רַקּוֹן
Rakkon, a place in Palestine
Definition
Rakkon (רַקּוֹן) is a proper noun referring to a town or location within the tribal territory of Dan, as recorded in Joshua 19:46. It is listed among the cities that formed the border of the Danites' inheritance, situated near the Mediterranean Sea and the port of Joppa. The single biblical mention places it as a geographical marker in the division of the Promised Land, with no further narrative or historical details provided in Scripture. Its significance is primarily locational, helping to define the boundaries of one of the twelve tribes.
Biblical Usage
This word is used only once in the Old Testament, in Joshua 19:46, within a list of cities that delineated the territory allotted to the tribe of Dan. The context is purely geographical and administrative, part of the detailed description of tribal inheritances following the conquest of Canaan. No patterns of usage exist, as it is a hapax legomenon (a word occurring only once).
Etymology
The name Raqqon derives from the Hebrew root רָקַק (rāqaq, H7534), meaning 'to spit' or 'to thin out,' which itself comes from the adjective רַק (raq, H7534) meaning 'thin' or 'only.' Thus, the place name likely carries a sense of 'thinness' or 'a thin place,' possibly describing its physical terrain (e.g., a narrow strip of land) or a sparse settlement. It is a proper noun formed from this root, and no direct cognates are widely attested.
Semantic Range
As a border town for the tribe of Dan, Rakkon's location near Joppa placed it in a coastal, potentially Philistine-influenced region. This positioning on the tribal frontier may have made it a point of cultural exchange or conflict. In the ancient Near East, place names often described physical characteristics; 'Rakkon' likely reflected the local landscape, which modern readers might miss without understanding the etymology. Its inclusion in a tribal boundary list underscores the importance of land and inheritance in Israel's covenant identity.
No direct synonyms exist as it is a unique proper noun. Geographically related terms include יָפוֹ (Yāphô, H3305 — Joppa) — the major port city near Rakkon, and דָּן (Dān, H1835) — the tribe to which Rakkon belonged.
Word Details
How this works
Hebrew definitions are from Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906) and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), both public domain. BDB was groundbreaking for its era but reflects 19th-century assumptions about Semitic etymology. Modern scholarship (HALOT, DCH) has revised many entries. Use these definitions as a starting point for exploration, not as the final word on a term's meaning in context.
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