Genesis 24:23

And he said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me now, if in thy father's house there be room for us to lodge.

מקום לנו ללין. Is there room in your father’s house to stay the night so that we do not have to spend the night in an inn?

ללין, the word לין is a noun, just as the word ריב in Deuteronomy 25,1כי יהיה ריב בין אנשים , “when there is a quarrel between men, etc.” is a noun. It is a derivative of Genesis 31,36 וירב בלבן, he “(Yaakov) quarreled with Lavan.” The word דין is a similar noun derived from דן אנכי in Genesis 15,14. לין is in a similar relationship to Genesis 32,14 וילן שם בלילה הוא, “he spent that night there.” (the night of the wrestling match with the angel on the far side of the river Yabbok) Rivkah’s answer גם מקום ללון (as opposed to the word ללין in Eliezer’s enquiry) meant that there is room for you and your men’s bodies to spend the night with us. The formulation ללון is a verbal formulation just as in Genesis 31,35 לקום, where Rachel excuses herself for not rising in the presence of her father. It is also similar to the formulation (verbal infinitive) לשוב מצרימה “to return to Egypt” in Exodus 4,21. If Rivkah had said: גם מקום לכם, she would have had to continue with the word ללין instead of the word ללון. Whereas the word לנו used by Eliezer meant that he and his men would be prepared to spend the night where the camels spent it, the word ללון after the word עמנו, “with us,” which clearly refers to Rivkah and her family, i.e. accommodation designed for human beings. She therefore meant to say: “why would you need to spend the night at an inn? This is the correct meaning as understood by people who understand the nuances of the Holy Tongue, i.e. Hebrew as written in the Torah.

היש בית אביך מקום, are they prepared to welcome strangers as guests as was customary in that time?

ללין, so that both we and our camels can stay the night there?

ויאמר, he now asked about her family, and whether in the home of such a family there was room to accommodate him and his entourage.

?היש בית אביך מקום ללין, The meaning of the word ללין is a verbal mode meaning the same as להלין, “to provide lodging.” The letter י indicates the transitive conjugation hiphil. The word ללון by comparison which is in the simple conjugation (intransitive) kal, describes what the person enjoying the lodging does, i.e. spend the night. Both the enquiry and the response are the same, i.e. Rivkah answered the question asked, she did not answer obliquely, seeing that she used the verb “to lodge” in a different conjugation. After all, Eliezer had asked her both about lodging for the camels and lodging for himself and his men. It is possible to understand the exchange between Eliezer and Rivkah as meaning: “is there room in your father’s house to provide lodging,” a reference to the camels only, whereas Rivkah responds “not only is there room for the camels but there is also room for the men.” The author quotes Job 24,7 to show that the verb לון when used in the transitive mode ערום ילינו מבלי לבוש, “they will have to spend the night without clothing” also means the same as the intransitive conjugation ילונו.