Hebrew word · H1072

בִּכְרָה

bikhrah

young camel

A young female camel. It occurs only here in the Bible, but the masculine bekher, 'young male camel', appears in Isaiah 60:6. Arabic bakr / bakra has the same meaning, a young camel. It is probably related to the root bkr, 'first, early, youthful'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a young female camel, young camel, dromedary

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Jeremiah 2:23

Range of meaning

A young female camel. It occurs only here in the Bible, but the masculine bekher, 'young male camel', appears in Isaiah 60:6. Arabic bakr / bakra has the same meaning, a young camel. It is probably related to the root bkr, 'first, early, youthful'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'dromedary', which suggests a mature riding camel, and lose 'young' and 'female'. BSB 'young she-camel' is precise.

How it drifted

'Dromedary' was a normal word for a swift camel in older English. Today it sounds like a zoology term and carries none of the overtones of youth or inexperience.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 60:6 (bikrê midyān, 'young camels of Midian'). Arabic cognates. Bailey and Holladay (Vetus Testamentum 18, 1968), drawing on observation of camels in the Middle East, note that young camels are notoriously skittish and unpredictable.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 2:23 בִּכְרָ֥ה a young camel

    “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

    Here: A young female camel, not yet trained or fully grown. The word appears only here in the Bible. The insult is pointed: Israel is like an inexperienced, skittish animal.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.