The twelve tribes of Israel

The Tribe of Dan

Son of Jacob by Bilhah (Rachel's maid) · Name means Judge (Rachel said, God hath judged me) · Settled first in the west near the coast, later migrating far to the north

Dan was a son of Jacob by Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, and his tribe is remembered both for the mighty judge Samson and for leading Israel into idolatry. Jacob prophesied that Dan would judge his people, yet also warned that Dan would be a serpent by the way. Restless and unsettled, the tribe migrated from its first coastal land to the far north, and its history is a mixture of strength and unfaithfulness.

Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.Genesis 49:16 (KJV)

Dan the man and the meaning of his name

Dan was the fifth son of Jacob, the first of the two born to Bilhah, Rachel's maid, whom Rachel gave to Jacob because she herself had borne no children. When the boy was born Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son; therefore called she his name Dan, which means he judged, or a judge.

The tribe would live up to the name in one famous son. Long after, the mightiest of Israel's judges, Samson, the man of the riddle and the lion, the strong man betrayed by Delilah, was a Danite, dedicated to God from birth as a Nazarite. Through Samson, Dan judged Israel and struck at the Philistines, though even Samson's strength was bound up with his weakness, and he did more against the enemy in his death than in his life. Dan also gave Israel a gift of a different kind, for Aholiab, the skilled craftsman who helped build the tabernacle, was of the tribe of Dan, his hands filled with wisdom to work in gold and cloth for the house of God.

Jacob's blessing: a judge and a serpent

Jacob's word over Dan holds both promise and warning in a single breath. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. That is the honor: Dan will have its place, will bring justice, will produce a judge. But then Jacob adds a darker image: Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

It is the picture of a small tribe striking cunningly at a stronger foe, and some have read in it a shadow of the tribe's later treachery. After that strange saying Jacob breaks off with a sudden cry, I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD, as if the mention of the serpent turned his heart at once to the deliverance only God can bring.

The tribe that wandered and fell

Dan's first inheritance lay in the west, a small portion near the coast between Judah and the sea, in the plain the Philistines pressed hard. Finding it too narrow, or too fiercely contested, the Danites sent spies north and seized the quiet town of Laish, far in the north near the sources of the Jordan, put its people to the sword, and renamed it Dan. So the whole tribe pulled up and migrated to the far north, and the phrase from Dan even to Beersheba came to mean the length of the land, from that northern city to the southern edge.

But the same chapter that tells of the migration tells of Dan's idolatry, for they set up a carved image and their own priesthood at Dan. Later, when the kingdom split, Jeroboam placed one of his two golden calves at Dan, and it became a center of false worship for the whole northern kingdom. That shadow may be why, in the Revelation's list of the sealed tribes, Dan is not named, and Manasseh is counted in its place, a solemn omission that Scripture leaves without explanation.

Dan in God's plan

Dan is an honest tribe to include, because its story holds both the glory and the danger of Israel. From Dan came a deliverer, and Dan had its share in judging God's people, yet Dan also led the way into idolatry and wandered from its calling. The tribe reminds us that strength without faithfulness is perilous, and that a people can drift far from where God set them.

And yet Jacob's cry over Dan, I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD, lifts the whole story to its true hope. It is striking that at the very mention of the serpent, Jacob's heart turned to God's salvation, for the first promise of a Savior in all of Scripture was the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Even the wandering, unfaithful tribe was included in a people whose deliverance would not come from their own strength or their own judges, but from the LORD alone. The salvation Jacob waited for is the salvation the whole Bible waits for, and it came in Jesus Christ, the true and faithful one from the tribe of Judah, who has crushed the serpent forever.

A note on counting the twelve: Jacob had twelve sons, but the tribes are reckoned in more than one way in Scripture. The tribe of Levi was set apart for the priesthood and received no territory of its own, and Joseph, given the double portion of the firstborn, was counted as two tribes through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. So when the land was divided the tribes still numbered twelve, with Levi outside the count. Different lists in the Bible reflect this: the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy leaves out Simeon, and the sealed tribes in Revelation 7 omit Dan and Ephraim while naming Levi, Joseph, and Manasseh. The number twelve is preserved as a sign of the whole people of God.

Related: The Tribe of Naphtali · The Tribe of Manasseh · Jacob in the Bible · All twelve tribes