Genesis 24:66

Summary

The verse reports that the servant (Abraham's servant, unnamed here) told Isaac everything he had done regarding the matter of finding a wife for him. The sentence is a simple narrative closure, summarizing the preceding events through indirect reference rather than repeating them.

Key words

• yesapper ("he recounted", H5608A) — piel (intensive) stem of the root for "to tell/count." The piel here conveys a detailed, itemized recounting rather than a single simple utterance.
• ha'eved ("the servant", H5650) — definite noun marking a specific, already-known character from the narrative (Abraham's servant), not just any servant.
• devarim ("things/words", H1697I) — masculine plural noun that can mean either "things" or "words"; here it refers to the events/matters accomplished, encompassing both actions and possibly the servant's own speech during them.
• asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing a subordinate clause that specifies which devarim are meant: those "which he had done."
• asah ("he had done", H6213A) — qal perfect, marking completed action prior to the telling; establishes that the doing preceded the recounting.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a straightforward verb-subject-object structure typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative: va-yesapper ("and he recounted") + ha'eved ("the servant," subject) + le-Yitzchak ("to Isaac," indirect object) + et kol-ha-devarim ("all the things," direct object, marked by the untranslated object marker 'et) + the relative clause asher 'asah ("which he had done").

The choice of the piel stem for sapar (H5608A) rather than a simpler qal form suggests an intensive or elaborative act of telling — consistent with the servant summarizing a lengthy sequence of events (the journey, the encounter at the well, the negotiations with Laban and the family) in one comprehensive report. The noun devarim (H1697I) is grammatically ambiguous between "things" and "words," a duality the English versions resolve by choosing "all that he had done," which shifts emphasis onto deeds. The verb asah (H6213A) is in the qal perfect, indicating an action already completed before the moment of recounting, reinforcing the retrospective nature of the servant's report.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha'eved ("the servant") as ho pais ("the servant/boy"), a term that can carry a slightly different semantic range (servant, child, or attendant) than the Hebrew 'eved. The Vulgate's servus aligns closely with the Hebrew 'eved. No other substantive divergences appear among the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate for this verse; the modern translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) render the sense consistently as "all that he had done."