Bible Strands
Genesis 24:13
Here I am, standing beside the spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Abraham’s servant stands at a Canaanite town well, addressing the LORD directly after praying for a specific sign to identify Isaac’s bride. He notes the evening timing as the local women emerge to draw water.
The words — הִנֵּ֛ה (hi.Neh) translates literally as “here!” or “behold,” and נִצָּ֖ב (ni.Tzav) means “[am] standing.” These verbs anchor the servant’s physical location at the spring as the active site of his petition.
The thread — The exact phrase “Here I am, standing beside the spring” recurs in Genesis 24:43, where the servant restates his position to verify the same sign. The pattern of waiting at a designated place aligns with the instruction in Psalms 37:5 to commit one’s way to the LORD and trust His action.
Why it lands — The text records a man positioning himself at a public water source to receive a practical, observable sign rather than a miraculous intervention. It requires the reader to follow precise instructions, remain in a fixed location, and recognize guidance through ordinary, repeatable actions.
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
Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:43 Here I am, standing beside this spring. Now if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your jar,’
- Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.
- Genesis 24:11 As evening approached, he made the camels kneel down near the well outside the town at the time when the women went out to draw water.
- Genesis 29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
- Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
- Judges 5:11 the voices of the singers at the watering places. There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous deeds of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates:
- 1 Samuel 9:11 And as they were climbing the hill to the city, they met some young women coming out to draw water and asked, “Is the seer here?”
- Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
- John 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”