DAN, a tribe of Israel named after a son of Jacob and Bilhah, the maid of Rachel. The earlier home of the tribe was to the west of Judah, where it seems that they occupied the sea coast, cover ing the caravan routes, where the weakness of the later kings of the Egyptian 18th dynasty made it possible for them freely to plunder travellers (Judges v. 17; Gen. xlix.). The Philistine settlements naturally came into contact first with this tribe, and in the days of Samson their territory was reduced to small compass, embrac ing only the neighbouring villages of Zorah and Eshtaol. The story of Samson gives us traditions of the struggle which ended in the expulsion of the Danites. In Judges xvii. seq. we have the narra tive of their migration to a new site in the far north. This was their home during the whole period of the northern monarchy, and their settlement centred round one of the most famous sanctu aries in Israel. The fact that several of the famous Israelite artists (especially in metal) are connected with the tribe of Dan (cf. e.g., Exod. xxxi. 6; II Chron. ii. 13 seq.) has suggested that early tradition connected Dan with the Calebites and Kenites.
In the monarchic period the importance of Dan is almost en tirely religious. It was a home of bull worship, and tradition as cribes the introduction of this cult to Jeroboam I. (I Ki. xii. 28-30), but the shrine is far older, and its priesthood traced its descent from Moses himself (Judges xviii. 3o). Dan was subse quently either regarded as the embodiment of wickedness or entirely ignored (the list of the redeemed in Rev. vii. 5-8 omits the tribe of Dan altogether). Late speculation that the Antichrist should spring from it appears to be based upon an interpretation of Gen. xlix. 17.