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Place · Tribe of Dan

Dan

Dan, an Israelite tribe and a city in northern Israel, formerly called Laish or Leshem.

Also known as Danite · Danite,Dan · Laish · Leshem

Dan was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from Jacob's fifth son, Dan (Genesis 30:6). The tribe was allotted territory in the northern part of Canaan (Joshua 19:40-48). The city of Dan, originally known as Laish or Leshem, was conquered by the Danites (Joshua 19:47; Judges 18:29). It became the northernmost city of Israel, often used in the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" to describe the entire land (Judges 20:1; 1Sa.3.20). Jeroboam set up one of his golden calves in Dan (1Ki.12.29-30), leading to idolatry. The city was also known for its skilled craftsmen (2Ch.2.14). Dan was one of the first places to fall to foreign invaders due to its northern location (Jeremiah 4:15; 8:16).

Approximate location: 33.249, 35.652 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas

Bible dictionary

Dan. Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

DAN. The territory in Canaan allotted to Dan was on the sea-coast, west of Benjamin and between Ephraim and Judah. It embraced a broad plain, 14 miles long, near the sea. The Amorites kept them from the plain and forced them into the mountains. Hence they had another portion granted them, near Mount Hermon, Jud 18, where they set up a graven image stolen from Micah. Dan, City of, the chief city of the northern district held by this tribe. Jud 20:1. It was originally called Laish, Jud 18:29; noted for idolatry, Jud 18:30; now called Tel-el-Kady, or "mound of the judge," 3 miles from Banias, north of the waters of Merom. The Dan of Eze 27:19 is possibly the same as No. 2, but some identify it with Dedar, others with Aden, in Arabia.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Dan appears

64 verses in 16 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1835

Genesis1
Exodus4
Leviticus1
Numbers10
Deuteronomy3
Joshua5
Judges17
1 Samuel1
2 Samuel5
1 Kings4
2 Kings1
1 Chronicles3
2 Chronicles3
Jeremiah2
Ezekiel3
Amos1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.