Genesis 24:13

Summary

The servant of Abraham, standing by a spring, declares his position and observes that the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. The verse sets the scene for the test he is about to propose to find a wife for Isaac.

Key words

• hiNneh ("here!", H2009) — a presentative interjection that draws attention to the speaker's situation, often opening a declaration of fact or the start of a prayer/plan.
• nitsTav ("standing", H5324) — niphal participle of the root meaning "to stand," describing an ongoing state (the servant currently positioned at the spring) rather than a completed action.
• 'ein ("spring of", H5869M) — feminine singular construct noun, linking directly to ha-Mayim ("the water", H4325G) to form "spring of the water."
• beNot ("daughters of", H1323G) — feminine plural construct, opening a chain of construct relationships: "daughters of the men of the city."
• yotze'Ot ("coming out", H3318G) — qal participle, feminine plural, agreeing with beNot, presenting the daughters' action as ongoing/habitual at this moment.
• sha'ov ("to draw", H7579) — qal infinitive construct, expressing purpose ("in order to draw"), attached to yotze'Ot.

What the text says

The verse opens with hiNneh followed by the independent pronoun 'anoKhi ("I", H0595) and the participle nitsTav, a construction common in Biblical Hebrew for describing a present, ongoing situation. The participle form (niphal) frames the servant's standing at the spring not as a single completed act but as his current circumstance, the backdrop against which what follows will happen.

The second half of the verse builds a chain of construct nouns: beNot ("daughters of") governs 'anShei ("men of," H0582), which itself governs ha-'Ir ("the city," H5892B). This creates the phrase "daughters of the men of the city," a layered possessive structure typical of Hebrew noun chains, where each noun in construct state depends on the next. The subject of this chain, beNot..., takes the participle yotze'Ot ("coming out"), again presenting an ongoing action parallel to the servant's own standing. The infinitive sha'ov with the prefixed preposition li ("to," H9005) expresses purpose: the daughters are coming out "to draw water."

The repetition of Mayim ("water," H4325G) at both the beginning (tied to the spring) and the end (as the object of drawing) frames the verse, tying the servant's position and the daughters' activity to the same resource.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'anShei ha-'Ir ("the men of the city") as τῶν οἰκούντων τὴν πόλιν ("those inhabiting the city"), shifting from a construct noun phrase to a participial phrase, which shifts emphasis from "men" as a distinct group to the act of dwelling. The Vulgate uses habitatorum hujus civitatis ("of the inhabitants of this city"), similarly focusing on inhabitants rather than "men" specifically, and adds hujus ("this"), a demonstrative not present in the Hebrew ha-'Ir ("the city").