BIBLE PLACES
AND CITIES
DAN
CITY OF THE
GOLDEN CALF
PHOTOS, DRAWINGS
WOMEN IN
THE BIBLE
the story of Delilah, who started it all...
BIBLE
PAINTINGS
famous artworks of the great heroes and heroines
of the Bible
BIBLE
PEOPLE
snappy biographies of, among others, Samson and Delilah
TOP
TEN LISTS
worst villains, most gruesome murders, greatest heroes,
inspirational young people, etc. etc.
BIBLE
ARCHAEOLOGY
tombs, ziggurats, jewelry, war, houses...
BIBLE
WARFARE
battles, the army, weapons, engineering
ANCIENT
RELIGIONS
temples, gods and goddesses - images of bull idols like Dan's
WARRIORS
The stories of Omri and
Ahab, two warrior kings who rebuilt Dan
EXTRA WEBSITES
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Archaeological Sites in Israel: Dan
The
Hebrews had weapons, but they were bronze (see above). The
Philistines, on the other hand,
had iron weapons, stronger and more deadly
Philistine warrior, Egyptian wall carving
The Tribe of Dan tried without success to gain a foothold in land already occupied by the Philistines
When it entered the Promised Land, the tribe of Dan (one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel) was given an area that would be theirs.
Their land was to be the fertile farmland around Timnah and up as far as Joppa. But it was no go: the well-organized and battle-ready Philistines already lived there, and were far too strongly established to let intruders into their rich coastal territory.
The Philistines were a formidable enemy, one-time nomads of the sea who had decided to settle down. In many ways they were like the Vikings, who would ravage the coast of northwestern Europe and eventually settle there. As well as being tough, the Philistines had superior metal technology, and would not allow the Hebrews access to it:
'No smith was found in
all the land of Israel, for the Philistines were afraid that the Hebrews
would make swords or spears. So all the Israelites had to go down to the
Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles
sharpened.... So on the day of battle, no sword or spear was to be found
in the possession of the troops with Saul and Jonathan.'
(1Samuel 13:19-22)
But the tribe of Dan had hardened, tough men who sould not give up without a fight. One of them was Samson, whose great strength and ingenuity helped him to kill large numbers of Philistines. (See the story of Samson at BIBLE PEOPLE: SAMSON) His exploits are reminiscent of the 'Iliad' - Samson's feud with the Philistines arose because of a dispute over a woman, just as Achilles' was during the Trojan War. And some scholars have suggested a connection between the tribe of Dan and the 'Danaoi', one of the names for Greeks in the 'Iliad'.
But Samson was the exception rather than the rule, and eventually the tribe of Dan faced the facts: it would have to give up its attempt to settle the Philistine heartland and look for an alternative place to settle in the Upper Jordan Valley - where the pickings might be easier.
The mud brick gateway at Dan. Built in about 1800BC, the gate was used for only about fifty years before it was covered over with a packed earth rampart - which accidentally preserved it.
The gate during excavation (above)
The gate as it is today (above)
Collared rim jar
Unwelcome in Philistine territory, the tribe of Dan decided to upgrade by trekking northwards and capturing the established Canaanite city of Laish.
The tel (mound) on which this city stood had been occupied since Neolithic times, but then abandoned for up to 1,000 years - for what reason, no-one knows.
It had massive walls and ramparts - the image at left shows the intact mud-brick gate with three complete arches dating to approximately 1750 BC. Very early on, the gate was covered (and thus preserved) by an earthen rampart. City walls at the time were so immensely thick that houses of varying shapes and sizes could be built into them.
The city was on the main trade route from Galilee to Damascus, so Dan was the most important city in the northern territory. Abraham came to the city after defeating the coalition of kings who, among other things, captured his nephew, Lot (Genesis 14:14).
The original people of Laish did not give up their city without a fight, but it seems to have been fairly one-sided, and shows the ruthless nature of the tribe of Dan:
'.....they
observed the people who were there living securely, after the
manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking
nothing on earth, and possessing wealth. Furthermore, they
were far from the Sidonians and had no dealing with Aram....'
(in other words, did not have any powerful allies). (Judges
18:7)
'.... The Danites.... came to Laish, to a people quiet and
unsuspecting, put them to the sword, and burned down the city.
There was no deliverer.' (Judges 18:27-28)
The Danites attacked an isolated people and took their city,
some time in the 12th century BC. Later thy rebuilt it.
Archaeological excavations have revealed a very different material culture. The early Iron Age levels contained storage jars of the northern type, similar to jars in Galilee and Phoenicia, lying alongside typical 'collared-rim' jars from the central hill country - original home of the Danites.
Mount Tabor
Sisera's fearsome iron-wheeled chariots were of no avail. God sent a torrential flood which bogged them down, making them easy prey for the troops of Deborah and Barak
The Danites settled into their rebuilt city and took up much the same way of life their predecessors had enjoyed. They must have used the route to Sidon to sell their produce, and removed as they were from the main centers of the other Israelite tribes, they became more and more integrated with the surrounding culture.
They lived on fertile land, growing more food than they needed, so they would have traded with the seaports on the coast, becoming a food basket for these ports. They would have gone back and forth on the road to Sideon, and before long they began to admire and emulate the coastal society they found there. They probably had quite a pleasant life.
They certainly did not want to rock the boat by joining in the fighting going on between the other Hebrew tribes and the Philistines, and for this reason they ignored Deborah's summons to fight against the army of Sisera, at Mount Tabor.
Deborah was not impressed, and their failure to show at the battle where they were sorely needed is recorded in the Song of Deborah, Judges 5:
'... and Dan, why did he abide with the ships? (Judges 5:17) - the ships in this case being a nick-name for the Philistines in the coastal cities.
See DEBORAH for the full story
Above a spring, on the northern side of the tel, is the 'bama' or high place established by Jeroboam, king of Israel. It covers an area of about 60x45 meters, and was originally enclosed by walls, now gone (see above and below).
Tel Dan, reconstructed Iron Age city walls
Compare with
reconstructions of
the Temple
of Jerusalem.
After the death of King Solomon, the country he had ruled was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
King Jeroboam of Israel decided to set up administrative bases at the northern and southern extremities of his kingdom - and Dan became the northern capital. It also became a religious center, and it this that so worried the Bible writers.
Jeroboam's plan was to wean his subjects away from the glamour of Solomon's Jerusalem Temple by reviving the sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan, expelling the priestly Levites who were too loyal to Jerusalem, and putting local priests in their place. The Bible says that he 'made two golden calves and told the people: 'You have gone up to Jerusalem for long enough. Here is thy God, Israel, who led thee up from the land of Egypt." (1 Kings 12:28)
Jeroboam's golden calves were wooden statues covered with gold plate (see similar statues at ANCIENT RELIGIONS). Originally, there was no confusion about what they were: the sacred animal was not the god, or confused with the god. The statue merely embodied his/her attributes, was an ornament of the god's throne or a footstool for his/her use. After all, the Temple of Jerusalem had the Ark, and the Cherubim above it formed the throne of Yahweh. The Ark was not God himself. The golden calves were the throne for the invisible godhead who, as Jeroboam said, 'led them up from the land of Egypt' - and so was a representation of Yahweh.
But the choice of a bull, even as a throne of the god, had its dangers, since the bull was the symbol of the great Canaanite god Baal. Ordinary people were bound to confuse the bull of Yahweh and the bull of Baal, especially in a part of the country that depended on agricultural fertility, as the city of Dan, did.
Maybe Jeroboam was aware of this, and tried to amalgamate the two concepts of God. Maybe he wanted to cater to different religious groups by extending the notion of what God is. There is no doubt these images did smooth the way for a resurgence of Canaanite religion.
In any event, the modifications unified the people - just as well, since there had been a sharp revival of the Egyptian threat.
Nearly all archaeologists agree that this excavated podium (above left) was the one that Jeroboam constructed to house the golden calf at Dan. It is called a 'bama', a high place, and was a platform on which were built altars and a shrine.
Evidence of a four-horned altar has been found as well as religious objects such as three iron shovels (used to remove ashes from the altar), a small horned altar, and an iron incense holder.
'The inner gate (of Dan) is the best preserved and is a good example of Israelite city gates during biblical times. It consisted of four guard rooms, two on each side of a paved passageway. The threshold, made of a large basalt stone, includes the doorstop and hinge-sockets which once supported the massive wooden doors.
Next to the opening of the gate itself, four squat, decorated stones served to hold four pillars supporting a canopy. It is probable that the king or judge sat here when he came to the city.'
Then the king arose, and sat in the gate and they told all the people, saying behold, the king doth sit in the gate. And all the people came before the king. (2 Samuel 19:8)
(Quoted from Archaeological Sites in Israel - Dan)
The wooden uprights
that frame of this structure would have been smooth and
polished, either stained or painted a bright color. The dais
was covered by a roof, and there was an ornate seat
for the judge/governor to sit in. Click on the thumbnail to
see an Egyptian version of this portable throne - admittedly
much grander than the one in Dan, but with the same design and
purpose.
The Dan Inscription was discovered in the foreground
area of this
picture,
by the massive basalt gates leading up to the city.
Fragments of a large inscribed basalt stele from 858-824 BC were found in the
square in front of the city gate complex at Dan. The language is ancient
Aramaic, and thirteen lines of the original inscription have
been partly
preserved. The Tel Dan Stele is important
in the study of Biblical archaeology, since it mentions the House of
David.
The 9th century BCE and the beginning of the 8th century BCE
were marked by military conflicts between the kings of Israel
and the expanding kingdom of Aram-Damascus. (1 Kings 15:20)
Thus the stele was erected by one of the Aramean kings of
Damascus who captured Dan - although which king cannot be
ascertained. It is probable that in lines 7-8 two kings
of Israel and Judah, who ruled at the same time, are
mentioned: Jehoram, king of Israel and Ahaziah, king of Judah. These two kings
were allies and were defeated by Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus.
(2 Kings 8:7-15, 28; 9:24-29)
The stele describing Hazael's victory over his enemies was, in
all probability, erected by him when he conquered Dan in the
mid-9th century BCE. It is reasonable to assume that Jehoash,
king of Israel, who fought the Arameans three times and
defeated them (2 Kings 13:25) recovering territories
previously lost, including the city of Dan, symbolically
smashed the stele erected there by Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus.
Houses in Dan would have had a central courtyard with a number of rooms opening off it. The rooms would have seemed very small to us - they could only be as wide as the beams that supported the roof. They would also have been stuffy, since there was a minimum of windows. There was of course no glass in the windows: lattice work and shutters covered the openings.
Stairs or a wooden ladder led up onto a flat roof, which was used as an outdoor room partly shaded by woven matting. This space and the courtyard were the main work areas, since they were the only well-lit places. Tasks performed here included
-
spinning and weaving
-
food preparation
-
sleeping
-
drying food or textiles.
The houses would have been crowded with people at all times of the day and night. There was virtually no privacy - anything a person did, no matter how intimate, was done in the presence of others.
A relief carving of the Assyrian
king,
Tiglath-Pileser III, from the walls of his palace
THE END
The Israelite kings, Omri and his son Ahab, rebuilt and strengthened the city. However, when Tiglath-pileser III invaded in 732BC, Dan disappeared from sight. It is probable that Dan’s inhabitants suffered much the same fate as the people of Lachish (see LACHISH for images of the terrible fate of captives), and those that survived were banished together with the other northern Israelites (II Kings 15:29).
Tel Dan ceased to be an important religious center by the end of the Iron Age. Major settlement at Tel Dan ended with the late Roman period (c. 400 AD).
REFERENCES TO DAN IN THE BIBLE
Genesis 14:14
When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
Deuteronomy 34:1-3
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and Plain.
Judges 20:1
Then all the Israelites came out, from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled in one body before the Lord at Mizpah.
Jeremiah 8:16
The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes.
Joshua 19:47-48
When the territory of the Danites was lost to them, the Danites went up and fought against Leshem, and after capturing it and putting it to the sword, they took possession of it and settled in it, calling Leshem, Dan, after their ancestor Dan. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, according to their families - these towns with their villages.
Judges 18
1
In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe
of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they
might settle, because they had not yet come into an
inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
2 So the Danites sent five of their leading men from
Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These
men represented all the Danites. They told them, "Go,
explore the land." So they entered the hill country
of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent
the night.
3 When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the
voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked
him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this
place? Why are you here?"
4 He told them what Micah had done for him, and said,
"He has hired me and I am his priest."
5 Then they said to him, "Please inquire of God to
learn whether our journey will be successful."
6 The priest answered them, "Go in peace. Your
journey has the LORD's approval."
7 So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw
that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians,
unsuspecting and secure. And since their land lacked nothing,
they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the
Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.
8 When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, the Danites
asked them, "How did you find things?"
9 They answered, "Come on, let's attack them! We
have seen the land, and it is very good. Aren't you going to
do something? Don't hesitate to go there and take it
over.
10 When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting
people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a
land that lacks nothing whatever."
11 Then six hundred men of the Danites, armed for
battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol.
12 On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in
Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called
Mahaneh Dan to this day.
13 From there they went on to the hill country of
Ephraim and came to Micah's house.
14 Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish
said to their fellow Danites, "Do you know that one of
these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image
overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do."
15 So they turned in there and went to the house of the
young Levite at Micah's place and greeted him.
16 The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at
the entrance of the gate.
17 The five men who had spied out the land went inside
and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the
priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of
the gate.
18 When the five went into Micah's house and took the
idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to
them, "What are you doing?"
19 They answered him, "Be quiet! Don't say a word.
Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn't it better
that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather
than just one man's household?"
20 The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the
household gods and the idol and went along with the
people.
21 Putting their little children, their livestock and
their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.
22 When they had gone some distance from Micah's house,
the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook
the Danites.
23 As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and
said to Micah, "What's the matter with you that you
called out your men to fight?"
24 He replied, "You took the
gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I
have? How can you ask, 'What's the matter with you?' "
25 The Danites answered, "Don't argue with us, or
some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your
family will lose your lives."
26 So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that
they were too strong for him, turned around and went back
home.
27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest,
and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting
people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down
their city.
28 There was no one to rescue them because they lived a
long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else.
The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt
the city and settled there.
29 They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was
born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish.
30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and
Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were
priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity
of the land.
31 They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all
the time the house of God was in Shiloh.
'So the king held consultations, and made two golden calves, and he said to them "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt!" He set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses of high places, and made priests from a certain part of the people who were not of the sons of Levi.'
1 Kings 15:20
Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
EXTRA WEBSITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions
Temples, gods and goddesses from the ancient world - ANCIENT RELIGIONS
The flawed hero, tricked by a clever woman into giving up his secret - SAMSON
Delilah, one of the Bible's Top Ten Bad Woman - BIBLE PEOPLE
Annihilation at Lachish - BIBLE PLACES, LACHISH
Deborah's and Barak's battle at Mount Tabor - BIBLE WOMEN: DEBORAH
SUMMARY
_____________________________________________________________________
Lands and Cities of the Old and New Testament - Information
for Travelers in Israel and Palestine -
Bible Study Resource
Dan, city of the Golden Calf; the Stele of Dan and the House
of David