Genesis 24:14

Summary

The servant sets a specific sign for identifying Isaac's future wife: the young woman who responds to his request for water by offering to draw water also for the camels will be the one designated by God. The verse closes his internal prayer, stating that this outcome will confirm that covenant loyalty has been shown toward his master.

Key words

• na'arah ("young woman", H5291) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009), marking the yet-unknown girl as the subject of the coming test.
• hatti ("bend down", H5186) — hiphil (causative) imperative, a command form softened by the following particle na ("please", H4994), giving the request a polite, entreating tone.
• hokhachta ("you have appointed", H3198) — hiphil perfect, completed action; grammatically it treats the choice as already decided even though the scene has not yet happened, reflecting the servant's confidence in the sign he is proposing.
• eda' ("I will know", H3045) — qal imperfect, expressing the servant's future recognition once the sign is fulfilled.
• chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) — masculine singular noun, the quality the servant hopes to see confirmed toward 'adoni ("my master", H0113 + H9020 "my").

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional-sequential chain introduced by the narrative ve- (H9001) attached to hayah ("it will be", H1961), a sequential perfect that continues the servant's speech begun in the previous verse. The relative clause asher 'omar eleiha ("whom I will say to her") uses the qal imperfect 'omar (H0559) to project a future, repeatable speech act — the servant is describing a hypothetical scenario, not a single past event. Within this scenario, two imperatives appear: hatti (H5186, hiphil, "bend down") softened by na (H4994), and sheteh (H8354, qal, "drink"), the girl's anticipated reply. The purpose clause ve-'eshteh ("so that I may drink", H8354 imperfect with vav) shows grammatical subordination of result rather than simple sequence.

The pivot of the verse is the additional clause ve-gam gemalleikha 'ashqeh ("and also I will give your camels to drink", H8248G hiphil), which functions as the distinguishing criterion — the ordinary courtesy of giving water is not the sign, but the extra offer to water the camels. The closing clause uses hokhachta (H3198, hiphil perfect) to state, as an accomplished fact within the servant's request, that this outcome would mean the girl has already been designated le-'avdekha le-Yitzchak ("for your servant, for Isaac"), doubling the preposition le- (H9005) for emphasis on both the servant and Isaac by name.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the phrase "ἕως ἄν παύσωνται πίνουσαι" ("until they stop drinking"), an expansion not present in the Hebrew clause about watering the camels. The LXX and the Hebrew both close with "my master," but the LXX specifies "τῷ κυρίῳ μου Ἀβραίμ" ("my lord Abraham"), naming Abraham explicitly, whereas the Hebrew 'adoni ("my master", H0113) and the Vulgate domino meo ("my lord") leave the referent unnamed. The LXX renders hokhachta ("you have appointed") as ἡτοίμασας ("you have prepared"), a related but distinct verbal nuance from the Hebrew's causative-declarative sense of appointment.