Genesis 24:11

24:11 He made the camels kneel down by the well ¹  outside the city. It was evening, ²  the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Genesis 24:14-20

24:14 I will say to a young woman, ‘Please lower your jar so I may drink.’ May the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac reply, ‘Drink, and I’ll give your camels water too.’ ³  In this way I will know that you have been faithful to my master.” ⁴ 

24:15 Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah ⁵  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). ⁶  24:16 Now the young woman was very beautiful. She was a virgin; no man had ever had sexual relations with her. ⁷  She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came back up. 24:17 Abraham’s servant ⁸  ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a sip of water from your jug.” 24:18 “Drink, my lord,” she replied, and quickly lowering ⁹  her jug to her hands, she gave him a drink. 24:19 When she had done so, ¹⁰  she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have drunk as much as they want.” 24:20 She quickly emptied ¹¹  her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

Genesis 29:6-10

29:6 “Is he well?” ¹²  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ¹³  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 29:7 Then Jacob ¹⁴  said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, ¹⁵  it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” ¹⁶  29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water ¹⁷  the sheep.”

29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. ¹⁸  29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, ¹⁹  and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he ²⁰  went over ²¹  and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ²² 

Genesis 29:1

The Marriages of Jacob

29:1 So Jacob moved on ²³  and came to the land of the eastern people. ²⁴ 

Genesis 9:11

9:11 I confirm ²⁵  my covenant with you: Never again will all living things ²⁶  be wiped out ²⁷  by the waters of a flood; ²⁸  never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

[24:11]  ¹ tn Heb “well of water.”

[24:11]  ² tn Heb “at the time of evening.”

[24:14]  ³ sn I will also give your camels water. It would be an enormous test for a young woman to water ten camels. The idea is that such a woman would not only be industrious but hospitable and generous.

[24:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “And let the young woman to whom I say, ‘Lower your jar that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink and I will also give your camels water,’ – her you have appointed for your servant, for Isaac, and by it I will know that you have acted in faithfulness with my master.”

[24:15]  ⁵ 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.

[24:15]  ⁶ 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.

[24:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the young woman was very good of appearance, a virgin, and a man she had not known.” Some argue that the Hebrew noun translated “virgin” (בְּתוּלָה, bÿtulah) is better understood in a general sense, “young woman” (see Joel 1:8, where the word appears to refer to one who is married). In this case the circumstantial clause (“and a man she had not known”) would be restrictive, rather than descriptive. If the term actually means “virgin,” one wonders why the circumstantial clause is necessary (see Judg 21:12 as well). Perhaps the repetition emphasizes her sexual purity as a prerequisite for her role as the mother of the covenant community.

[24:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the servant.” The word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[24:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “and she hurried and lowered.”

[24:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when she had finished giving him a drink.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[24:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and she hurried and emptied.”

[29:6]  ¹² tn Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’”

[29:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “peace.”

[29:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the day is great.”

[29:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “water the sheep and go and pasture [them].” The verbal forms are imperatives, but Jacob would hardly be giving direct orders to someone else’s shepherds. The nuance here is probably one of advice.

[29:8]  ¹⁷ tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.

[29:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “was a shepherdess.”

[29:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother” (twice in this verse).

[29:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Jacob.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “drew near, approached.”

[29:10]  ²² tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother.” The text says nothing initially about the beauty of Rachel. But the reader is struck by the repetition of “Laban the brother of his mother.” G. J. Wenham is no doubt correct when he observes that Jacob’s primary motive at this stage is to ingratiate himself with Laban (Genesis [WBC], 2:231).

[29:1]  ²³ tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his feet.” This unusual expression suggests that Jacob had a new lease on life now that God had promised him the blessing he had so desperately tried to gain by his own efforts. The text portrays him as having a new step in his walk.

[29:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the land of the sons of the east.”

[9:11]  ²⁵ tn The verb וַהֲקִמֹתִי (vahaqimoti) is a perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive and should be translated with the English present tense, just as the participle at the beginning of the speech was (v. 9). Another option is to translate both forms with the English future tense (“I will confirm”).

[9:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[9:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[9:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and all flesh will not be cut off again by the waters of the flood.”