Rakkon
Rakkon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Coastal Plain in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tell er Reqqeit. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Rakkon appears in Scripture solely within the tribal allotment of Dan, listed among the cities assigned to this tribe in Joshua 19:46. The name, meaning "narrow place" or "thin," likely describes the geographical character of the site along the Mediterranean coastal plain. Rakkon is mentioned alongside Me-jarkon and the territory "opposite Joppa," placing it in the fertile lowland strip north of modern Tel Aviv. The tribe of Dan famously struggled to maintain control of its allotted territory due to Amorite pressure (Judges 1:34), which eventually led a portion of the Danites to migrate northward and conquer Laish (Judges 18). Rakkon thus represents one of the many coastal cities that Dan was unable to fully possess, illustrating the tension between divine promise and the challenges of faithful obedience. Though Scripture records no specific events at Rakkon, its inclusion in the inheritance list testifies to God's comprehensive provision for each tribe, even when human faithlessness delayed the realization of those promises.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Rakkon is commonly identified with Tell er-Reqqeit (also spelled Tell er-Reqeit), a small archaeological mound located near the mouth of the Yarkon River on Israel's central Mediterranean coast, north of modern Tel Aviv. The tell has been excavated in limited campaigns, revealing occupation layers from the Bronze and Iron Ages, consistent with its mention in the book of Joshua. The site's proximity to the Yarkon River and the coast made it strategically significant for trade and communication routes. Today the area is largely absorbed into the urban sprawl of the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan region, making further excavation difficult. Surface surveys have recovered pottery sherds from multiple periods, confirming long-term habitation at the site.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]