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DAN (Person)
Fifth son of the Jewish patriarch Jacob. Dan’s mother was Bilhah, maid of Jacob’s wife Rachel (Gn 30:1-6). Dan’s descendants settled in Israel overlooking the Huleh Plain, in territory actually assigned to Naphtali, Dan’s full brother (Gn 30:7-8; 35:25; Jos 19:32-48). The two brothers are mentioned together in a number of references (e.g., Ex 1:4).
Dan’s name was given to him not by Bilhah but by Rachel, who considered the child her own. Rachel had long been childless—a shame to women in ancient cultures—and she was jealous of Jacob’s other wife, Leah, who had already borne him four sons. Rachel viewed the birth of Bilhah’s son as averting her shame and as God’s vindication of her status as wife. The name Dan (“he judged”) meant that God had judged her and had vindicated her through the child’s birth (Gn 30:6).
Evidently Dan had only one son to continue his line, Hushim (Gn 46:23; “Shuham,” Nm 26:42-43). In Jacob’s patriarchal blessing, Dan was promised the role of “judge” among his people but was also spoken of as one who would be stealthy and dangerous, like a serpent (Gn 49:16-17). How that blessing worked out in the life of his descendants is unknown. The small amount of information given about Dan himself parallels the insignificance of his tribe in later times.
See also Dan (Place); Dan, Tribe of.