DAN, the fifth son of Jacob, and his eldest Gen. xxx. 4, 5, 6, &c. Gen. xlvi. 23.by Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid. Rachel seeing that she was not blessed by God with any Children, desired Jacob to take Bilhah her servant, that by her means at least, she might have children. Jacob complied with her request, and Bilhah was delivered of a son. Hereupon Rachel said, The Lord hath judged in my favour, and hath hearkened to my voice in thus giving me a son: and she called him Dan; which signifies, He hath judged.
Dan had but one son, whose name was Hushim; notwithstanding which, he had a very numerous posterity: for when the Israelites went out of Egypt, this Tribe was composed of sixty-two thousand seven hundred men capable of bearing arms, without reckoning women and children. Jacob on Numb. i. 38. Gen. xlix. 16, 17.his death-bed blessed Dan in these words; 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. Whereby Jacob meant, that tho’ this Tribe was not one of the most powerful, and celebrated in Israel, it would notwithstanding produce one, who should be the prince of his people; which prediction was accomplished in Samson, who was descended from Dan.
Jacob adds, that Dan should be as a serpent by the way, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward; whereby he might farther describe his valour and address, in surprizing and conquering an enemy stronger than himself. Others have been of opinion, that Jacob’s meaning in these last words, was, that Antichrist should come out of the Tribe of Dan: and this opinion is very commonly to be met with in the Fathers, and other ecclesiastical Rev. vii.writers: to support it they alledge, that St. John in the Revelations, among the other Tribes of Israel, takes no notice at all of the Tribe of Dan. But these arguments, tho’ countenanced by the authority of several among the Ancients, are nevertheless not very convincing; and the original of Antichrist will always be a very uncertain question, till the event shall clear it.
The Tribe of Dan had its lot in a very fat, and fertil soil, between the Tribe of Judah eastward, and the country of the Philistins westward: but the limits of their land were very narrow, because it was part only of the territories of Judah dismembred from the rest. This obliged the people belonging to this Tribe to look for a country of more extent, whither they might send a colony of several of their families, which had not sufficient room in their own land. They sent therefore five chosen men of the Judges xv. 1, 2, 3 &c. Josh. xix. 45, 47.most valiant among them, to seek an habitation which they liked. They advanced as far as Laish near the sources of Jordan, where they found the people lived without any diffidence, and in full security. Of this they came and gave notice to their countrymen, who sent six hundred men well armed, with their families, to make themselves masters of Laish. As they passed over mount Ephraim, they met with a young Levite in the house of Micah, where he kept up a superstitious worship. Him they carried with them to Laish. They made themselves with great ease masters of the city, and there established that wrong way of worship which they saw practised in the house of Micah. At that time the town, which was before called Laish, took the name of Dan, upon the account of its new masters, who were of this Tribe.
Apud Bartolocci Bibl. Rab. t.1. p.127.A Jewish historian, by name Eldad, whom some suppose to have lived in the ninth century about the year 880, and others in the thirteenth in 1283, relates, that the Tribe of Dan being unwilling to take arms against their brethren in the reign of Jeroboam, withdrew into Ethiopia, where they made alliances with the inhabitants of the country, and became tributary to the kings of Ethiopia. They went up the river Phison, (he means the Nile) and found people black as crows, of a gigantick stature, who fed upon human flesh. The Tribes of Naphtali, Gad, and Asher followed that of Dan into this country, and having passed the rivers of Ethiopia, settled there, feeding their flocks, and dwelling under tents. They had a king at their head, descended from Oliab, and observed the principal ordinances of the Law. Their prince was able to arm an hundred and twenty thousand horse, and an hundred thousand foot. These four tribes being united, divided the four seasons of the year among themselves; each made war during three months, and brought their booty to the king, who made an equal distribution of it among the other Tribes, who staid behind to guard the country. But this account of their transplanting themselves is a mere fable, without any the least foundation in the sacred history.