Genesis 26:19

Summary

The verse reports that Isaac's servants dug in a wadi and found there a well containing "living water" — a Hebrew idiom for flowing or fresh spring water as opposed to stagnant water.

Key words

• yachperu ("they dug", H2658) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, continuing the story sequence begun with the vav.
• avdei ("servants of", H5650) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to Yitzchak, "Isaac," to specify whose servants performed the digging.
• nachal ("wadi", H5158N) — masculine singular noun with prefixed preposition and article (ba-), denoting a seasonal streambed or valley where digging for water would occur.
• be'er ("well of", H0875) — feminine singular noun in construct state, grammatically bound to the following phrase mayim chayim.
• chayim ("living", H2416A) — masculine plural adjective modifying mayim ("water", H4325G), together forming the fixed expression "living water."

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel narrative clauses, each opened by a vav-consecutive verb: yachperu ("they dug") and yimtze'u ("they found"). This construction presents the digging and finding as sequential actions within the ongoing story. The subject of the first verb, avdei Yitzchak ("servants of Isaac"), is expressed through a construct chain — avdei cannot stand alone grammatically but requires the following noun Yitzchak to complete its meaning, "servants of Isaac."

The phrase be'er mayim chayim is itself a construct chain: be'er ("well of") governs mayim chayim ("living water"). The adjective chayim ("living") agrees in gender and number with mayim, a plural noun, and together they denote water that flows or springs up, distinguishing it from collected or stagnant water. The location adverb sham ("there", H8033G) ties the finding back to the nachal mentioned in the first clause, anchoring the second action to the site of the first.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the location as "ἐν τῇ φάραγγι Γεραρῶν" ("in the valley of Gerar"), adding the place name "Gerar," which does not appear in the Hebrew wording of this verse (the Hebrew here has only ba-nachal, "in the wadi," with the definite article but no toponym). The Vulgate ("Foderuntque in torrente, et repererunt aquam vivam") omits explicit mention of the construct noun be'er ("well of"), rendering only "aquam vivam" ("living water") without a corresponding word for "well," where the Hebrew explicitly names both be'er and mayim chayim.