ספר בראשית

Another aspect of Eliezer’s refusal to commence eating before ‎explaining the purpose of his journey to Aram Naharayim: Eliezer ‎was aware of the wicked nature of his hosts, and considered it ‎likely that they had put poison in his food in order to not only ‎murder him, but to rob him of the generous dowry his ten camels ‎had been carrying. In the event, he was proven correct, as we no ‎longer hear a word about Rivkah’s father Betuel when Rivkah ‎departs on the following day, since apparently he had eaten of ‎the poisoned food. Eliezer’s speech is considered by our sages as ‎so important, that they do not only consider his words as equal to ‎‎divrey Torah, words of Torah, but add that the Torah ‎deliberately devoted more space to what appear to be mundane ‎matters discussed by Avraham’s servant, than it devotes to words ‎of Torah spoken by the patriarchs themselves. He was spared ‎death by poisoning due to his timely words, which afforded an ‎angel the opportunity to switch his plate with that of his host ‎Betuel, who died from the effects of poisoning during the ‎following night. (Bereshit Rabbah, 60,12) According to that ‎Midrash, Rivkah’s mother and brother wanted to use the ‎mourning period for Betuel to delay Rivkah’s departure.‎