בראשית 24: 10–19
וַיִּקַּ֣ח הָ֠עֶ֠בֶד עֲשָׂרָ֨ה גְמַלִּ֜ים מִגְּמַלֵּ֤י אֲדֹנָיו֙ וַיֵּ֔לֶךְ וְכל־ט֥וּב אֲדֹנָ֖יו בְּיָד֑וֹ וַיָּ֗קם וַיֵּ֛לֶךְ אֶל־אֲרַ֥ם נַֽהֲרַ֖יִם אֶל־עִ֥יר נָחֽוֹר׃
וַיַּבְרֵ֧ךְ הַגְּמַלִּ֛ים מִח֥וּץ לָעִ֖יר אֶל־בְּאֵ֣ר הַמָּ֑יִם לְעֵ֣ת עֶ֔רֶב לְעֵ֖ת צֵ֥את הַשֹּׁאֲבֹֽת׃
וַיֹּאמַ֓ר יְהֹוָ֗ה אֱלֹהֵי֙ אֲדֹנִ֣י אַבְרָהָ֔ם הַקְרֵה־נָ֥א לְפָנַ֖י הַיּ֑וֹם וַעֲשֵׂה־חֶ֕סֶד עִ֖ם אֲדֹנִ֥י אַבְרָהָֽם׃
הִנֵּ֛ה אָנֹכִ֥י נִצָּ֖ב עַל־עֵ֣ין הַמָּ֑יִם וּבְנוֹת֙ אַנְשֵׁ֣י הָעִ֔יר יֹצְאֹ֖ת לִשְׁאֹ֥ב מָֽיִם׃
וְהָיָ֣ה הַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֹמַ֤ר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַטִּי־נָ֤א כַדֵּךְ֙ וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה וְאָמְרָ֣ה שְׁתֵ֔ה וְגַם־גְּמַלֶּ֖יךָ אַשְׁקֶ֑ה אֹתָ֤הּ הֹכַ֙חְתָּ֙ לְעַבְדְּךָ֣ לְיִצְחָ֔ק וּבָ֣הּ אֵדַ֔ע כִּי־עָשִׂ֥יתָ חֶ֖סֶד עִם־אֲדֹנִֽי׃
וַֽיְהִי־ה֗וּא טֶ֘רֶם֮ כִּלָּ֣ה לְדַבֵּר֒ וְהִנֵּ֧ה רִבְקָ֣ה יֹצֵ֗את אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֻלְּדָה֙ לִבְתוּאֵ֣ל בֶּן־מִלְכָּ֔ה אֵ֥שֶׁת נָח֖וֹר אֲחִ֣י אַבְרָהָ֑ם וְכַדָּ֖הּ עַל־שִׁכְמָֽהּ׃
וְהַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ טֹבַ֤ת מַרְאֶה֙ מְאֹ֔ד בְּתוּלָ֕ה וְאִ֖ישׁ לֹ֣א יְדָעָ֑הּ וַתֵּ֣רֶד הָעַ֔יְנָה וַתְּמַלֵּ֥א כַדָּ֖הּ וַתָּֽעַל׃
וַיָּ֥רץ הָעֶ֖בֶד לִקְרָאתָ֑הּ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר הַגְמִיאִ֥ינִי נָ֛א מְעַט־מַ֖יִם מִכַּדֵּֽךְ׃
וַתֹּ֖אמֶר שְׁתֵ֣ה אֲדֹנִ֑י וַתְּמַהֵ֗ר וַתֹּ֧רֶד כַּדָּ֛הּ עַל־יָדָ֖הּ וַתַּשְׁקֵֽהוּ׃
וַתְּכַ֖ל לְהַשְׁקֹת֑וֹ וַתֹּ֗אמֶר גַּ֤ם לִגְמַלֶּ֙יךָ֙ אֶשְׁאָ֔ב עַ֥ד אִם־כִּלּ֖וּ לִשְׁתֹּֽת׃
וַתְּמַהֵ֗ר וַתְּעַ֤ר כַּדָּהּ֙ אֶל־הַשֹּׁ֔קֶת וַתָּ֥רץ ע֛וֹד אֶֽל־הַבְּאֵ֖ר לִשְׁאֹ֑ב וַתִּשְׁאַ֖ב לְכל־גְּמַלָּֽיו׃
And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Aram-naharayim, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at the time of evening, at the time that the women go out to draw water. And he said, O Lord God of my master Avraham, I pray Thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness to my master Avraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: and let it come to pass, that the girl to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let her be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Yitzhaq; and thereby shall I know that Thou hast shown kindness to my master.
And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rivkah came out, who was born to Betu᾽el, son of Milka, the wife of Nahor, Avraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.And the girl was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hastened, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
There are a lot of camels mentioned in this week’s parsha. And they needed a lot of water. And about ten years ago, there were a lot of reactions to a paper published by a couple of archeologists from Tel Aviv University. It had this catchy title: The Introduction of Domestic Camels to the Southern Levant: Evidence from the Aravah Valley.
When were the first Levantine Camels?
Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef had set out to answer a simple question: What is the earliest evidence of camels in the Levant, that is to say, the area around Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. They hypothesised that the camel “substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change.” So when, they wondered, did that all happen?
The evidence
Camels had been depicted in the 10-9th centuries B.C.E. at the earliest, and appeared in text as early as the 9th century B.C.E. But none of this could answer the question as to whether or not domesticated camels were used before the Iron Age, about 1200-600 B.C.E. In and around Israel, the earliest evidence of domestic camels from analysis of fragments of their bones was dated to the 11th–9th centuries B.C.E. Here is what the archeologists concluded:
Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region—attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I—raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade.
Camel remains from Late Bronze and Iron Age sites in the Aravah Valley. From Sapir-Hen, Lidar, and Erez Ben-Yosef. "The introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant: evidence from the Aravah Valley." Tel Aviv 40.2 (2013): 277-285.
More recent evidence has come from the genetic analysis of wild and domesticated camels and reveals that “at least two, but more likely a minimum of six wild maternal lineages were captured during the process of domestication.” Still, this doesn’t shed light on the question of when exactly camels were domesticated.
Be careful what you read
Interestingly, the camel paper mentioned nothing about the Bible. But this did not stop sites like National Geographic from reporting that it had suggested that camels came to the area of Abraham and Eliezer “centuries later than the Bible says.” And in an article about the paper, The New York Times declared that “camels had no business in Genesis.”
In an interview with the Times, a Dr. Mizrahi, (not sure which one, could be this one or this one,) professor of Hebrew culture studies at Tel Aviv University who was not directly involved in the research, had this to say:
“One should be careful not to rush to the conclusion that the new archaeological findings automatically deny any historical value from the biblical stories…Rather, they established that these traditions were indeed reformulated in relatively late periods after camels had been integrated into the Near Eastern economic system. But this does not mean that these very traditions cannot capture other details that have an older historical background.”
Given the appalling reporting by The New York Times on the Gaza war, it’s best to heed this advice and not rush to a conclusion. Not in war, and not in peace.
Anyway, maybe there were camels…
Writing in 2020 in The Times of Israel, Joshua Berman from Bar-Ilan University (and author of Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth and the Thirteen Principles of Faith) was also critical of The New York Times:
Camels in Genesis are right where they belong. It is true that camels were not domesticated in Israel until the time of Solomon. But read Genesis carefully and you see that all its camels come from outside of Israel, from Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, where there is ample evidence of domestication of the camel during the period of the patriarchs.
Marc Chavalis, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, also addressed the question in an article he wrote in 2018 for Biblical Archaeology Review. Chavalis presented several pieces of evidence to suggest that camels were indeed domesticated in Mesopotamia long before the time of Abraham and Eliezer:
1. On a plaque from Eshnunna in modern Iraq there appears to be a camel being ridden by a person. This plaque dates from the mid-third millennium B.C.E, well before the time of Abraham et al.
2. A text from Puzrish-Dagan in modern Iraq (perhaps) records camel deliveries. It dates from the 21st-century B.C.E
3. An 18th-century B.C.E. text (quoting from an earlier third millennium text) from Nippur in modern Iraq says, “the milk of the camel is sweet.” Chavalas explained why he thinks this refers to a domesticated camel:
Having walked in many surveys through camel herds in Syria along the Middle Euphrates River, I believe that this text is describing a domesticated camel; who would want to milk a “wild camel”? At the very least, the Bactrian camel was being used for dairy needs at this time.
4. A 17th-century text from Alalakh in Turkey includes camels in a list of domesticated animals that required food.
5. Lastly, a cylindrical seal, probably from what is now the Turkish-Syrian border from the 18th-century B.C.E. shows a two-humped camel carrying two riders. It is now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Take a moment, and you can clearly see it:
All of these examples, Chavalis wrote,
…provide evidence that at the very least, the Bactrian camel was already known and domesticated in Mesopotamia by the time of Abraham. The relatively poor representation of camels in these texts does not imply their relative rarity; they may have been prestigious. So the Biblical writers may have been highlighting Abraham’s great wealth by mentioning camels. I think this evidence is more than enough to discount the idea that the Genesis source superimposed camels in the patriarchal narratives. The writer of Genesis wrote about camels anecdotally; they add little to the narrative, except for implying Abraham’s wealth.
And so we once again have an example in which absence of evidence (no camel remains found that date to before 1,000 B.C.E) does not mean evidence of absence (there were no camels earlier than 1,000 B.C.E.). Archaeologists beware.
“ ...by the second millennium, there were at least some domesticated camels. Thus, camel domestication had taken place in Mesopotamia by the time of Abraham. Accordingly, Chavalas argues that the camels in the stories of Abraham in Genesis are not anachronistic.”
אַחֵינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
הַנְּתוּנִים בַּצָּרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה
הָעוֹמְדִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה
הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם
וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְוָחָה
וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה
וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה
הָשָׁתָא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב
