town or village

Dan

• Today Tel Dan

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Events

1. c. 840 BCAn Aramean king's stele at Dan names the house of David

Battles and sieges

1. c. 1900 BCAbram rescues Lot at Dan Gen 14:14–16
   Abram with 318 trained servants against the four kings. A night attack at Dan; the enemy is pursued to Hobah and Lot and the goods are brought back.

History

Dan lay at Tel Dan (Tell el-Qadi), at the foot of Mount Hermon, beside the springs that are the main source of the Jordan, and it marked the northern end of Israel. Under its older name, Laish, the town appears in Egyptian execration texts and among the places taken by Thutmose III in the fifteenth century BC. In the Middle Bronze Age it was ringed by huge earthen ramparts, and a mudbrick gate with three arches, built about 1750 BC, still stands. Avraham Biran excavated the site from 1966 to 1999.

Abram pursued the kings who had carried off Lot as far as Dan. Judges tells how the tribe of Dan, seeking land, sent spies to Laish, a quiet and secure town far from Sidon; the Danites burned it, rebuilt it and named it Dan after their forefather, and set up the graven image taken from Micah, with Jonathan son of Gershom as their priest. "From Dan even to Beer-sheba" became the phrase for the whole land of Israel.

When the kingdom divided, Jeroboam set one golden calf at Bethel and the other at Dan; excavators uncovered a large sacred precinct with a raised platform and an altar from the Israelite period. Ben-hadad of Damascus struck Dan in the days of Baasha. In 1993 and 1994 fragments of an Aramaic stela of the ninth century BC were found near the city gate: an Aramean king, usually identified as Hazael, boasts of killing a king of Israel and a king of the "house of David". About 733/732 BC the city fell to Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria.

A dedication in Greek and Aramaic of the late third or early second century BC, "to the god who is in Dan", shows that the sanctuary and the old name survived into Hellenistic times. Josephus places Dan at the springs of the Lesser Jordan. In the early fourth century Eusebius knew Dan as a village four Roman miles from Paneas on the road to Tyre, where the Jordan springs forth.

Scripture: Gen 14:14; Josh 19:47; Judg 18:7; Judg 18:27–31; Judg 20:1; 1 Sam 3:20; 1 Kgs 12:28–30; 1 Kgs 15:20; Amos 8:14

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (25)

Gen 14:14

And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

Josh 19:47

And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.

Judg 18:7

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.

Judg 18:14

Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.

Judg 18:27

And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.

Judg 18:29

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

Judg 20:1

Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

1 Sam 3:20

And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.

2 Sam 3:10

To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beer-sheba.

2 Sam 17:11

Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

2 Sam 24:2

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

2 Sam 24:6

Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and about to Zidon,

2 Sam 24:15

So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.

1 Kgs 4:25

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

1 Kgs 12:29

And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan.

1 Kgs 12:30

And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

1 Kgs 15:20

So Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

2 Kgs 10:29

Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan.

1 Chr 21:2

And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

2 Chr 16:4

And Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

2 Chr 30:5

So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.

Jer 4:15

For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

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; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

Ezek 27:19

Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.

Amos 8:14

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Abraham's journey →
• The tribe of Dan moves north →
• The kingdom divides →