Jamin Bradley

In most Bible translations, there’s a story that goes like this: Abraham’s son, Isaac, went out in a field to meditate one evening. He then looked up and saw a woman named Rebekah approaching on a camel. She saw him and dismounted her camel and they were married shortly later.

But there’s another way to tell this story. Hebrew scholars admit that they’re not sure how to interpret ‘lāśûaḥ, the word used here for meditate. Instead of agreeing with this holy-sounding interpretation, one scholar proposes that the word is better translated, “to dig a hole.” In other words, Isaac went out in the field at evening to use the bathroom. Likewise, the Hebrew word nāpal which we translate as dismounted, is typically translated fall.

So let’s retell the story: Abraham’s son, Isaac, went out in a field to poop one evening. He then looked up and saw a woman named Rebekah approaching on a camel. She saw him and fell off her camel and they were married shortly later.

I learned this story from Luke T. Harrington’s book, Murder-Bears, Moonshine, and Mayhem. His research is pulled from Gary A. Rendsburg, ‘lāśûaḥ in Genesis xxiv 63’, VT 45 (1995), pp. 558–60.