CAMEL (גָּמָל, gamal; κάμηλος, kamēlos). A large beast of burden. Ancient Near Eastern zoology includes a number of large animals, such as horses, mules, donkeys, and camels (Exod 9:3; Ezra 2:67). Camels were Israel’s largest creature. These “ships of the desert” could travel long distances with heavy loads (King and Stager, Israel, 118, 186–87).

Etymology

The English word “camel” was transliterated from Greek, which was transliterated from Hebrew. The Hebrew letter ג (g) originally represented a camel. The Greek transliteration of this letter resulted in גָּמָל (gamal) (GKC, §5f [27–28]). The Old Testament employs three words for camel:

• גָּמָל (gamal)—the generic term (although once it refers exclusively to females: Gen 32:15);

• בֵּכֶר (bekher); בִּכְרָה (bikhrah)—“young camel” (e.g., Isa 60:6; Jer 2:23);

• כִּרְכָּרָה (kirkarah)—“she-camel” (occurs once: Isa 66:20).

Camels in the Bible

Camels are referenced frequently throughout all periods of the Old Testament (Davis, “Camel,” 147). Camel owners in the Old Testament include:

• Abram, who owned camels in Egypt (Gen 12:4–16);

• Job, who owned 3,000 and later 6,000 camels in Arabia (Job 1:3; 42:12; see Waltke with Yu, Theology, 927n1);

• Isaac (Gen 24:63);

• Jacob (Gen 30:43; 31:17, 34; 32:7, 15); and

• Joseph (Gen 37:25).

Camels might not have been used often in Israel after the time of the patriarchs, though they were taken as loot in wars with the Amalekites and other tribes. First Chronicles 12:40 provides one of the only references to camels during this time, indicating that they were used to bring food for the celebration of David’s monarchy. David also had a herd of camels overseen by Obil, an Ishmaelite (1 Chr 27:30).

In the New Testament, Jesus uses camels to illustrate His teachings (e.g., Matt 19:24; 23:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25). Camel hair is said to have furnished John the Baptist’s wardrobe (Matt 3:4; Mark 1:6).

History of Domestication

No clear example of a wild camel appears in the Bible; the biblical authors seem to have assumed that God created them already domesticated (Gen 1:28). According to Scripture:

• Egyptians owned camels before 1446 BC (Exod 9:3), with Abram owning camels in Egypt in the third millennium BC (Gen 12:4–16).

• Midianites, Amalekites, and easterners owned innumerable camels by about 1230 BC (Judg 6:3–5; 7:12).

• Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh plundered 50,000 camels around 722 BC (1 Chr 5:21–22).

Albright, Finkelstein, and Silverman date camel husbandry to the 12th century BC, and thus dismiss the references to camels in patriarchal narratives as anachronistic (Finkelstein and Silverman, Bible, 37; Albright, “Donkey,” 197–205; King and Stager, Israel, 117). King and Stager argue: “Among the West Semites, the camel is nowhere attested in the Mari and Amarna archives, and in LB [Late Bronze, 1550–1200] camels were still rare in the region” (King and Stager, Israel, 117). A petroglyph from 1500 BC depicts domesticated camels in Wadi Nasib, Sinai (Younker, “Camel,” 73–76). Camels probably carried copper and turquoise from mines to Egypt (Younker, “Camel,” 75).