Kejadian 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.

Kejadian 24:13

24:13 Here I am, standing by the spring, ³  and the daughters of the people ⁴  who live in the town are coming out to draw water.

Kejadian 24:15-16

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.

[24:11]  ¹ tn Heb “well of water.”

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

[24:13]  ³ tn Heb “the spring of water.”

[24:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “the men.”

[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.