While the conversation in verses 4-8 has been going on, Rachel has been approaching the well with her father’s flock.

While he was still speaking with them: he refers to Jacob, and them refers to the local herders.

Rachel came with her father’s sheep: the point of view is from the well, where Rachel has now arrived. This sentence may need to be restructured to say, for example, “Rachel arrived at the well with her father’s sheep.” Translators may notice that Good News Translation does not repeat in verse 9 that the sheep belong to Laban, because that fact has been stated in verse 6 as “his flock,” and it will occur again in verse 10.

For she kept them is literally “because she was a shepherdess,” that is, a girl who takes care of the family sheep. In some languages this expression may need to be stated, for example, as “Rachel, who cared for her father’s sheep, came to the well.”

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 .