative organ became the Symbol of the Creator, and the object of worship among all nations of antiquity; and it is for this reason that God claimed it as the sign of the covenant between himself and his chosen people in the rite of circumcision. Nothing, therefore, could render the oath more solemn in those days than touching the symbol of creation, the sign of the covenant, and the source of that issue who may, at any future period, avenge the breaking of the compact made with their progenitor. To this effect is the explanation of the Midrash, the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan ben Uzziel, Rashi, and the oldest Jewish expositors.” See KITTO’S Biblical Cyclopaedia, Art., Oath.