Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?: son of Nahor is used to refer to Laban as a descendant of Nahor. Laban is the son of Bethuel and grandson of Nahor. In some languages it will be necessary to say “grandson of Nahor.”

The reply of the herders takes the typical Hebrew form for expressing “Yes,” which is to repeat the questioner’s verb in a positive way, “We know him.” In some languages this reply will be a word equivalent to “Yes” or “Yes, what you say is so.”

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 .