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DAN

(Heb. dān)

(PERSON)

The fifth son of Jacob and his first of two with Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant (Gen. 30:6). The close relationship between Dan and his brother Naphtali is also a matter of geographic proximity; the tribes occupied adjacent areas of the camp during the Exodus march (Num. 2:25-31) and neighboring territories in the kingdom of Israel.

Initially the Danites (Heb. haddānî) attempted to settle in the south, in the vicinity of Zorah and Eshtaol (Josh. 19:40-48). This attempt failed in a region crowded with indigenous Amorites (Judg. 1:34), immigrant Philistines (chs. 13–16), and Israelite groups such as the Judahites (15:9-13) and Ephraimites (1:35). As a result, the Danites migrated during the period of the judges to the extreme north (Judg. 18; Josh. 19:47). Five Danite spies set out, consulting a Levite priest in Mt. Ephraim along the way, and discovered Laish, a city both rich in resources and vulnerable to attack (Judg. 18:7-10). A war party of 600 warriors soon followed and took the city, which they renamed in honor of their tribal ancestor. The Danites forced the Levite priest to accompany them; he founded the sanctuary at Dan (Judg. 18:30-31). The Danite territory was largely confined to this single urban center. Possibly, some Danites remained in the south, the core of which Solomon’s second administrative district may have preserved (1 Kgs. 4:9).

In many aspects the Danites are unusual. They apparently did not have many clans (only one is listed; Num. 26:42-43), and sometimes they are referred to as a “clan” (mišpāḥâ; Judg. 13:2; 18:11) rather than as a “tribe.” The Danites were the only tribe who failed to hold (Judg. 1:34-35; Josh. 19:47) or receive (Judg. 18:1) a tribal allotment. They are criticized in the Song of Deborah for failing to join the Israelite coalition against the Canaanites (Judg. 5:17). The best known Danite, Samson, was the most uncharacteristic of the judges (Judg. 13–16). The tribal blessing in Gen. 49:17 (“Dan shall be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path”) may reflect a reputation for violence (nothing about the Danite conquest of Laish belies such a reputation). Jacob’s deathbed words about Dan (“Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel”; Gen. 49:16) have an enigmatic quality, and have left some wondering whether the Danites lacked full tribal status at some point.

Another question about the Danites is their relationship to other ethnic groups with similar names migrating in the region near the end of the 2nd millennium. Greek records name the danaoi; Phoenician records, the dnym; and Egyptian, the denye[n] and danuna. All may be linked; the evidence is inconclusive.

The Galilean tribes fell to Tiglath-pileser III’s Assyrian army in 732 b.c.e. (2 Kgs. 15:29), and many Danites were among the exiles forced to resettle in Assyria. The remaining northern tribes went into exile when Samaria fell a decade later. The Danites’ migrations probably ended in the districts of Assyria.

Bibliography. A. Malamat, “The Danite Migration and the Pan-Israelite Exodus-Conquest,” Bibl 51 (1970): 1-16; Y. Yadin, “And Dan, Why Did He Remain in Ships?” AJBA 1 (1968-1971): 9-23.

Gregory Mobley

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)