DAN. - 1. Fifth son of Jacob and first of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant (Gen. 30:6; 35:25). At his birth Rachel, playing on the term dan "he judged," exclaims: "The Lord has vindicated me." The Bible narrates nothing else about him. His descendants (Gen. 46:23) were the Hushim. He was the eponym of the tribe.
2. Tribe, which numbered, near Sinai, 62,700 men fit for arms (Num. 1:38 ff.), surpassed only by Judah, which numbered 74,600. It developed little, however: in the plain of Moab the Danites fit for arms were 64,400 (Num. 26:42 ff.). They camped to the north of the tabernacle with Asher and Naphtali; on the journey through the desert they held the last place (Num. 2:25; 10:25). In the division of the Palestinian territory it received a small territory among the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim. As it was impossible to assign the boundaries, in Josh. 19:41-46 the cities that fell to D. are indicated, such as Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh (= Beth-shemesh), Aijalon, Ekron, Eltekeh (mentioned in an inscription of Sennacherib), Joppa (v.), Lydda. The territory was found in the plain of the Shephelah, between Joppa, Lydda and the Sorek, above Joppa, and extended as far as the foothills of the mountains: a zone celebrated for its fertility, of which the very place names say something; the diversity of the soil is also indicated by the toponymy: Shephelah = "lowlands"; Gibbethon = "height." The Amorites (v.) drove the Danites from the plain to the mountains (Judg. 1:34 ff.): the possession of the seacoast, where the Philistines (v.) settled, was therefore precarious. The narrowness of their boundaries drove the Danites to seek a dwelling elsewhere. Five emissaries were sent by them in search of new territories, where they could more easily spread out (Judg. 18). Having arrived at the extreme north of Palestine, they chose the region of Laish (today Tell el-Qadi), near the sources of the Jordan, suited to the purpose for its wealth and isolation. Six hundred armed men, with their families, occupied the new territory. They took from the sanctuary of Micah (v.) the ephod and the teraphim, and persuaded the Bethlehemite Levite who served it to follow them. Having conquered Laish, which they called D., they set up there the sanctuary, which was later condemned because it was separatist and idolatrous.
The history of the sanctuary of D. is important because it shows us what the ideas of the people were, exposed as they were to Canaanite influences, on the ways of practicing worship. The ancient worship of Micah in Ephraim was not idolatrous, but its manner of proceeding is condemned (Judg. 17:6), because it was contrary to the Mosaic legislation (Ex. 20:4; Deut. 12:14; Lev. 17:8 ff.). The sanctuary of D. continued to be frequented by the Danites while the national worship of Israel had as its center the ark of Israel in Shiloh. In the 10th century, at the division of Israel from the kingdom of Judah, Jeroboam I installed at D. one of his golden calves, making it the second official sanctuary of Israel and thus favoring religious syncretism.
The formula "from D. to Beersheba" indicates the extreme limits of Palestine (Judg. 20:1; I Sam. 3:20; II Sam. 3:10; 17:11; 24:2, 15; I Kings 4:25; I Chron. 21:2; II Chron. 12:35; 27:37). The tribe is omitted in the genealogies of I Chron. 2-12; it seems that it became extinct after the emigration of the majority of its members to Laish. In Rev. 7:5-18 D. is missing from the count of the "sealed." The Danites were distinguished for their boldness (Gen. 49:16-18) and their military power (Deut. 33:22), which were expressed in the deeds of Samson (v.).
Bibliography4 works
Vincenzo M. Jacono