24:15 Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah 1 with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor). 2
24:28 The young woman ran and told her mother’s household all about 3 these things.
“Our sister, may you become the mother 7 of thousands of ten thousands!
May your descendants possess the strongholds 8 of their enemies.”
1 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out!” Using the participle introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator dramatically transports the audience back into the event and invites them to see Rebekah through the servant’s eyes.
2 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out – [she] who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham – and her jug [was] on her shoulder.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “according to.”
4 tn Heb “the servant”; the noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Rebekah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “and said to her.”
7 tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”
8 tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.