Genesis 26:19

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ

châphar

H2658

“and · to dig”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 22× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 21:30

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 714

to dig, search for - (Qal) - to dig - to search, search out, explore

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ to dig H2658 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ to dig H2658 occurs in 21 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 adjective
1 adverb

Verb forms

וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיִּ֨מְצְאוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 26:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

John 4:10–11 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
John 7:38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water."
Song of Solomon 4:15 A fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, Flowing streams from Lebanon. Beloved

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 20 words vs World English Bible 14. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 26:19 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ עַבְדֵֽי יִצְחָ֖ק בַּנָּ֑חַל וַיִּ֨מְצְאוּ שָׁ֔ם בְּאֵ֖ר מַ֥יִם חַיִּֽים

Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 26:19 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὀρύσσω ὁ παῖς ισαακ ἐν ὁ φάραγξ γεραρα καί εὑρίσκω ἐκεῖ φρέαρ ὕδωρ ζάω

And the servants of Isaac dug in the valley of Gerara, and they found there a well of living water.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַחֲפָרוּ עַבְדֵי יִצְחָק בְּנַחֲלָא וְאַשְׁכָּחוּ תַמָּן בֵּירָא דְּמַיִּין נָבְעִין

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַחֲפָרוּ עַבְדֵי יִצְחָק בִּסְפַר נַחְלָא וְאַשְׁכְּחוּ תַמָן בִּיר מוֹי נַבְעִין

And the servants of Izhak digged in the border of the vale, and found there a well of flowing water.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 26:19 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 26:19 And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

Ver. 19. A well of springing water.] Heb., Living; so called for their continual motion. Life consisteth in action: and the godly esteem of life, by that stirring they find in their souls. "O Lord," saith Hezekiah, "by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit". {Isa 38:16} And thus, many a man lives more in a shorter, than others in a longer time. St Jerome tells of one, qui in brevi vitae spatio tempora virtutum multa replevit. {a} As Seneca of another, qui non diu vixit, sed diu fuit: Non multum navigavit, sed multum iactatus est. Oh, live, live, live, saith a reverend man, {b} quickly, much, long: else you are but hissed and kicked off this stage of the world, as Phocas was by Heraclius; nay, as many {Job 27:23; Job 27:15} who were buried before half dead.

{a} Jerom. Epist. ad Fri.

{b} Abner’s Fun., by M. Harris.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, springing.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 19. A well of springing water.] באר מים חיים beer mayim chaiyim, A well of living waters. This is the oriental phrase for a spring, and this is its meaning both in the Old and New Testaments: Le 14:5, Le 14:50; Le 15:30; Nu 19:17; Son 4:15. See also Joh 4:10-14; Joh 7:38; Re 21:6; Re 22:1. And by these scriptures we find that an unfailing spring was an emblem of the graces and influences of the Spirit of God.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

19. springing] Heb. living. A well (be’êr) might contain either the water that came from a spring, as here; or water that was stored from rainfall. The word rendered “springing” appears as “running” in Lev_14:5 and as “living” in Jer_2:13; cf. Zec_14:8; Joh_4:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen,.... About the well which was dug in the valley; and this shows it was near Gerar or at least was upon the border of the country, and so it was a disputable point to whom it belonged:

saying, the water is ours; though the well was dug by Isaac's servants, yet they laid claim to the water, pretending it was their ground, being on their borders:

and he called the name of the well Esek: which signifies "contention": the reason of the name follows:

because they strove with him; wrangled, contended, and disputed with him about whose right it was.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Torrent. That is, a channel where sometimes a torrent, or violent stream had run. (Challoner) --- In this vale of Gerara, a never-failing spring was found. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The Pulpit Commentary

And Isaac"s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. Literally, living water (cf. Lev_14:5, Lev_14:6; Zec_14:8; Rev_21:6)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

flowing water

This phrase refers to a natural spring they uncovered when they were digging a new well. It provided a continuous flow of fresh drinking water. AT: "fresh water" (See: Idiom)

herdsmen

men who tended livestock

This water is ours

Here "ours" refers to the herdsmen of Gerar. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")

Esek

Translators may also add a footnote that says "The name Esek means 'quarrel' or 'argue.'" (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Isaac

servant

cistern

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Radak

Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak)

ויחפרו, they dug even deeper than initially in order to supply sufficient water for the livestock.

וימצאו שם באר מים חיים, after they kept digging, they found this additional well beneath the old well. This is why the Torah did not write that they found מים, i.e. simply water, but באר, that they found a new source of water.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is châphar (“to dig”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word châphar carries the sense “to dig.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 21:30 shares the word «to dig» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיַּחְפְּר֥וּ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.