Genesis 24:19

Summary

Genesis 24:19 narrates the continuation of Rebekah's action at the well: after she finishes giving the servant water to drink, she speaks and offers to draw water for his camels as well, until they finish drinking.

Key words

• va-teKhal ("and she finished", H3615G) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem marks completion of the action, not merely doing it but bringing it to an end.
• le-hashkoT-o ("to give him a drink", H8248H + H9033) — hiphil infinitive with causative force ("to cause to drink") plus a third-person masculine pronominal suffix ("him"), referring back to the servant.
• gam ("also", H1571) — adverb marking addition; signals that the offer to the camels extends beyond what was already done for the man.
• 'esh'Av ("I will draw water", H7579) — qal imperfect, first person; the imperfect aspect expresses an action not yet completed, here future/intentional.
• 'ad 'im ("until", H5704 + H0518J) — a compound construction: the preposition "until" reinforced by the conditional/subordinating particle "if", together functioning as "until" introducing the endpoint of the action.

What the text says

The verse divides into two narrative units joined by the vav-consecutive chain typical of Biblical Hebrew narration: va-teKhal ("and she finished") and va-Tomer ("and she said"). Both are third-person feminine narrative verbs referring to Rebekah, continuing the sequence of actions from the preceding verse. The first clause uses the piel verb teKhal ("she finished") governing an infinitive construction, le-hashkoTo ("to give him a drink"), where the hiphil stem of hashkot expresses causation — she caused him to drink — and the attached suffix -o ("him") specifies the servant as recipient.

The second clause introduces direct speech with Tomer ("she said"), followed by Rebekah's own words. The adverb gam ("also") marks an extension of her action to a new object, ligmaLeikha ("for your camels", construct plural with second-person suffix). The verb 'esh'av ("I will draw water") is qal imperfect, indicating an action she is about to perform, not yet completed. The temporal boundary of this action is marked by the compound phrase 'ad 'im, translated "until," which is followed by kiLu ("they have finished," piel perfect, indicating completed action) and the infinitive lishTot ("to drink"). The perfect tense of kiLu contrasts grammatically with the imperfect of 'esh'av, marking the shift from an ongoing intended action to its future completed endpoint.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Septuagint) does not include a separate clause corresponding to va-teKhal le-hashkoto ("and she finished giving him a drink"); it opens directly with "and she said" (καὶ εἶπεν), omitting explicit mention of the completion of the first watering. The Vulgate, by contrast, renders this opening action as "Cumque ille bibisset" ("and when he had drunk"), shifting the grammatical subject to the man's drinking rather than Rebekah's act of giving him water, as the Hebrew teKhal le-hashkoto expresses.