In the Old Testament, a son of Jacob and Bilhah, Rachel’s maid (Gen. 30:5–6).
The tribe of Dan
For Jacob’s blessing on Dan, see Genesis 49:16–18. For Moses’ blessing on the tribe of Dan, see Deuteronomy 33:22. After they settled in Canaan, the tribe of Dan received a small but extremely fertile piece of land (Josh. 19:40–48). They had a good deal of difficulty protecting it against the Amorites (Judg. 1:34) and against the Philistines (Judg. 13:2, 25; 18:1). As a result, the Danites moved north of Palestine (Judg. 18), around Laish, and renamed that city Dan. This town is well known as the northern limit of Palestine, which extended “from Dan even to Beer-sheba.”