Genesis 24:53

Summary

The servant brings out silver and gold articles along with garments and gives them to Rebekah; he also gives precious gifts (migdanot) to her brother and mother. The verse closes the gift-giving scene that follows the servant's prayer and Rebekah's identification as the chosen bride.

Key words

• yotze ("he brought out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) form: the servant does not merely take out the items himself in a simple sense, but causes them to be brought out, marking him as the agent controlling the action.
• kelei ("articles of", H3627) — masculine plural construct, used twice (for silver and for gold), forming a construct chain "articles of X" that groups the valuables by material rather than naming them individually.
• vayitten ("and he gave [them]", H5414G) — qal narrative (vayiqtol) form, chained with "and" to the preceding verbs, keeping the giving to Rebekah inside the main narrative sequence of actions.
• natan ("he gave", H5414G) — qal perfect form of the same root as vayitten, but without the narrative vav-prefix; this shift in verbal form sets the giving of the migdanot apart syntactically from the immediately preceding narrative chain.
• migdanot ("precious gifts", H4030) — feminine plural noun, a distinct term from kelei ("articles") and begadim ("garments"), designating a separate category of gifts given to the brother and mother rather than to Rebekah.

What the text says

The verse is built on two verbs of giving from the same root, natan (H5414G), but in two different grammatical forms. The first, vayitten, is a narrative (vayiqtol) form continuing the chain of story-actions begun with vayotze ("he brought out"): the servant brings out the silver, gold, and garments, and gives them to Rebekah, all within one unbroken narrative sequence marked by the repeated va- prefix. The second occurrence, natan, breaks this pattern by using the perfect form without the narrative vav. In Hebrew narrative style, this kind of shift often sets a clause apart from the main sequence of events, here isolating the giving of the migdanot ("precious gifts", H4030) to the brother and mother as a separate notice rather than a strictly sequential action.

The objects given to Rebekah are organized through two construct chains, kelei-kesef ("articles of silver") and kelei zahav ("articles of gold"), both using the masculine plural construct noun kelei (H3627), followed by begadim ("garments", H0899B). The gifts to the brother and mother are named with a different term, migdanot, distinguishing this second set of gifts both terminologically and grammatically from what Rebekah receives.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text names the recipient of the second gift as achiha ("her brother", H0251G), a singular construct noun with a feminine singular suffix ("her"). The Vulgate renders this as "fratribus...ejus" (dative plural, "to her brothers"), introducing a plural where the Hebrew has a singular. The LXX (ἀδελφῷ αὐτῆς) and the other versions given (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) preserve the singular "brother" as in the Hebrew.