Dan
DAN
A judge,1. A son of Jacob by Bilhah, Gen 30:3 35:25. The tribe of Dan was second only to that of Judah in numbers before entering Canaan, Num 1:39 26:43. A portion was assigned to Dan, extending southeast from the seacoast near Joppa. It bordered on the land of the Philistines, with whom the tribe of Dan had much to do, Jdg 13:1-16 :31. Their territory was fertile, but small, and the natives were powerful. A part of the tribe therefore sought and conquered another home, Jos 19:1-51 Jdg 18:1-31 2. A city originally called Laish, Jdg 18:29, at the northern extremity of Israel, in the tribe of Naphtali. “From Dan to Beersheba” denotes the whole extent of the land of promise, Dan being the northern city, and Beersheba the southern one. Dan was seated at the foot of Mount Hermon, four miles west of Paneas, near one source of the Jordan, on a hill now called Tell-el-Kady. Laish at one time belonged to Zidon, and received the name of Dan from a portion of that tribe who conquered and rebuilt it, Jdg 18:1-31 . It was an idolatrous city even then, and was afterwards the seat of one of the golden calves of Jeroboam, 1Ki 12:28 1Sa 8:14 . Though once and again a very prosperous city, Jdg 18:10 Eze 27:19, only slight remains of it now exist.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Dan
(Heb. dn, Sept. Dán),–(1) The fifth son of Jacob, being the elder of the two sons born to him by Bala, the handmaid of Rachel, and the eponymous ancestor of the tribe bearing the same name. Etymologically, the word is referred to the Hebrew root dyn signifying “to rule” or “judge”, and in the passage, Gen., xix, 17, it is interpreted “judge”, but in Gen. xxx, 6, the explanation of the name rests rather on the passive sense of the word–the child Dan being represented as the result of God’s judgment in favour of Rachel. In accordance with the meaning expressed in the latter passage, Josephus (Antiq., I, xix, 7) gives as the equivalent of the name Dan the Greek Theókritos. A cognate feminine form of the same word, likewise in the passive sense, is recognized in Dina (dynh), name of the daughter of Jacob by Lia, doubtless with reference to the judgment or vindication she received at the hands of her two brothers Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34). Apart from the account connected with his birth in Gen., xxx, the Bible gives very little information concerning Dan the son of Jacob. In Gen., xxxv, 25, his name is mentioned together with those of the other sons of Israel, and in Gen., xlvi, which contains a genealogical list of their immediate descendants, we read (23), “The sons of Dan: Husim”. This last, being a Hebrew plural form, refers most likely not to an individual, but to a clan or tribe. In Numbers, xxvi, 42, we find “Suham” instead of “Husim”. In Jacob’s blessing (Genesis 49), as well as in Deut., xxxiii, 22, and various other passages, the name Dan refers not to the son of the patriarch, but to the tribe of which he was the acknowledged father.
(2) One of the twelve tribes of Israel. According to the census related in the first chapter of Numbers (a section ascribed to the priestly writer), there were reckoned among the “sons of Dan” in the second year after the Exodus, 62,700 men “able to go forth to war”, being the largest number given to any of the tribes except that of Juda. Confining ourselves to the Biblical data, and prescinding from all criticism of sources, it would appear from these figures that the tribe must have suffered a considerable diminution ere its establishment in Canaan, where, from various indications, it appears as one of the smallest of the twelve. The territory occupied by the tribe lay to the south-west of Ephraim; it was bounded on the south by Juda and on the west by the Shephela. Whether the Danites occupied also the latter or were confined to the mountainous inland district is uncertain. A passage of the Canticle of Debbora (Judges 5:17) would seem to indicate that the territory extended down to the sea, and moreover, among the towns enumerated in Josue, xix, 40-48 (P.) mention is made of Acron and Joppe. Be that as it may, it was doubtless because of their narrow territorial limits that later the Danites undertook an expedition northward and created a new settlement at Lais. For, notwithstanding the narrative contained in Josue, xix, 40- 48, indicating with detail the district and the cities allotted to Dan in the distribution after the conquest, we find later in the Book of Judges (xviii, 1) that “the tribe of Dan sought them an inheritance to dwell in: for unto that day they had not received their lot among the other tribes”. This was perhaps another way of conveying the idea already set forth in the first chapter, viz. that “the Amorrhite straitened the children of Dan in the mounbtain, and gave them not place to go down to the plain”. Being thus cramped and restricted in their territory, they resolved to seek a home elsewhere. The interesting story of this expedition is told, with many traits characteristic of that period of Hebrew civilization, in the eighteenth chapter of Judges. Having previously sent spies to reconnoitre the ground, the Danites sent a detachment of six hundred men who plundered and burnt the city of Lais, and butchered its inhabitants, after which they “rebuilt the city and dwelt therein”. At least a remnant of the tribe must have remained in the south, as is evidenced in the story of Samson, who was a Danite. Several references to the activities of the tribe of Dan in the early period of the monarchy are found in the Books of Chronicles. Thus, 28,600 armed men of the tribe are represented as taking part in the election of David in Hebron (1 Chronicles 12:35), and among the skilled artists sent by Hiram of Tyre to Solomon was the metal-worker Hiram, whose mother was of the tribe of Dan (2 Chronicles 2:13 sq.).
(3) A city of Palestine, originally Lais, or Lesem, and called Dan after it had been destroyed and rebuilt by the six hundred emissaries from the tribe of that name (Judges 18). Its location marked the northern boundary of Palestine as did Bersabee the southern extremity, whence the popular expression “from Dan to Bersabee” used to designate the entire extent of the country. Although nothing now remains of the city of Dan, its situation on the confines of Nephthali has been pretty accurately determined by means of various Scriptural and other ancient indications. That Lais was a Sidonian settlement at a distance from the parent city is clear from Judges, xviii, 7, 28, and the great fertility of the spot is affirmed in the same chapter (9, 12). Josephus, who calls the town Dána, and elsewhere Dánon, places it “in the neighbourhood of Mt. Libanus, near the fountains of the Lesser Jordan, in the great plain of Sidon, a day’s journey from the city” (Antiq., V, iii, 1). According to Eusebius and St. Jerome, the village of Dan was situated within four miles of Paneas (Banias, or Cæsarea-Philippi), on the road to Tyre, at the rise of the Jordan. Its proximity to Paneas has led to a confusion of the two towns in certain ancient works, as, for instance, in the Babylonian Talmud; and a few modern scholars, among whom is G. A. Smith, still identify Dan with Banias, but the generally received opinion places it at Tell el-Qadi, and this identification has in its favour, among other reasons, the practical identity of the name, as “Tell el-Qadi” signifies the “hill of the Judge”. This quadrangular mound is situated about a mile and a half south-west of Mt. Hermon, and to the west of Banias. The site and surroundings are remarkably picturesque, and close to the mound on the west is a spring from which clear, cold water flows in abundance, forming a nahr, or torrent, which the Arabs call Nahr Leddân–probably a corruption of ed-Dân. This torrent is the main source of the Jordan, and it is doubtless the “Lesser Jordan” mentioned by Josephus.
Dan is mentioned in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis in connection with the expedition of Abraham against Chodorlahomor, but it is doubtful if the place there referred to is the same as the ancient Lais. Though the identification is affirmed by both Eusebius and Jerome, many modern scholars place the Dan of Genesis, xiv, in the vicinity of Galaad, and identify it with Dan-Yuan mentioned in II Kings, xxiv, 6. The conquest of Lais by the Danites, referred to above under (2), is related in Judges, xviii. The portion of the tribe which took up its abode there was addicted to certain forms of idolatry from the beginning (cf. Judges 18:30, 31), and it was in this frontier town that Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves which were intended to draw the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom away from the Sanctuary in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:29, 30; 2 Kings 10:29).
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For (1) VIGOROUX, for f(2) and (3) LEGENDRE, both in Dict. de la Bible, s. v.; also for (1) and (2) PEAKE, for (3) MACKIE, both in HASTINGS, Dict. of the Bible, s. v.
JAMES F. DRISCOLL. Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Dan
(Heb. id. , a judge; Sept. ), the name of a man and his tribe and of two towns. SEE MAHANEH-DAN; SEE DAN-JAAN.
1. (Josephus translates , Ant. 1:19, 8.) The fifth son of Jacob, and the first of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid (Gen 30:6), born B.C. 1916. . The origin of the name is there given in the exclamation of Rachel God hath judged me (, danan’ni)… and given me a son,’ therefore she called his name Dan, i.e. judge. In the blessing of Jacob (Gen 49:16) this play on the name is repeated Dan shall judge (, yadin’) his people. Dan was own brother to Naphtali; and, as the son of Rachel’s maid, in a closer relation with Rachel’s sons, Joseph and Benjamin, than with the other members of the family. It may be noticed that there is a close affinity between his name and that of DINAH, the only daughter of Jacob. SEE JACOB.
TRIBE OF DAN. Only one son is attributed to this patriarch (Gen 46:23); but it may be observed that Hushim is a plural form, as if the name, not of an individual, but of a family; and it is remarkable whether as indicating that some of the descendants of Dan are omitted in these lists, or from other causesthat when the people were numbered in the wilderness of Sinai, this was, with the exception of Judah, the most numerous of all the tribes, containing 62,700 men able to serve. The position of Dan during the march through the desert was on the north side of the tabernacle (Num 2:25). Here, with his brother Naphtali, and Asher, the son of Zilpah, before him, was his station, the hindmost of the long procession (Num 2:31; Num 10:25). The names of the captain () of the tribe at this time, and of the ruler (the Hebrew word is the same as before), who was one of the spies (13:12), are preserved. So also is the name of one who played a prominent part at that time, Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, associated with Bezaleel in the design and construction of the fittings of the tabernacle (Exo 31:6, etc.). The numbers of this tribe were not subject to the violent fluctuations which increased or diminished some of its brethren (comp. the figures given in Numbers 1, 26), and it arrived at the threshold of the Promised Land, and passed the ordeal of the rites of Baal-peor (Numbers 25) with an increase of 1700 on the earlier census. The remaining notices of the tribe before the passage of the Jordan are unimportant. It furnished a prince (nasi, as before) to the apportionment of the land; and it was appointed to stand on Mount Ebal, still in company with Naphtali (but opposite to the other related tribes), at the ceremony of blessing and cursing (Deu 27:13).
After this nothing is heard of Dan till the specification of the inheritance allotted to him (Jos 19:48). He was the last of the tribes to receive his portion, and that portion, according to the record of Joshua strange as it appears in the face of the numbers just quoted-was the smallest of the twelve. 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 Benejamin, while on the south-east and south it joined Judah, and was thus surrounded by the three most powerful states of the whole confederacy. Of the towns enumerated as forming the border’ of its inheritance, the most easterly which can now be identified are Ajalon, Zorah (Zareah), and Ir-Shemesh (or Beth-shemesh, q.v.). These places are on the slopes of the lower ranges of hills by which the highlands of Benjamin and Judah descend to the broad maritime plain, that plain which on the south bore the distinctive name of the Shefelah, and more to the north, of Sharon. From Japho afterwards Joppa, and now Yafa on the north, to Ekron and, Gathrimmon on the south-a length of at least fourteen miles that noble tract, one of the most fertile in the whole of Palestine, was allotted to this tribe. By Josephus (Ant. v. 1, 22, and 3, 1) this is extended to Ashdod on the south, and Dor, at the foot of Carmel, on the north, so as to embrace the whole, or nearly the whole, of the great plain, including Jamnia and Gath. (This discrepancy may be accounted for by supposing that the Danites at some period may have overrun the country thus far, when the Philistines were humbled by the powerful Ephraimites and the still more powerful David.) But this rich district, the corn-field and the garden of the whole south of Palestine, which was the richest prize of Phoenician conquest many centuries later, and which, even in the now degenerate state of the country, is enormously productive, was too valuable to be given up without a struggle by its original possessors.
The Amorites accordingly forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not suffer them to come down into the valley (Jdg 1:34) forced them up from the corn-fields of the plain, with their deep black soil, to the villages whose ruins still crown the hills that skirt the lowland. True, the help of the great tribe so closely connected with Dan was not wanting at this juncture, and the hand of the children of Joseph, i.e. Ephraim, prevailed against the Amorites for the time. But the same’ thing soon occurred again, and in the glimpse with which we are afterwards favored into the interior of the tribe, in the history of its great hero, the Philistines have taken the place of the Amorites, and with the same result. Although Samson comes down to the vineyards of Timnath and the valley of Sorek, yet it is from Mahaneh-Dan the fortified camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol, behind: Kirjathjearim that he descends, and it is to that natural fastness, the residence of his father, that he goes up again after his encounters, and that he is at last borne to his family sepulchre , the burying-place of Manoah (Jdg 14:1; Jdg 14:5; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 13:25; Jdg 16:4; comp. Jdg 18:12; Jdg 16:31). 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).
These considerations enable us to understand how it happened that long after the partition of the land all the inheritance of the Danites had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel (Jdg 18:1). They perhaps furnish a reason for the absence of Dan from the great gathering of the tribes against Sisera (Jdg 5:17). They also explain the warlike and independent character of the tribe betokened in the name of their head- quarters, as just quoted Mahaneh-Dan, the camp, or host, of Dan in the fact specially insisted on and reiterated (Jdg 18:11; Jdg 18:16-17) of the complete equipment of their 600 warriors appointed with weapons of war, and the lawless freebooting style of their behavior to Micah. There is something very characteristic in the whole of that most fresh and interesting story preserved to us in Judges 18 a narrative without a parallel for the vivid glance it affords into the manners of that distant time- characteristic of boldness and sagacity, with a vein of grim sardonic humor, but undeformed by any unnecessary bloodshed.
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. But of the fate of the city to which they gave the name of their father (Jos 19:47), we know scarcely anything. The strong religious feeling which made the Danites so anxious to ask counsel of God from Micah’s Levite at the commencement of their expedition (Jdg 18:5), and afterwards take him away with them to be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel, may have pointed out their settlement to the notice of Jeroboam as a fit place for his northern sanctuary. But beyond the exceedingly obscure notice in Jdg 18:30, we have no information on this subject. From 2Ch 2:14, it would appear that the Danites had not kept their purity of lineage, but had intermarried with the Phoenicians of the country. (See an elaboration of this in Blunt, Coincidences, pt. 2, ch. 4.)
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, which is remarkable When the great fame of Samson and the warlike character of the tribe are considered, and can only be accounted for by supposing that its genealogies had perished. It is perhaps allowable to suppose that little care would be taken to preserve the records of a tribe which had left its original seat near the head-quarters of the nation, and given its name to a distant city notorious only as the seat of a rival and a forbidden worship. Lastly, Dan is omitted from the list of those who were sealed by the angel in the vision of John (Rev 7:5-8). Smith, Dict. of Bible, s.v. Perhaps the portion of the tribe which remained south was in time amalgamated with the tribe of Judah (as appears in the cities enumerated after the exile, Neh 11:35), while the northern section united with the northern confederacy, and shared in its dispersion.
The following is a list of all the places in the tribe of Dan mentioned in Scripture, with their probable identification:
Ajalon. Town. Yalo. Allon. do. SEE ELON. Arimathaea. do. Ramleh? Ataroth-Joab. do. Deir-Ayub? Ba’aiath. do. Deir Balut. Bene-barak. do. Buraka. Beth-car. Hill. . Beit Far? Beth-shemesh. Town. Ain Shems. Charashim. Valley. Wady Mazeirah]? Ekron. Town. A kir. Elon. do. [Beit Susin]? Eltekeh. do. [El-Maans reh]? Eshtaol. do. Yeshua? Gath-rimmon. do. [Rafat.] Gibbethon. do. [Saidonl? Gimzo. do. Jimzu. Gittaim. do. SEE ARIMATHIA. Hadid. do. El-Haditheh. Heres. Mountain. SEE JEATAM. Ir-shemesh. Town. SEE BETH-SHEMESE. Jabniel, or Jabneh. do. Yebna. Japho. do. Yafa. Jearim. Mountain. [Hills W. of Wady Ghurab]. Jehud. Town. El-Yehumdieh. Jethlah. do. [Ruins N. of Latrum]? Joppa. do. SEE JAPHO. Lod, or Lydda. do. Ludd. Mahaneh-dan. Plain. W. of Kirjath-jearim? Makaz. District. E. of Ekron? Me-jarkon. Town. [Danniyal]? Neballat. do. Beit Nebala. Ono. do. Kefr-Auna. Rakkon. do. [ Kheibehl? Seir [or Seirath?]. Mountain. Saris. Shaalbin. Town. [Beit Sira]? Sharon. Plain. Vicinity of.Ludd. Shicron. Town. [Beit Shit]? Timnah, or Timnath. do. Tibneh. Zorah, or Zoreah. do. Sura.
The mention of this tribe in the blessings of Jacob and Moses must not be overlooked, but it is difficult to extract any satisfactory meaning from them. According to Jewish tradition, Jacob’s blessing on Dan is a prophetic allusion to Samson, the great judge of the tribe; and the ejaculation with which it closes was that actually uttered by Samson when brought into the temple at Gaza. (See the Targum Ps. Jonathan on Gen 49:16-17; and the quotations in Kalisch’s Genesis ad loc.) Modern critics likewise see an allusion to Samson in the terms of the blessings which they presume on that account to have been written after the days of the Judges (Ewald, Gesch. 1:92). Jerome’s observations (Qu. in Gen.) on this passage are very interesting. Herder’s interpretation as given by Stanley (Palestine, p. 388) is as follows: It is doubtful whether the delineation of Dan in Jacob’s blessing relates to the original settlement on the western outskirts of Judah, or to the northern outpost. Herder’s explanation will apply almost equally to both. Dan,’ the judge, shall judge his people;’ he the son of the concubine no less than the sons of Leah; he the frontier tribe no less than those in the places of honor shall be as one of the tribes of Israel.’ Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path,’ that is, of the invading enemy by the north or by the west, that biteth the heels of the horse,’ the indigenous serpent biting the foreign horse unknown to Israelite warfare, so that his rider shall fall backwards.’ And his war-cry as from the frontier fortresses shall be, For Thy salvation, O Lord, I have waited!’ In the blessing of Moses the southern Dan is lost sight of. The northern Dan alone appears, with the same characteristics, though under a different image; a lion’s whelp’ in the far north, as Judah in the far south: he shall leap from Bashan’ from the slopes of Hermon, where. he is couched watching for his prey.
2. (Josephus ,) The 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). Its inhabitants lived after the manner of the Zidonians, i.e. engaged in commerce, and without defense. But it is nowhere said that they were Phoenicians, though this may perhaps be inferred from the parentage of Huram his mother of the daughters of Dan, his father a man of Tyre (2Ch 2:14). 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. Living thus quiet and secure, they fell an easy prey to the active and practiced freebooters of the Danites. These conferred upon their new acquisition the name of their own tribe, after the name of their father who was born unto Israel (Jdg 18:29; Jos 19:47), and Laish became Daniel The graven image which the wandering Danites had stolen from Micah they set up in their new home, and a line of priests was established, which, though belonging to the tribe of Levi and even descended from Moses, was not of the family of Aaron, and therefore not belonging to the regular priesthood.
To the form of this image and the nature of the idolatry we have no clew, nor to the special relation which existed between it and the calf-worship afterwards instituted there by Jeroboam (1Ki 12:29-30). It only appears that Jeroboam took advantage of the confirmed idolatry of the Danites (Jdg 18:30), erected a temple in their city, and set up there one of his golden calves for the benefit of those to whom a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would not have been politic, and a pilgrimage to Bethel might have been irksome (1Ki 12:28). The latter worship is alluded to in Amo 8:14 in a passage which possibly preserves a formula of invocation or adjuration in use among the worshippers; but the passage is very obscure. The worship of the calf may be traced to this day in the secret rites of the Nosairian Druse saints of the vicinity (Newbold, Jour. As. Soc. 16:27). After the establishment of the Danites at Dan it became the acknowledged extremity of the country, and the formula from Dan even to Beersheba is frequent throughout the historical books (Jdg 20:1; 1Sa 3:20; 2Sa 3:10; 2Sa 17:11; 2Sa 24:2; 2Sa 24:15; 1Ki 4:25). In the later records the form is reversed, and becomes from Beersheba even to Dan (1Ch 21:2; 2Ch 30:5). It is occasionally employed alone in a somewhat similar meaning; thus, in Jer 8:16, The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones (also 4:15). Dan was, with other northern cities, laid waste by Benhadad (1Ki 15:20; 2Ch 16:4), and this is the last mention of the place.
Various considerations would incline us to the suspicion that Dan was a holy place of note from a far earlier date than its conquest by the Danites. These are:
(1.) The extreme reluctance of the Orientals apparent in numerous cases in the Bible to initiate a sanctuary, or to adopt for worship any place which had not enjoyed a reputation for holiness from pre-historic times.
(2.) The correspondence of Dan with Beersheba in connection with the life of Abraham the origin of Beersheba also being, as has been noticed, enveloped in some diversity of statement.
(3.) More particularly its incidental mention in the very clear and circumstantial narrative of Gen 14:14, as if well known even at that very early period. Its mention in Deu 34:1, is also before the events related in Judges xviii, though still many centuries later than the time of Abraham. But the subject is very difficult, and we can hardly hope to arrive at more than conjecture upon it. With regard to Gen 14:14, three explanations suggest themselves.
a. That another place of the same name is intended. (See Kalisch, ad loc. for an ingenious suggestion of Dan-jaan). Against this may be put the belief of Josephus (comp. Ant. 1:10, 1, with v. 3, 1) and of Jerome (Onomast. s.v. Laisa, comp. with Quaest. Hebr. in Genesim, 14:14), who both unhesitatingly identify the Dan near Paneas with the Dan of Abraham.
b. That it is a prophetic anticipation by the sacred historian of a name which was not to exist till centuries later, just as Samson has been held to be alluded to in the blessing of Dan by Jacob. c. That the passage originally contained an older name, as Laish; and that, when that was superseded by Dan, the new name was inserted in the MSS. This last is Ewald’s (Gesch. 1:73), and of the three is the most feasible, especially when we consider the characteristic, genuine air of the story in Judges, which fixes the origin of the name so circumstantially. Josephus (Ant. v. 3, 1) speaks positively of the situation of Laish as not far from Mount Libanus and the springs of the lesser Jordan, near () the great plain of the city of Sidon (compare also Ant. 8:8, 4); and this, as just said, he identifies with the Dan in Gen 14:14 (Ant. 1:10, 1). In consonance with this are the notices of Jerome, who derives the word Jordan from the names of its two sources. In Deu 34:1, also, we find the phrase all the land of Gilead unto Dan employed by Moses some fifty years before the conquest of Leshem. The locality of the town is specified with some minuteness. It was far from Zidon, and in the valley (, Emek) that is by () Beth-rehob; but as this latter place has not been identified with certainty, the position of Dan must be ascertained by other means. Josephus says that it stood at the lesser fountain of the Jordan . . . in the plain of Sidon, a day’s journey from that city, and that the plain around it was of extraordinary fertility (Ant. 1:10, 1; v. 3, 1; 8:8, 4; War, 4:1, 1). Eusebius and Jerome are still more explicit A village, four miles distant from Paneas, on the road leading to Tyre; it was the boundary of Judaea ( ), and at it the Jordan took its rise. Jerome adds, De quo et Jordanis flumen erumpens a loco sortitus est nomen. Jor quippe , id est, fluvium sive rivum Hebraei vocant (Onomast. s.v. Dan). Some writers, both ancient and modern, have confounded Dan with Paneas or Caesarea Philippi (Philostorgius, History, 7:3; Theodoret in Genes.; Sanson, Geog. Sac. s.v.; Alford on Mat 16:13). This error appears to have arisen chiefly from indefinite remarks of Jerome in his commentary on Eze 48:18 : Dan . . . ubi hodie Paneas, quae quondam Caesarea Philippi vocabatur; and on Amos viii, Dan in terminis terrae Judaicae, ubi nunc Paneas est. It is plain from Jerome’s words in the Onomasticon that he knew the true site of Dan, and therefore these notices must be understood as meaning that Caesarea Philippi was in his days the principal town in the locality where Dan was situated, and that both were upon the border of Palestine. The Jerusalem Targum calls it Dan of Caesarea, intimating its vicinity to the latter (on Gen 14:14; see Reland, Paloest. p. 919-21).
In perfect agreement with this is the position of Tell el-Kadi, a mound from the foot of which gushes out one of the largest fountains in the world, the main source of the Jordan (Robinson, Later Res. 3, 390-393). The tell itself, rising from the plain by somewhat steep terraces, has its long, level top strewed with ruins, and is very probably the site of the town and citadel of Daniel. The spring is called el-Leddan, possibly a corruption of Dan (Robinson, 3, 392), and the stream from the spring Nahr ed-Dhan (Wilson, 2:173), while the name, Tell el-Kadi, the Judge’s mound, agrees in signification with the ancient name. Those who have visited it give the exact agreement of the spot with the requirements of the story in Judges 18 a good land and a large, where there is no want of anything that is on the earth (Thomson, Land and Book, 2:320). Tell el-Kady is cup- shaped, resembling an extinct crater, and is covered with a dense jungle of thorns, thistles, and rank weeds. Its circumference is about half a mile, and its greatest elevation above the plain eighty feet. There are some traces of old foundations, and heaps of large stones on the top and sides of the southern part of the rim, where perhaps the citadel or a temple may have stood. There are also ruins in the plain a short distance north of the tell. There are doubtless other remains, but they are now covered with grass – and jungle. At the western base of the tell is the great fountain, and there is a smaller one within the cup, shaded by noble oak-trees (Porter, Damascus, 1:303). 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 (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 42; Robinson, Researches, 3, 351-358).
3. Dan also stands in the A.V. as the rendering of (Vedan, lit. and Dan; Sept. translates undistinguishably), an Arabian city mentioned in Eze 27:19 as a place from which cloths, wrought iron, cassia, and other spices were brought to Tyre. By it is probably meant the city and mart of Aden, in connection with which Edrisi enumerates these very wares: The town of Aden is small, but celebrated for its seaport, from which vessels sail bound for India, China, and neighboring countries, returning with cargoes of iron, Damascus sword-blades… cardamom, cinnamon . . myrobolan… and various kinds of rich figured and velvet stuffs (i. 51). (See M’Culloch’s Gazetteer, s.v. Aden). SEE VEDAN.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Dan
a judge. (1.) The fifth son of Jacob. His mother was Bilhah, Rachel’s maid (Gen. 30:6, “God hath judged me”, Heb. dananni). The blessing pronounced on him by his father was, “Dan shall judge his people” (49:16), probably in allusion to the judgeship of Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan.
The tribe of Dan had their place in the march through the wilderness on the north side of the tabernacle (Num. 2:25, 31; 10:25). It was the last of the tribes to receive a portion in the Land of Promise. Its position and extent are described in Josh. 19:40-48.
The territory of Dan extended from the west of that of Ephraim and Benjamin to the sea. It was a small territory, but was very fertile. It included in it, among others, the cities of Lydda, Ekron, and Joppa, which formed its northern boundary. But this district was too limited. “Squeezed into the narrow strip between the mountains and the sea, its energies were great beyond its numbers.” Being pressed by the Amorites and the Philistines, whom they were unable to conquer, they longed for a wider space. They accordingly sent out five spies from two of their towns, who went north to the sources of the Jordan, and brought back a favourable report regarding that region. “Arise,” they said, “be not slothful to go, and to possess the land,” for it is “a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth” (Judg. 18:10). On receiving this report, 600 Danites girded on their weapons of war, and taking with them their wives and their children, marched to the foot of Hermon, and fought against Leshem, and took it from the Sidonians, and dwelt therein, and changed the name of the conquered town to Dan (Josh. 19:47). This new city of Dan became to them a new home, and was wont to be spoken of as the northern limit of Palestine, the length of which came to be denoted by the expression “from Dan to Beersheba”, i.e., about 144 miles.
“But like Lot under a similar temptation, they See m to have succumbed to the evil influences around them, and to have sunk down into a condition of semi-heathenism from which they never emerged. The mounds of ruins which mark the site of the city show that it covered a considerable extent of ground. But there remains no record of any noble deed wrought by the degenerate tribe. Their name disappears from the roll-book of the natural and the spiritual Israel.”, Manning’s Those Holy Fields.
This old border city was originally called Laish. Its modern name is Tell el-Kady, “Hill of the Judge.” It stands about four miles below Caesarea Philippi, in the midst of a region of surpassing richness and beauty.
(2.) This name occurs in Ezek 27:19, Authorize Version; but the words there, “Dan also,” should be simply, as in the Revised Version, “Vedan,” an Arabian city, from which various kinds of merchandise were brought to Tyre. Some suppose it to have been the city of Aden in Arabia. (See MAHANEH-DAN)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Dan (1)
(“judge”.) Jacob’s fourth son, Bilhah’s (maid of Rachel) first (Gen 30:6), own brother to Naphtali. The female corresponding name is Dinah (“judgment”.) Rachel’s exclamation originated the name, “God hath judged me,” i.e. vindicated my cause by giving me a son. Jacob on his deathbed said, “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel” (Gen 49:16), i.e., having the full tribal standing as much as Leah’s descendants. (See CONCUBINE.) The judgeship of Samson may also be a fulfillment of Jacob’s words (Jdg 15:20). Hushim (the plural implying a family) or Shuham alone is mentioned as Dan’s son (Gen 46:23); but at the Exodus the tribe stood second of Israel in numbers (Num 1:39), Num 1:62,700; 64,400 at the close of the wilderness sojourn (Num 26:43).
It occupied the N. side of the tabernacle, the hindmost in the march (Num 2:25; Num 2:31; Num 10:25), with Asher and Naphtali. Of Dan was Aholiab, associated with Bezaleel, in the construction of the tabernacle (Exo 31:6, etc.). Its allotment was on the coast W. of Judah and Benjamin, S. of Ephraim, N. of Simeon; small, but most choice, extending from Joppa on the N. to Ekron on the S., 14 miles long, part of the shephelah (or vale sweeping along the whole coast, the N. part of which is Sharon). The powerful Philistines near them drove them partly toward the mountainous region bordering on Judah, so as to encroach on Judah’s towns, Zorah and Eshtaol and Ir-shemesh or Beth-shemesh; compare Jos 15:33 with Jos 19:41. The Amorites previously “would not suffer them to come down into the valley” (Jdg 1:34).
Hence, Samson resides at Mahaneh-Dan (the camp of Dan) in the hills, between Zorah and Eshtaol, behind Kirjath Jearim, and thence “comes down” to the vineyards of Timnath and the valley of Sorek. There too was his final resting place (Jdg 13:25; Jdg 14:1; Jdg 14:5; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 16:4; Jdg 16:31; Jdg 18:12). The Phoenician king Esmunazar made this rich plain his prize long after, as an inscription records if rightly deciphered. In Jos 19:47,” the coast of Dan went out (too little)’ for them,” rather “went out from them” (Hebrew meehem), i.e. to a distance from their original allotment, namely, to Leshem or Laish, (which 600 of their warriors armed went forth from Zorah and Eshtaol to seize on, in the far N.) and named Dan after their father, at the W. source of the Jordan River, four miles W. of Paneas.
Thrice stress is laid on the 600 being “appointed with weapons of war” (Jdg 18:11; Jdg 18:16-17), for the Philistines deprived all Israelites they could of arms, so that we find Samson using a donkey’s jawbone as his only weapon (1Sa 13:19-21). Hence, as being so occupied with the Philistine warfare, Danites were not among Barak’s and Deborah’s helpers against Sisera (Judges 4; Jdg 5:17, where allusion occurs to Dan’s possession of the only Israelite port, “Why did Dan remain in ships?”.) The N. Danites of Laish (named by them Dan) carried with them Micah the Ephraimite’s Levitical family priest (Judges 17; 18) and graven image, which they worshipped” until the day of the captivity of the land” (Jdg 18:30-31), i.e. until the Israelite reverse whereby the Philistines carried away the ark; what aggravated their idolatry was it was at the very time “that the house of God was in Shiloh,” within their reach.
This probably suggested the city Dan to Jeroboam as one of the two seats of the golden calf worship (1Ki 12:29). Dan’s genealogy is not given in 1 Chronicles 2-12. Its unsettled state audits connection with the far N. Dan, the headquarters of idolatry, may have caused the loss of the genealogy. Dan is omitted among the sealed in Revelation 7 as having been the first to lapse into idolatry, for which cause Ephraim also is omitted (Judges 17; Hos 4:17) and Joseph substituted. Arethas of the 10th century suggests that Dan’s omission is because Antichrist is to be from him, or else to be his tool (compare Gen 49:17; Jer 8:16; Amo 8:14), as there was a Judas among the twelve.
Jacob’s prophecy, “Dan shall be a serpent in the way, … that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward,” alludes primarily to Dan’s local position in front of the royal Judah; so ready to meet the horse, forbidden in Israelite warfare, with the watchword “I have waited for Thy salvation,” and to fall unawares on the advancing enemy by the way Dan’s mode of warfare is illustrated in its attack on the men of Laish,” careless, quiet, and secure,” as also in their great judge Samson’s mode of attack, watching for an opportunity and striking an unlooked for, stealthy, sudden blow. Mainly perhaps, by the Spirit, he has in view the old serpent which was to “bruise the heel” of the promised Savior (Gen 3:15), but ultimately to have its head bruised by Him; therefore he adds the desire of all believers, “I have waited for Thy salvation,” which abrupt exclamation is thus clearly accounted for.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Dan (2)
The city at the northern bound of Israel, as Beersheba was the southern, so that” from Dan even to Beersheba” (Jdg 20:1, etc., and bitterly, 1Ch 21:2, “from Beersheba even to Dan”) expresses the whole country. Originally Leshem or Laish, see above. “Far from Zidon, in the valley that lieth by Beth Rebob,” but belonging to Zidon, as their living “after the manner of the Zidonians” implies; they were too far off for Zidon to help them when attacked by the Danites (Jdg 18:7; Jdg 18:28). Already in Abraham’s time, the spot was called by him Dan, the scene of God’s “judgment” on Chedorlaomer and the invaders (Gen 14:14; compare Isa 41:1-3).
But its ordinary name was even then Lasha or Laish, the north-eastern bound of Canaan, as Sodom was the southwestern bound (Gen 10:19). This too would be an additional reason for the Danites naming their city close by Abraham’s camping ground, Daniel The repetition thrice of “the city” (Jdg 18:28-29) marks that there was already another application of the name “Dan,” namely, to Abraham’s camping ground (compare Deu 34:1). Le Clerc suggests that the fountain was called Dan, “judge,” as Ainmishpat means “the fount of justice.” The city was smitten by Benhadad (1Ki 15:20, the last place of mentioning it).
Now Tel-el-Kady (the Arabic equivalent to Dan), “the judge’s mound,” whose long level top is strewed with ruins, probably those of Daniel From its foot gushes out one of the largest fountains in the world, the main source of the Jordan, called el Led-dan, a corruption of Dan, and the stream from it Nahr ed Dahn; all these names confirming Le Clerc’s view. The land is truly “a large land, where there is no want of anything that is on the earth” (Jdg 18:10). In 1Ki 7:13-14, Hiram the worker in brass is said to be of Naphtali; but in 2Ch 2:13-14, he is called “son of a woman of Dan.” As the “outgoings” of Naphtali were at Jordan, the city Dan probably was in the tribe of Naphtali.
So she dwelt in Naphtali, but was by birth of the Danite colony there. An undesigned mark of truth. The seeming discrepancy, thus cleared, powerfully disproves the possibility of collusion, and shows the witness of Kings and of Chronicles to be mutually independent and true. A place in S. Arabia from whence the Phoenicians obtained wrought iron, cassia, and calamus (Eze 27:19). “Dan also.” Since none of the other places begin with “also” (Hebrew w-), Fairbairn translates it as Vedan, the modern Aden, near the straits of Babelmandeb. Ptolemy mentions a Dara. But probably, as Judah is mentioned in Eze 27:17, so Dan in Eze 27:19 represents northern Israel. Sailors from ports of Dan, with descendants of Javan, traded in the fairs of Tyre, “going to and fro.”
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
DAN
The tribe of Dan was descended from the elder of two sons whom Rachels 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 Israels 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 Judahs shrine in Jerusalem (1Ki 12:28-30).
Dans 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).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Dan
DAN.According to the popular tradition, Dan was the fifth son of Jacob, and full brother of Naphtali, by Bilhah, Rachels 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-dn [Ashur is judge], Aku-dna [the moon-god is judge] of the period of Hammurabi). Its feminine counterpart is Dinah (Jacobs 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 lions 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 Joabs 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.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Dan
The fifth son of Jacob, and by Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel. (Gen 30:4-6) I notice this man more with a view to make an observation on his father’s prophecy concerning his tribe, than from any thing particularly to be recorded relative to Dan himself. Jacob, when dying, prophesied concerning Dan in these remarkable words: (Gen 49:16-17) “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” This prophecy was accomplished in the person of Samson, who descended from Dan. It is worthy farther remark, that though in the first instance of Dan there were no very promising prospects of a numerous race, Dan himself having but one son, (Gen 46:23) yet, at the children of Israel’s leaving Egypt, the tribe of Dan amounted to “threescore and two thousand, seven hundred men,” all that were able to go forth to war. (Num 1:38)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Dan (1)
(, dan, judge; , Dan).
1. Name
The fifth of Jacob’s sons, the first borne to him by Bilhah, the maid of Rachel, to whom, as the child of her slave, he legally belonged. At his birth Rachel, whose barrenness had been a sore trial to her, exclaimed God hath judged me … and hath given me a son, so she called his name Dan, i.e. judge (Gen 30:6). He was full brother of Naphtali. In Jacob’s Blessing there is an echo of Rachel’s words, Dan shall judge his people (Gen 49:16). Of the patriarch Dan almost nothing is recorded. Of his sons at the settlement in Egypt only one, Hushim, is mentioned (Gen 46:23). The name in Num 26:42 is Shuham.
2. The Tribe
The tribe however stands second in point of numbers on leaving Egypt, furnishing 62,700 men of war (Num 1:39); and at the second census they were 64,400 strong (Num 26:43). The standard of the camp of Dan in the desert march, with which were Asher and Naphtali, was on the north side of the tabernacle (Num 2:25; Num 10:25; compare Jos 6:9 the King James Version margin, gathering host). The prince of the tribe was Ahiezer (Num 1:12). Among the spies Dan was represented by Ammiel the son of Gemalli (Num 13:12). Of the tribe of Dan was Oholiab (the King James Version Aholiab) one of the wise-hearted artificers engaged in the construction of the tabernacle (Exo 31:6). One who was stoned for blasphemy was the son of a Danite woman (Lev 24:10 f). At the ceremony of blessing and cursing, Dan and Naphtali stood on Mount Ebal, while the other Rachel tribes were on Gerizim (Deu 27:13). The prince of Dan at the division of the land was Bukki the son of Jogli (Num 34:22).
3. Territory
The portion assigned to Dan adjoined those of Ephraim, Benjamin and Judah, and lay on the western slopes of the mountain. The reference in Jdg 5:17 : And Dan, why did he remain in ships? seems to mean that on the West, Dan had reached the sea. But the passage is one of difficulty. We are told that the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain (Jdg 1:34), so they did not enjoy the richest part of their ideal portion, the fertile plain between the mountain and the sea. The strong hand of the house of Joseph kept the Amorites tributary, but did not drive them out. Later we find Dan oppressed by the Philistines, against whom the heroic exploits of Samson were performed (Jdg 14ff). The expedition of the Danites recorded in Jdg 18 is referred to in Jos 19:47.
4. The Danite Raid
The story affords a priceless glimpse of the conditions prevailing in those days. Desiring an extension of territory, the Danites sent out spies, who recommended an attack upon Laish, a city at the north end of the Jordan valley. The people, possibly a colony from Sidon, were careless in their fancied security. The land was large, and there was no want of anything that was in the earth. The expedition of the 600, their dealings with Micah and his priest, their capture of Laish, and their founding of an idol shrine with priestly attendant, illustrate the strange mingling of lawlessness and superstition which was characteristic of the time. The town rebuilt on the site of Laish they called Dan – see following article. Perhaps 2Ch 2:14 may be taken to indicate that the Danites intermarried with the Phoenicians. Divided between its ancient seat in the South and the new territory in the North the tribe retained its place in Israel for a time (1Ch 12:35; 1Ch 27:22), but it played no part of importance in the subsequent history. The name disappears from the genealogical lists of Chronicles; and it is not mentioned among the tribes in Rev 7:5.
Samson was the one great man produced by Dan, and he seems to have embodied the leading characteristics of the tribe: unsteady, unscrupulous, violent, possessed of a certain grim humor; stealthy in tactics – a serpent in the way, an adder in the path (Gen 49:17) – but swift and strong in striking – a lion’s whelp, that leapeth forth from Bashan (Deu 33:22). Along with Abel, Dan ranked as a city in which the true customs of old Israel were preserved (2Sa 20:18 Septuagint).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Dan (2)
A city familiar as marking the northern limit of the land of Israel in the common phrase from Dan even to Beer-sheba (Jdg 20:1; 1Sa 3:20, etc.). Its ancient name was Laish or Leshem (Jdg 18:7, etc.). It was probably an outlying settlement of Tyre of Sidon. Its inhabitants, pursuing the ends of peaceful traders, were defenseless against the onset of the Danite raiders. Having captured the city the Danites gave it the name of their own tribal ancestor (Jdg 18). It lay in the valley near Beth-rehob (Jdg 18:28). Josephus places it near Mt. Lebanon and the fountain of the lesser Jordan, a day’s journey from Sidon (Ant., V, iii, 1; VIII, viii, 4; BJ, IV, i, 1). Eusebius, Onomasticon says it lay 4 Roman miles from Paneas on the way to Tyre, at the source of the Jordan. This points decisively to Tell el-Kady, in the plain West of Banias. The mound of this name – Kady is the exact Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Dan – rises from among the bushes and reeds to a height varying from 40 to 80 ft. The largest of all the springs of the Jordan rises on the west side. The waters join with those of a smaller spring on the other side to form Nahr el-Leddan which flows southward to meet the streams from Banias and Hasbeiyeh. The mound, which is the crater of an extinct volcano, has certain ancient remains on the south side, while the tomb of Sheikh Marzuk is sheltered by two holy trees. The sanctuary and ritual established by the Danites persisted as long as the house of God was in Shiloh, and the priesthood in this idolatrous shrine remained in the family of Jonathan till the conquest of Tiglath-pileser (Jdg 18:30; 2Ki 15:29). Here Jeroboam I set up the golden calf. The ancient sanctity of the place would tend to promote the success of his scheme (1Ki 12:28 f, etc.). The calf, according to a Jewish tradition, was taken away by Tiglath-pileser. Dan fell before Benhadad, king of Syria (1Ki 15:20; 2Ch 16:4). It was regained by Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:25). It shared the country’s fate at th hands of Tiglath-pileser (2Ki 15:29).
It was to this district that Abraham pursued the army of Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:14). For Dr. G. A. Smith’s suggestion that Dan may have been at Banias see HGHL1, 473, 480 f.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Dan (3)
(Eze 27:19 the King James Version). See VEDAN.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Dan
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.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Dan
Fifth son of Jacob, and first of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid. Gen 30:6, etc. Little is recorded of him personally: only one son is mentioned in Gen 46:23. The tribe of Dan was, however, numerous: at the Exodus there were 62,700 fighting men, exceeding all the tribes except Judah; and at the second numbering they had increased to 64,400. Num 1:39; Num 26:42-43. Yet when in the land the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley. Jdg 1:34. This showed great want of faith in the DANITES (as they are called in Jdg 13:2; Jdg 18:1; Jdg 18:11; 1Ch 12:35); and Deborah in her song said, ‘Why did Dan remain in ships,’ when the Lord’s enemies were being destroyed?
Their portion fell on the sea-coast between those of Manasseh and Judah. It was small in comparison with their numbers, which occasioned some going north and building the city of Dan, q.v. Dan was not conspicuous among the tribes, but Aholiab, who helped Bezaleel in the work of the tabernacle, was of the tribe, Exo 31:6; and Samson also.
When Jacob blessed his sons he said, “Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” Gen 49:16-17. This tribe was guilty of setting up very early in the land the idolatry, which continued until the people were carried into captivity. Jdg 18:30-31. One naturally associates ‘the adder that biteth the heels’ with the serpent that would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Gen 3:15. It seems to suggest that the Antichrist will arise out of the tribe of Dan, and this indeed has been the judgement of Christians from the earliest times. Moses said, “Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall leap from Bashan,” Deu 33:22, which may be a prophecy that Dan would do the work of Satan: cf. Psa 22:12-13. This thought is confirmed by Dan’s name being absent from 1Ch 2 – 8 (the book that records much of grace and blessing), and being omitted also from the list of tribes from each of which twelve thousand will be sealed in a future day. Rev 7:3-8. Still God’s promises to the twelve tribes will be kept, and the tribe of Dan will have its portion in the land as prophesied in Eze 48:1-2; Eze 48:32.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Dan
H1835 H2051
1. Fifth son of Jacob and Bilhah:
– General references
Gen 30:6; Gen 35:25
– Descendants of
Gen 46:23; Num 26:42-43
– Blessed of Jacob
Gen 49:16-17
2. Tribe of:
– Census of
Num 1:39; Num 26:42-43
– Inheritance of, according to the allotment of Joshua
Jos 19:40-47
– Inheritance of, according to the allotment of Ezekiel
Eze 48:1
– Position of, in journey and camp, during the exodus
Num 2:25; Num 2:31; Num 10:25
– Blessed by Moses
Deu 33:22
– Fail to conquer the Amorites
Jdg 1:34-35
– Conquests by
Jos 19:47; Jdg 18:27-29
– Deborah upbraids, for cowardice
Jdg 5:17
– Idolatry of
Jud 1:18
– Commerce of
Jdg 5:17; Eze 27:19 Eze 27:19Israel, 3
3. A city of the tribe of Dan:
– Called Laish and Leshem
Gen 14:14; Deu 34:1; Jdg 20:1; Jer 8:16
– Captured by the people of Dan
Jos 19:47
– Idolatry established at
Jud 1:18; 1Ki 12:28-29; Amo 8:14
– Captured by Ben-Hadad
1Ki 15:20; 2Ch 16:4
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Dan
Dan (dn), Jdg 1:1-36. A son of Jacob by bis concubine Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid. Gen 30:6; Gen 35:25; Exo 1:4; 1Ch 2:2. Of Dan’s personal history we know nothing, except that he had one son, Hushim or Shuham. Gen 46:23; Num 26:42. He shared with Ms brethren the prophetic blessing of Jacob, Gen 49:16-17, fulfilled, perhaps, in the administration of Samson, and in the craft and stratagem which his descendants used against their enemies. Other explanations, however, have been given. Those descendants multiplied largely; for at the first census after quitting Egypt the tribe numbered 62,700 males above 20 years of age; and, when numbered again on their coming to Jordan, they were 64,400. Num 1:38-39; Num 26:42-43. Moses ere his death, like Jacob, pronounced a prophetic blessing on the tribe: “Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall leap from Bashan,” Deu 33:22, fulfilled in the predatory expeditions of which one at least is recorded in their subsequent history. 2, The territory in Canaan allotted to Dan was on the seacoast, west of Benjamin and between Ephraim and Judah. It embraced a broad plain, 14 miles long, near the sea. The Amorites kept them from the plain and forced them into the mountains. Hence they had another portion granted them, near Mount Hermon, Jdg 18:1-31, where they set up a graven image stolen from Mic 3:1-12. Dan, city of, the chief city of the northern district held by this tribe. Jdg 20:1. It was originally called Laish, Jdg 18:29; noted for idolatry, Jdg 18:30; now called Tel-el-Kdy, or “Mound of the Judge,” three miles from Banias, north of the waters of Merom. 4. The Dan of Eze 27:19, R. V. “Vedan.” is possibly the same as No. 2. but some identify it with Dedar, others with Aden, in Arabia.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Dan
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.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
DAN
(1) Son of Jacob
Gen 30:6; Gen 49:16; Exo 1:4; Num 26:42
(2) Town of
Jos 19:47; 1Ki 12:29; 1Ki 15:20; 2Ch 30:5
(3) Tribe of
Num 1:39; Jos 19:48; Jdg 18:30
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Dan
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.