rā´kal ( רכל , rākhāl , "trader"): A place in Judah, enumerated among "the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt," to the elders of which he sent a share of his spoils ( 1 Samuel 30:29 ). The Septuagint reading "Carmel" has been adopted, by many, because of the similarity of the words in Hebrew (רכל , and כרמל ) and because there was a Carmel in the neighborhood of Hebron (Joshua 15:55; 1 Samuel 15:12 ), which figures in the story of David's adventures when pursued by Saul (1 Sam 25) in a manner that makes it improbable that he would overlook the place in his good fortune (the King James Version "Rachal").
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) was edited by James Orr, John Nuelsen, Edgar Mullins, Morris Evans, and Melvin Grove Kyle and was published complete in 1939. This web site includes the complete text.
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