Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(carrier). The Arabian, or one-humped camel, generally meant. Used for carriage, and source of wealth (Gen. 12:16; Judg. 7:12; 2 Chron. 14:15; Job 1:3; 42:12; Isa. 30:6). An unclean beast (Lev. 11:4). Hair used for clothing (2 Kings 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Matt. 3:4). Figuratively for something beyond human power (Matt. 19:24; 23:24).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Camels in a field in Israel.
The well-known domestic animal of the East was the gamal with one hump; the word “bunches” in Isaiah 30:6 seems to refer to the humps. Camels are very suited in their construction for the country in which they are used, their feet being especially fitted for the deserts, and their powers of endurance enabling them to travel without frequently drinking. They need as much water as other animals, but God has given them receptacles in which they stow away the water they drink, and use it as they need it. Cases have been known of a camel being killed for the sake of the water that could be found in it when its owner was dying of thirst. They feed upon the coarse and prickly shrubs of the desert.
They form an important item in Eastern riches. Job had 3,000 camels. They are used for riding as well as for beasts of burden, a lighter breed being used for riding and for carrying the mails (Gen. 24:10-64). In Isaiah 21:7 we read of a “chariot of camels.” Camels were not thus used in Palestine, but the prophecy refers to messengers coming from Babylon, and there another species of camel was common, called the Bactrian Camel, with two humps; these were at times linked in pairs to rude chariots. Perhaps the same species is alluded to in Esther 8:10-14, that occurrence being also in the far East: the Hebrew word there is achashteranim. The camel was by the Levitical law an unclean animal.
Dromedary – Morocco—Sahara
The DROMEDARY may be said to be the same animal as the camel, the former name being applied to those of a lighter and more valuable breed. They are used for the same purposes as the camel (1 Kings 4:28; Esther 8:10; Isa. 60:6; Jer. 2:23).
The proverb of a camel being swallowed when a gnat was scrupulously strained out (Matt. 23:24), is to show how the weightier precepts of God may be neglected along with great attention to trivial things. Another proverb is that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24). This has been thought to refer to the camel squeezing through a small gate, which it could do with difficulty; but the Lord’s explanation refers it to what was impossible in the nature of things, yet was possible with God. In grace the new creation overcomes all difficulties.
Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words:
Meaning:
of Hebrew origin (1581); a "camel"
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Genesis 31:34. Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them.
It is not known whether this “furniture” was simply the cloth which covered the camel’s back, or a couch which might be used at night for a bed, or a fixture resembling the wicker work chair or cage, covered with a canopy, which is used by the modern Arab ladies when they ride on camels. Whether Rachel made use of any such arrangement or not, the place where the teraphim were concealed was evidently in the article, whatever it was, which took the place of a saddle, and on which Rachel sat. It is at this day common for the Arabs to hide stolen property under the padding of their saddles.
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