the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Dictionaries
Dan
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Dan (dăn), Judges 1:1-36. A son of Jacob by bis concubine Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid. Genesis 30:6; Genesis 35:25; Exodus 1:4; 1 Chronicles 2:2. Of Dan's personal history we know nothing, except that he had one son, Hushim or Shuham. Genesis 46:23; Numbers 26:42. He shared with Ms brethren the prophetic blessing of Jacob, Genesis 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. Numbers 1:38-39; Numbers 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," Deuteronomy 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, Judges 18:1-31, where they set up a graven image stolen from Micah 3:1-12. Dan, city of, the chief city of the northern district held by this tribe. Judges 20:1. It was originally called Laish, Judges 18:29; noted for idolatry, Judges 18:30; now called Tel-el-Kâdy, or "Mound of the Judge," three miles from Banias, north of the waters of Merom. 4. The Dan of Ezekiel 27:19, R. V. "Vedan." is possibly the same as No. 2. but some identify it with Dedar, others with Aden, in Arabia.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Dan'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/d/dan.html. 1893.
