Early camel incidents in the Hebrew Bible

The claim that there were no domesticated camels before the first millennium BC makes the mention of camels in Genesis problematic. Martin Heide has undertaken thorough research to see whether the extra-biblical evidence of camels is, in fact, consistent with the biblical account.

There are two species of domesticated camels: the Bactrian or two-humped camel and the Arabian one-humped camel or dromedary. Evidence from ancient camel remains and visual representations indicates that domesticated Bactrian camels were introduced into southern Turkmenistan as early as the third millennium BC. This evidence suggests that they were used for long-distance trade between Central Asia and Mesopotamia.

During roughly the same era, evidence from inscriptions points to the use of camels in Mesopotamia. In early Sumerian lists of animals, the two-humped camel is ranked after the elephant and is called the ‘elephant of the caravan’. At the beginning of the second millennium BC, a second name, the ‘elephant of the mountain’, came into use. Both names are assigned to the Akkadian term ibilu (camel) in later bilingual lexical lists (lists of words and their translations into a second language). Apart from these occurrences, the Bactrian camel appears only occasionally in Sumerian writings. There seems to have been no interest on the part of shepherds and pastoralists in breeding Bactrian camels locally. They were rarely used in local transport, where donkeys dominated.

In the patriarchal narratives of the Hebrew Bible, camels are mentioned several times in connection with long journeys. Abraham left Upper Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BC, when Bactrian camels had been used in overland trade for centuries. He travelled to the southern Levant (Genesis 12:4–5) and then to Egypt probably taking camels with him (‘he had . . . camels’, Genesis 12:16). Some years later, Abraham ordered his servant to travel to Upper Mesopotamia with ten camels to find a future wife for his son, Isaac (Genesis 24:10). Decades later, Abraham’s grandson Jacob led a small camel herd from the same region to Canaan (Genesis 31:17; 32:15). Most Old Testament commentaries regard the mention of camels in these texts as anachronistic, since they assume that the text is referring to dromedaries, which had not been domesticated in the time of the patriarchs. However, the Hebrew word for camel, gāmāl, does not specify the camel species that the patriarchs had at their disposal. So they may well have been two-humped camels that had certainly reached Mesopotamia by that time.

The domestication of the dromedary or one-humped camel did not occur until the late second millennium BC. The excavation of thousands of dromedary bones in the south-eastern Arabian Peninsula, dated to the early second millennium BC, led to the conclusion that they were not domesticated. Rather, humans pursued and killed them for their meat. The earliest textual evidence for the domestic dromedary is an extract of a Sumerian lexical list from Nippur (Central Babylonia), dated to around 1300 BC. It refers to the dromedary as the ‘donkey of the sea’. In bilingual texts, this expression has also been associated with the Akkadian term ibilu (camel). Its peculiar Sumerian name suggests an animal associated with the marshes and coastal mangrove habitats of the Persian Gulf. Even in the present day, dromedaries in south-eastern Arabia (Oman) and in Kutch (India) are known to swim up to several kilometres off the coast. This is either to reach their preferred food of mangrove leaves, or when males detect the presence of females during the rutting season. The distinctive epithet ‘donkey of the sea’ is therefore an apt description of the dromedary, a domestic pack animal that is not averse to entering the sea.

It is possible that the wild dromedary may have been domesticated through a process of hybridisation. The crossing of wild dromedary mares with domestic two-humped camel sires would have been a natural and cost-effective method of integrating dromedaries into the livestock economy of Mesopotamia and neighbouring regions. It is noteworthy that the anše (‘donkey’) section in the Sumerian lexical lists comprises beasts of burden that could produce hybrid offspring. Male Asiatic wild asses were crossed with domestic females, producing strong hybrids named anše.kunga, and the offspring of female horses (anše.kur.ra) and male donkeys are mules (anše.gìr.nun.na). The dromedary (anše.a.ab.ba) is capable of interbreeding with the Bactrian camel as well as with female hybrid offspring.

The first unambiguous mention of dromedaries (referred to as gāmāl, as previously noted) in the Hebrew Bible is found in the Gideon narrative (Judges 6–8). In this account, they are employed as a mode of transportation for the Midianites and their allies, who are not described as camel riders or camel warriors, but as cameleers leading pack animals (Judges 6:3-6). These invaders would come up with their livestock of cattle, goats, and sheep, pitch their tents anywhere, and numerous camels would roam the land. The Midianite tactic was to consume and destroy the livelihood of Israel by damaging its crop before the harvest. First, humans consumed the legumes, fruits, and vegetables that were available. Then their cattle roamed the fields and devoured the cereal grasses before the harvest. Sheep, and especially goats, are quite modest in their demand for grass and shrubs, so they would consume what was left. However, camels in great numbers that were led into the area would consume shrubs that even small livestock flocks had passed over, as well as vegetation that grew higher above ground. The Israelites at that time did not know how to capture or handle camels and thus were at the mercy of their oppressors.

Subsequently, dromedaries are referenced briefly as the mounts of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30). The would-be king David led a successful counterattack against his adversaries, but 400 Amalekites ‘mounted camels and fled’ (1 Samuel 30:17). This is the first instance in the Hebrew Bible where camel riders are explicitly mentioned. They had to know how to ride and control a camel, how to make it gallop (camels usually walk in a pace of 5–7 km per hour, and never trot), and how to control it until the camel had left the area of battle. It is evident that the dromedary was employed as a means of rapid escape in the event of defeat, as evidenced by 1 Samuel 30:17 and as depicted in Assyrian reliefs.

The two incidents mentioned above, from the late second and early first millennium BC, show early use of dromedaries by nomadic peoples who occasionally raided the settled population of the Levant. It is notable that the Israelites of this period were astonished by the large number of camels (Judges 6) and were unable to pursue their foes (1 Samuel 30).

Camels played a minimal economic role in the early years of the Judaean monarchy. However, there is a well-documented example of the use of dromedaries in the copper industry of Timna (southern Levant) in the tenth century BC. It appears that this period marks a turning point regarding the use of camels in the region. Nevertheless, even up to the sixth century BC, camel bones continue to appear only in small numbers. Similarly, there is little artistic and inscriptional evidence for the camel, and it did not appear to be a preferred beast of burden.

In the Hebrew Bible, camels are twice listed as unclean animals (Leviticus 11:4 and Deuteronomy 14:7). Moreover, a number of camel-related terms known from Mesopotamia or Arabia appear only once, such as beker – young male camel (Isaiah 60:6), bikrāh – young female camel (Jeremiah 2:23), and dabbešet – hump (Isaiah 30:6). However, by the time we reach the New Testament, the camel had become so familiar that it was depicted in illustrations as the largest animal imaginable: it is beyond doubt that camels are unable to pass through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24).