Dan
The northernmost town of ancient Israel. Jeroboam placed a golden calf here, and the Aramaic stele that names the “House of David” was found in its ruins.
Judges tells how the tribe of Dan seized the town of Laish, renamed it and set up a shrine there (Judges 18:27–31). “From Dan to Beersheba” became the phrase for the whole land (1 Samuel 3:20). Jeroboam I placed one of his two golden calves at Dan (1 Kings 12:28–30); see the Kingdom Divides. The calf was still there in the time of Jehu (2 Kings 10:29), and Amos speaks against those who swear by the god of Dan (Amos 8:14). The site is the mound of Tel Dan, where fragments of an Aramean king’s victory stele were found (Tel Dan Stele Israel Museum record); see the House of David Inscription from Tel Dan.
What happened here
- about 930 BC, estimated dateThe Kingdom Divides
After Solomon’s death the northern tribes reject his son Rehoboam at Shechem and make Jeroboam their king. Israel in the north and Judah in the south become separate kingdoms, and Jeroboam sets up his own sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan.
- about 840 BC, estimated dateThe House of David Inscription from Tel Dan
A king of Aram sets up a victory stele at Dan in which he claims to have killed a king of Israel and a king of the “House of David”. Found in 1993 and 1994, it is the earliest clear mention of David’s dynasty outside the Bible.