📖 Biblical Definition
Dan was the fifth son of Jacob — born to Bilhah, Rachel’s maid — and the tribe descended from him (Genesis 30:6). Originally allotted territory in the southern coastal plain near Joppa (Joshua 19:40-48), the tribe failed to take possession against the Amorites (Judges 1:34) and later migrated north, conquered the city of Laish, and renamed it Dan (Judges 18). It thus became the northernmost limit of Israel — the proverbial expression "from Dan to Beersheba" (Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20) names the whole land. Dan also became a center of idolatry under Jeroboam, who set one of his golden calves there (1 Kings 12:29). The tribe is conspicuously absent from Revelation 7.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Dan — one of the twelve tribes of Israel; also the northern border city.
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Dan is named for Jacob's prophecy that he should judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel; the city of Dan marks the northern boundary of the land in the formula 'from Dan even to Beersheba.'
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 49:16 — "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel."
Judges 18:29 — "And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father."
1 Kings 12:29 — "And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan."
Judges 5:17 — "Why did Dan remain in ships?"
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Forgotten or treated as a curiosity; the warning of idolatry at Dan is rarely preached.
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Dan's migration in Judges 18 is one of the darkest chapters in Israel's history — a tribe abandons its inheritance, steals a Levite and a graven image, and slaughters a peaceful city. Modern teaching skips it.
Jeroboam later placed a golden calf at Dan, and that calf shaped the northern kingdom until exile. Dan is a warning: a tribe that does not hold its inheritance becomes a seedbed for idolatry.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew din — to judge, contend, plead a cause.
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Usage
"From Dan to Beersheba — the whole land, top to bottom."
"A tribe that abandons its inheritance ends up making golden calves."
"Dan was meant to judge his people, not to lead them into idolatry."