What Does Genesis 24:13 Mean?

Behold, I stand here beside the well of the waters; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw the waters.

Genesis 24:13 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

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:

THE KEY

The Hebrew word rendered “well” is also “eye,” so this scene begins at the water’s visible source, where an encounter is gathering.

THE MEANING

The verse places you beside a source before the encounter’s meaning is known: someone stands, others arrive, and water is drawn. It makes the ordinary movement toward what sustains life the threshold of what unfolds.

THE ROOT

עַיִן

ʿayin

GROWS FROM

ע־י־ן

ʿ-y-n

Eye; also a spring or fountain, the point where water emerges.

The Hebrew noun ⁨עַיִן⁩ (ʿayin, “spring”) is also the word for “eye.” The source is both an opening from which water emerges and an image of seeing, a depth the English “well” leaves hidden.

ALSO GROWS

ʿayin: eye

עַיִן

The same noun names the spring in this verse, joining the image of seeing to the place water emerges.

maʿyan: spring, fountain

מַעְיָן

This related word names a spring or fountain, keeping the source sense visible in the same word family.

THE PATTERN

People arriving to draw water meet an encounter that redirects what happens next.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

Exodus 2:16 · SDVThe daughters’ arrival to draw water opens the scene of Moses meeting the women of Midian.

And as they went up the rise to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw waters, and said to them, Is the one who sees here?

1 Samuel 9:11 · SDVOn the way to seek Samuel, Saul’s path turns through an encounter with young women going to draw water.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

John 4:7 · SDVA woman’s ordinary trip to draw water becomes the opening of an encounter that reveals more than the water at the well.

THE THREAD

And the messenger of the LORD found her by the eye of the waters in the wilderness, by that eye on the road to Shur.

Genesis 16:7 · SDV

The same word ⁨עַיִן⁩ (ʿayin, “spring” or “eye”) names the water source beside Hagar. Its double sense lets the spring carry an image of both water emerging and a person being seen.

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