Genesis 24:55
And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go.
And her brother and her mother said,.... Here her brother Laban is set before his mother, as above before his father, being the chief speaker and the principal manager of business:
Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; which was but a reasonable request; and if no more time is intended, it is much the servant should object, and not readily agree to it; but in the margin it is, "a full year" or "ten months"; and so Onkelos and Jonathan, and other Jewish writers {u}, who say it was customary for a virgin to have twelve months allowed her to furnish herself with ornaments; and therefore if a full year could not be admitted of, it is requested that at least ten months would be granted: this by many is thought to be unreasonable, that a servant should be desired to stay so long from his master, and especially it would not be asked, when it was perceived he was in such haste to be gone directly; but when it is observed that it was the usual custom of those times for virgins espoused to continue in their father's house a considerable time before the marriage was consummated, and that Rebekah was going into a distant country, and very likely she and her friends would never see each other, the motion will not appear so very extravagant:
after that she shall go; when that time is elapsed, but cannot think of it before.
{u} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 60. fol. 53. 2. Jarchi, Ben Gersom & Ben Melech in loc.