Elul 9 – She Called His Name Dan

Elul 9, 5785; from sunset September 1, 2025, to sunset September 2, 2025

(The ninth day of the sixth month)

This is the name “Dan” as it appears in Deuteronomy 33:22 (Moses’ blessing) of the Aleppo Codex. The name “Dan” comes from the verb-root “din” meaning “judge, contend, or plead.”

Photo credit: Today in the Bible

Our featured image for today is the place of the king’s throne in the city of Dan in northern Israel. The king would have made his “judgments” from here. Dan is also the location of one of the golden calves installed by Jeroboam.

Birth of Dan

Dan, the son of Jacob and Bilhah, fifth of the Twelve Tribes, was born on Elul 9 in Haran.

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. – Genesis 30:1-6 (NKJ)

The name Dan comes from the verb-root “din” (pronounced like “deen”) which means “to judge, contend, or plead.” Rachel said she gave him this name because, “God has ‘judged’ my case…”

Jacob’s blessing for Dan

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward. I have waited for your salvation, O LORD! – Genesis 49:16-18 (NKJ)

Moses’ blessing for Dan

And of Dan he said: “Dan is a lion’s whelp; he shall leap from Bashan.” – Deuteronomy 33:22 (NKJ)

Jasher

The book of Jasher tells us that Dan married a Moabitess named Aphlaeth.

… Dan went to the land of Moab and took for a wife Aphlaleth, the daughter of Chamudan the Moabite, and he brought her to the land of Canaan. And Aphlaleth was barren, she had no offspring, and God afterward remembered Aphlaleth the wife of Dan, and she conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Chushim. – Jasher 45:7-8

It also mentions the death of Dan in Egypt.

And in the eightieth year (in Egypt) died his brother Dan; he was a hundred and twenty years at his death, and he was also put into a coffin and given into the hands of his children. – Jasher 62:2

And Dan was buried in the city of his children in Eshtael… – Jasher 90:44

Other traditions list Dan’s age at 125 at the time of his death.

Just a reminder that it’s tradition to read Psalm 27 daily through the Feast of Tabernacles. You can find it by clicking on the link.

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