Tell me whose daughter you are: since the follow-up question concerns her father, Good News Translation expresses the first as “Please tell me who your father is.” For languages that prefer direct speech, this may be expressed as “Please tell me. Who is your father?” The next question is asked before Rebekah can answer the first.

Is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge in?: us refers to the servant and others who have accompanied him on the journey, and so Good News Translation says “my men and me.” Lodge translates a form of a verb meaning to spend the night. The servant is speaking of a one-night’s stay, expecting to be able to depart the following day. In some languages this question is too abrupt and requires some statement to introduce the request for lodging; in one language, for example, the servant says “I and my men are looking for a place to sleep. Do you think we could come and stay at his house?”

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 .