Dan

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judgment; he that judges
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


God of unity Fon
Gods and Goddess Reference


DAN.—According to the popular tradition, Dan was the fifth son of Jacob, and full brother of Naphtali, by Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid (Gen_30:6; Gen_30:8). Rachel, who had no children, exclaimed ‘dananni’ (‘God hath judged me’), and, therefore, he was called Dan. As in the case of so many names, this is clearly a ‘popular etymology.’ It is probable that Dan was an appellative, or titular attribute, of some deity whose name has not come down to us in connexion with it, or it may even be the name of a god as Gad was (cf. the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] proper names Ashur-dân [‘Ashur is judge’], Aku-dâna [‘the moon-god is judge’] of the period of Hammurabi). Its feminine counterpart is Dinah (Jacob’s daughter by Leah), which as the name of the half-sister of Dan is probably reminiscent of some related clan that early lost its identity.
Of this eponymous ancestor of the tribe tradition has preserved no details, but some of the most interesting stories of the Book of Judges tell of the exploits of the Danite Samson, who, single-handed, wrought discomfiture in the ranks of the Philistines. These are heroic rather than historical tales, yet suggestive of the conditions that prevailed when the tribes were establishing themselves.
P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] makes Dan a large tribe. With his characteristic love of large numbers he gives the fighting strength of Dan in the Wilderness census as 62,700, more than that of any other except Judah (Num_1:33; cf. Num_26:43, Moab census). All the other data point in the opposite direction. J [Note: Jahwist.] (Jdg_18:11) speaks of it as a ‘family’; elsewhere Dan is said to have had only one son, Hushim or Shuham (Gen_46:23, Num_26:42). The tribe at first occupied the hill-country in the S.W. of Ephraim, and thence attempted to spread out into the valleys of Aijalon and Sorek. That it ever reached the sea, either here or in its later northern home, is unlikely, notwithstanding the usual interpretation of Jdg_5:17, a passage which yields no wholly satisfactory meaning. (But see Moore, Judges, ad loc.). In this region the Danites were severely pressed by the ‘Amorites’ = (Canaanites). The major portion were compelled to emigrate northward, where they found at the foot of Mt. Hermon an isolated city, Laish or Leshem, situated in a fertile tract of country (Jos_19:47, Jdg_18:1-31). This city with its unsuspecting inhabitants the Danites ruthlessly destroyed. A new city was built, to which they gave the name of Dan. In this colony there were only 600 armed men with their families. On their way thither they induced the domestic priest of an Ephraimite, Micah, to accompany them with his sacred paraphernalia, an ephod, a graven and a molten image, and the teraphim. These were duly installed in a permanent sanctuary, in which the descendants of Moses are said to have ministered until the Captivity (Jdg_18:30). That the remnant of the family left in the South was either destroyed by its enemies, or, more likely, absorbed by the neighbouring tribes, is made probable by Jdg_1:35, which ascribes the victory over their enemies to the ‘house of Joseph.’ Gen_49:17 says ‘Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path’; and Deu_33:22, ‘Dan is a lion’s whelp,’ etc. These characterizations are more applicable to a small tribe of guerilla fighters, versed in cunning strategy, wont to strike a quick blow from ambush at a passing troop, than they are to the more sustained measures of warfare of a large and powerful body. See also Tribes.
James A. Craig.
DAN.—A city in northern Palestine, once called Laish (Jdg_18:29) or Leshem (Jos_19:47), though the ancient record of the battle of four kings against five gives the later name (Gen_14:14). It was a city remote from assistance, and therefore fell an easy prey to a band of marauding Danites, searching for a dwelling-place. It was in the north boundary of Palestine. The story of the Danites stealing the shrine of Micah is told to account for its sanctity, which Jeroboam I. recognized by setting up here one of his calf-shrines (1Ki_12:29). It was perhaps the same as Dan-jaan, one of the borders of Joab’s census district (2Sa_24:6). It was captured by Ben-hadad (1Ki_15:20). It is identified with Tell el-Kadi on account of the similarity of meaning of the names (Arabic kadi = Hebrew dan = ‘judge’)—a very dangerous ground for such speculations. The site, however, would suit the geographical context of the narratives.
R. A. S. Macalister.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Dan. (a judge).
1. The fifth son of Jacob, and the first of Bilhah, Rachel's maid. Gen_30:6. (B.C. After 1753). The origin of the name is given in the exclamation of Rachel. The records of Dan are unusually meagre. Only one son is attributed to him, Gen_46:23, but his tribe was, with the exception of Judah, the most numerous of all. In the division of the Promised Land, Dan was the last of the tribes to receive his portion, which was the smallest of the twelve. Jos_19:48, But notwithstanding its smallness, it had eminent natural advantages.
On the north and east, it was completely embraced by its two brother tribes, Ephraim and Benjamin, while on the southeast and south, it joined Judah, and was thus, surrounded by the three most powerful states of the whole confederacy. It was a rich and fertile district; but the Amorites soon "forced them into the mountain," Jdg_1:34, and they had another portion granted them. Judges 18. In the "security" and "quiet," Jdg_18:7; Jdg_18:10, of their rich northern possession, the Danites enjoyed the leisure and repose which had been denied them in their original seat.
In the time of David, Dan still kept its place among the tribes. 1Ch_12:35. Asher is omitted, but the "prince of the tribe of Dan" is mentioned in the list of 1Ch_27:22. But from this time forward, the name as applied to the tribe vanishes; it is kept alive only by the northern city. In the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 2-12, Dan is omitted entirely. Lastly, Dan is omitted from the list of those who were sealed by the angel in the vision of St. John. Rev_7:5-7.
2. The well-known city, so familiar as the most northern landmark of Palestine, in the common expression "from Dan even to Beersheba." The name of the place was originally Laish or Leshem. Jos_19:47. After the establishment of the Danites at Dan, it became the acknowledged extremity of the country. It is now Tell el-Kadi, a mound, three miles from Banias, from the foot of which gushes out one of the largest fountains in the world, the main source of the Jordan.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

the fifth son of Jacob, Gen_30:1-6. Dan had but one son, whose name was Hushim, Gen_46:23; yet he had a numerous posterity; for, on leaving Egypt, this tribe consisted of sixty-two thousand seven hundred men able to bear arms, Num_1:38. Of Jacob's blessing Dan, see Gen_49:16-17. They took Laish, Jdg_18:1; Jos_19:47. Whey called the city Dan, after their progenitor. The city of Dan was situated at the northern extremity of the land of Israel: hence the phrase, “from Dan to Beersheba,” denoting the whole length of the land of promise. Here Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up one of his golden calves, 1Ki_12:29; and the other at Bethel.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

The tribe of Dan was descended from the elder of two sons whom Rachel’s maid Bilhah bore to Jacob (Gen_30:1-6). In the original division of Canaan, Dan received its tribal portion on the Philistine coast between Judah and Ephraim (Jos_19:40-48; Jdg_5:17; Jdg_13:1-2; Jdg_14:1; Jdg_16:23; for map see TRIBES).
Besides being squeezed between Israel’s two most powerful tribes, the Danites were pushed back from the coast by the Philistines and the Amorites. The tribe therefore sent representatives north to look for a better place to live (Jdg_1:34; Jdg_18:1-2). The place they decided upon was Laish, located in the fertile region of the Jordan headwaters in the far north of Canaan. With the swiftness and ruthlessness that had characterized the tribe from the beginning, they slaughtered the people of Laish and seized the town for themselves, renaming it Dan (Jdg_18:7-10; Jdg_18:27-29; cf. Gen_49:16-17; Deu_33:22).
From that time on, the towns of Dan and Beersheba marked respectively the northern and southern limits of the land of Israel (Jdg_20:1; 1Sa_3:20; 2Sa_17:11; 2Sa_24:2). When the nation was split in two after the death of Solomon, the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were separated from the northern tribes, who still called themselves Israel. The new limits of Israel were now Dan in the north and Bethel in the south. The breakaway king of Israel set up his own shrines in these two towns, in opposition to Judah’s shrine in Jerusalem (1Ki_12:28-30).
Dan’s isolated location meant that it was open to enemy attack from the north (1Ki_15:20). It was one of the first parts of Israel to fall when Assyria conquered the land and took the people into captivity (2Ki_15:29).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

Son of Jacob
Dan, son of Jacob by the concubine Bilhah (Gen_30:3; Gen_35:25), and founder of one of the tribes of Israel. Dan had but one son, called Hushim (Gen_46:23): notwithstanding which, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, this tribe contained 62,700 adult males (Num_1:39), which made it the second of the tribes in number, Judah only being above it. Its numbers were less affected in the desert than those of many other tribes; for at the census, before entering Canaan, it mustered 64,400 (Num_26:43), being an increase of 1700, which gave it still the second rank in population. But there is nothing in the history of the tribe corresponding to this eminence in population: the most remarkable circumstance in its history, however, is connected with this fact. The original settlement assigned to the tribe in south-western Palestine being too small for its large population, a body of them went forth to seek a settlement in the remote north, and seized and remained in permanent occupation of the town and district of Laish, the inhabitants of which dwelt in greater security and were more easily conquered than the neighbors of the tribe in its own proper territory (Jos_19:47; Jdg_1:34; Judges 18). The district regularly allotted to the tribe, although contracted, was very fertile. It had the country of the Philistines on the west, part of Judah with Benjamin on the east, Ephraim on the north, and Simeon on the south. The territory proved inadequate chiefly from the inability of the Danites to expel the Philistines and Amorites, who occupied parts of the land assigned to them. There is no doubt that the territory as allotted, but not possessed, extended to the Mediterranean through the country of the Philistines. Samson was of this tribe, and its proximity to the Philistines explains many circumstances in the history of that hero. It appears from that history that there was an under-current of private and social intercourse between the Philistines and the Danites, notwithstanding the public enmity between Israel and the former (Judges 13-16).
Town of Dan
Dan, the town, anciently called Laish, or Leshem, mentioned in the preceding article as having been conquered by a warlike colony of Danites, who named it after their tribe. The terms in which the condition of Laish is described, previously to the conquest, indicate that the place belonged to the Sidonians, and that the inhabitants lived quiet and secure, 'after the manner of the Sidonians,' enjoying abundance of all things (Jdg_18:7). They seem to have derived their security from the absence of any adverse powers in their neighborhood, and from confidence in the protection of Sidon, which was, however, too far off to render aid in the case of such a sudden assault as that by which they were overpowered. This distance of Sidon was carefully noted by the Danite spies as a circumstance favorable to the enterprise; and it does not appear that Sidon ever made any effort to dispossess the intruders. Dan afterwards became a chief seat of Jeroboam's idolatry, and one of the golden calves was set up there (1Ki_12:28-29). It was conquered, along with other towns, by the Syrians (1Ki_15:20); and the name is familiar from the recurrence of the proverbial expression, 'from Dan to Beersheba,' to denote the extent of the Promised Land (Jdg_20:1; 1Sa_3:20; 2Sa_17:11) [BEER-SHEBA.] In the days of Eusebius, Dan was still a small village, which is placed by him four miles from Paneas, towards Tyre. As this distance corresponds to the position of the fountain at Tel el-Kadi, which forms one of the sources of the Jordan, and is doubtless that which is called Dan by Josephus (Antiq.i. 10, 1), the situation of the city of Dan could not therefore have been that of Paneas itself, with which it has been in later times confounded [CAESAREA PHILIPPI]. There are no longer any ruins near the spring at Tel el Kadi, but at about a quarter of an hour north, Burckhardt noticed ruins of ancient habitations; and the hill which overhangs the fountains appears to have been built upon, though nothing is now visible.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

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