דָּן

From the study of Genesis 14:14

Range of meaning

The northern city of Dan, at the springs of the Jordan below Mount Hermon (Tel Dan), later the proverbial northern limit of Israel ('from Dan to Beersheba').

Against the English

All versions read 'Dan'. The issue is not the translation but the name.

Used elsewhere in the period

According to Judges 18:29 (cf. Josh 19:47), the city was called Laish until the tribe of Dan captured it and named it after their ancestor. Excavations at Tel Dan show a large Middle Bronze Age city there, with a famous mudbrick gate. The Tel Dan Stele (9th c. BCE) mentions the 'house of David'.

From the study of 1 Kings 4:25

Range of meaning

A fixed phrase for the whole of Israel's settled homeland, from its northern edge (Dan, at the foot of Mount Hermon) to its southern edge (Beersheba, in the Negev).

Against the English

Translations are uniform. The phrase means 'the entire land', not just two cities.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20; 2 Samuel 3:10; 17:11; 24:2, 15. 2 Chronicles 30:5 and 1 Chronicles 21:2 reverse it ('from Beersheba to Dan').

From the study of Deuteronomy 34:1

Range of meaning

The name of a son of Jacob, of the tribe descended from him, and of the northern city that tribe captured and renamed. The name is related to the Hebrew verb for judging. 'From Dan to Beersheba' became the stock phrase for the whole country north to south (Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20).

Against the English

English versions all simply read 'Dan'. A reader without a map will miss that this names the extreme north, a very long way off, and that it is a name the city only received after Moses' lifetime in the Bible's own telling.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judges 18:29 and Joshua 19:47 say the city was formerly called Laish or Leshem and was renamed by the Danites after the settlement. Genesis 14:14 uses the same later name. Ancient readers noticed the issue: the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b-15a) records the view that Joshua wrote the last verses of the Torah, and the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra held that Joshua wrote from this verse onward. A separate 'Dan-jaan' appears in 2 Samuel 24:6, but that does not ease the difficulty much.