Genesis 24:15-17

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 24:15 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out!” Using the participle introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator dramatically transports the audience back into the event and invites them to see Rebekah through the servant’s eyes.
2. Genesis 24:15 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out—[she] who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham—and her jug [was] on her shoulder.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3. Genesis 24:16 tn Heb “And the young woman was very good of appearance, a virgin, and a man had not known her.” The first two terms נַעֲרָה (naʿarah) and בְּתוּלָה (betulah) can refer to young girls, either unmarried or married; see Judges 9:3 and Joel 1:8, respectively, for examples of a married נַעֲרָה (naʿarah) and בְּתוּלָה (betulah). While the term בְּתוּלָה (betulah) does not have to mean “virgin” it can refer to a girl who is a virgin. Further, in legal literature it is used as a technical term for “virgin” (Exod 22:16-17; Deut 22:19, 23, 28). Akkadian behaves similarly in that the cognate term batultu, meaning an adolescent girl but not necessarily a “virgin,” is used to mean “virgin” in Neo-Assyrian laws and Neo-Babylonian marriage contracts (CAD B 173-174). This passage is not legal literature, so the meaning “virgin” is clarified by an additional clause. The expression “to know” is a euphemism for sexual relations, and the English euphemism “be intimate with” is close in meaning to the Hebrew. The Semitic languages may have lacked a term that specifically meant “virgin” and so promoted other terms to indicate a virgin, whether by the context of the type of literature (e.g. legal literature) or by the addition of explanatory clauses.
4. Genesis 24:17 tn Heb “and the servant.” The word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.