Verse 24 interrupts the sequence of events to say that (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid). This was probably done before the wedding, and in English we may say “Laban had given his maid….” This information is placed between parentheses in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation to show that it is not part of the story line. See also verse 29. Zilpah is a slave girl who is given to Leah to serve her. For further information see the case of Hagar and Sarah in 16.1.

It may be desirable in some languages to move this verse so that it does not interrupt the main story line. One way of doing this is to move verse 24 back to the middle of verse 23 to give the same sequence of information as in the parallel verses 28-30. Another way is to move both verses 24 and 29 and place them together after verse 30.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .