So the man came into the house: came places the point of view inside the house. Good News Translation and others say “went into the house.”

Ungirded the camels: to ungird means to “unload,” “remove the loads,” “take the packs off.” The Hebrew does not make clear whether it was the servant or Laban who unloaded the camels. Some translations prefer to use a passive or impersonal subject. Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version make Laban the agent. Another possibility is that “Laban told his servants to take off the packs from the camels.”

And gave him: Hebrew does not have him, which obscures the sentence in Revised Standard Version.

Straw and provender are as in verse 25. Here it is stated that they are for the camels; the whole action may be expressed as in one translation, “he gave food to the camels and put them in the place where they were to sleep.”

And water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him: for this act of hospitality see 18.4 and comments. This sentence can often be shortened to say, for example, “He brought water for the servant and his men to wash their feet.”

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 .