Bible Strands
Genesis 24:16
Now the girl was very beautiful, a virgin who had not had relations with any man. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Rebekah at the spring immediately after she draws water and before Abraham’s servant approaches her. The passage operates as a descriptive pause in the narrative rather than spoken dialogue.
The words — בְּתוּלָ֕ה (be.tu.Lah) translates as “a virgin,” and יְדָעָ֑/הּ (ye.da.'A/h) literally means “he had known her,” a standard Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.
The thread — The text’s explicit notation of virginity and marital status parallels the lexical markers in Genesis 4:1, Genesis 26:7, and Genesis 39:6.
Why it lands — The verse establishes Rebekah’s physical and social status as a factual prerequisite for the covenant lineage, leaving the reader to note the textual boundary between narrative description and theological inference.
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 the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
Cross-references
- Genesis 26:7 But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”
- Genesis 4:1 And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.
- Genesis 39:6 So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s care; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,
- Numbers 31:17 So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,
- Song of Solomon 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”