Tragedy of Dan

Building on some insights from James Jordan’s lecture on Revelation 7, where he explains the absence of Dan from the tribal list there.

Dan is the first Rachel son, not a son of Rachel herself but of her handmaid Bilhah. He is the firstborn that comes from Rachel’s house. Dan means “judge,” and Rachel calls him that because in giving her maidservant a son Yahweh “judged” or vindicated Rachel (Genesis 30:6; she says, “Danned me has God and also heard my view and given to me a son.” Because of that she names him Dan.) His “firstborn” status is indicated by the arrangement of the camp in Numbers 2. The lead tribes are all “firstborn” tribes – Judah (replacement firstborn), Reuben (actual firstborn), Ephraim (firstborn of Joseph, who has a quasi-firstborn status because of his double inheritance), and Dan (firstborn from Rachel).

That’s a good start, and the promises for Dan are high promises.

Jacob’s blessing on Dan is seventh in the list of blessings in Genesis 49. After he blesses the six sons of Leah (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun and Issachar), he pronounces a blessing on Dan, the first of the Rachel sons. As his name indicates, he will “judge” ( yadiyn ). He will be as wise and deadly as a serpent who bites the heels of the horses so that the riders fall backward (v. 17). Though this might be a positive image, the only other uses of the word “serpent” in Genesis ( nachash ) are from Genesis 3. There is a hint that he will be a tempter. In Moses’ blessings on the tribes, Dan has been demoted. He is ninth on the list, and both Benjamin and Joseph come before him. But the blessing itself is positive: “Dan is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan” (Deuteronomy 49:22).

This firstborn prominence and the positive connotations of the blessings come to a climax in the book of Judges. Samson is the son of “a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites” (Judges 13:2). Samson is the true Danite who judges, who is sly as a serpent who nips the heels of his enemies, who is a lion’s whelp. But Samson also has his negative side, and more importantly, Judges 18 tells the story of Dan’s conquest of the northern territories and the establishment of idolatrous worship in the land. Judges 18:30 tells us that the Danites set up a graven image and were served by priests (the first of whom was descended from Moses) “until the day of the captivity of the land.”

The Danites in other words abandoned Yahweh. They remained part of the northern kingdom. Jeroboam naturally set up one of his idolatrous shrines in Dan, where there was a history of false worship (1 Kings 12:29-30). When Chronicles gives a genealogy of the sons of Israel in the opening chapters, Dan is not included (although, cf. 1 Chronicles 12:35 and 2 Chronicles 2:14). The Danites are the “Judas tribe” of the Old Testament. Just as Judas was excluded from the Twelve because of his betrayal of Jesus, so the Danites are excluded from the list of tribes. He’s another fallen “firstborn.”