Bible Strands
Genesis 22:23
And Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records this genealogical note immediately after listing Nahor’s eight sons, placing Bethuel within the documented family of Abraham’s brother. The statement functions as a structural marker between the two groups of Nahor’s children.
The words — יָלַד (ya.Lad) translates literally as “he fathered” or “he became the father of,” while יָלְדָה (yal.Dah) means “she bore.” Both verbs formally establish parental lineage in the text.
The thread — Rebekah’s identity as the daughter of Bethuel and granddaughter of Milcah reappears in Genesis 24:15, Genesis 24:24, and Genesis 24:47 to verify her ancestry when Abraham’s servant seeks a wife for Isaac. These passages repeat the same familial connections to confirm her lineage.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to note that Rebekah emerges from a specific, recorded family line rather than an unknown background. It demands attention to how covenant continuity is tracked through documented ancestry.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:15 Before the servant had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor.
- Genesis 24:24 She replied, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor.”
- Genesis 24:47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
- Genesis 24:51 Rebekah is here before you. Take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, just as the LORD has decreed.”
- Genesis 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.
- Genesis 25:20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
- Genesis 28:2 “Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
- Genesis 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
- Romans 9:10 Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.