Judges 18:29

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) They called the name of the city Dan.—Just as the Messenians changed the name Zankle into Messene.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rehob (as Dan afterward) is mentioned as the northernmost point of the land of Canaan Numbers 13:21, and its position is defined with reference to the entering in of Hamath.

A city - Rather, "the" city. They rebuilt Laish, which they had burned down Judges 18:29.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28, 29. they built a city, and … call the name of that city Dan—It was in the northern extremity of the land, and hence the origin of the phrase, "from Dan to Beer-sheba."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

After the name of Dan their father; that it might be manifest that they belonged to the tribe of Dan, though they were seated at a great distance from them, even in the most northerly part of the land; whereas the lot of their tribe was in the southern part of Canaan.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they called the name of the city Dan,.... The name of their tribe, and to show that though they were at the furthest part of the land northward, and at such a distance from their tribe, which lay to the southwest, yet they belonged to it:

after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel; one of the twelve sons of Jacob or Israel:

however, the name of the city was Laish at first; which signifies a "lion", and might be so called from its being infested with lions, which might come from the mountain of Lebanon, near to which it was, and whither Dan, as a lion's whelp, leaped, Deuteronomy 33:22 and now the prophecy had its accomplishment. This place was also called Leshem, Joshua 19:47 and it is remarkable that Leshem is the name of the precious stone in the high priest's breastplate, on which the name of Dan was engraved, which was done many years before this city fell into the hands of the Danites, though that might portend it.

Geneva Study Bible

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. howbeit … at the first] The same formula in Genesis 28:19 E; here evidently an editorial, later addition, together with who was born unto Israel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - Howbeit Laish was the name, etc. The strange form here given in the Septuagint, Oulamais, arises from their having taken the Hebrew word for howbeit (oulam) as part of the name, and left out the L of Laish (see ver. 7, note). Judges 18:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And they (the Danites) had taken what Micah had made, i.e., his idols and his priest, and they fell upon Laish (על כּוא, to come over a person, to fall upon him, as in Genesis 34:25), a people living quietly and free from care (vid., Judges 18:7), smote them with the edge of the sword (see at Genesis 34:26), and burned down the city (cf. Joshua 6:24), as it had no deliverer in its isolated condition (Judges 18:28; cf. Judges 18:7). It was situated "in the valley which stretches to Beth-rehob." This valley is the upper part of the Huleh lowland, through which the central source of the Jordan (Leddan) flows, and by which Laish-Dan, the present Tell el Kadi, stood (see at Joshua 19:47). Beth-rehob is most probably the same place as the Rehob mentioned in Numbers 13:21, and the Beth-rehob of 2 Samuel 10:6, which is there used to designate a part of Syria, and for which Rehob only is also used in Judges 18:8. Robinson (Bibl. Res. pp. 371ff.) supposes it to be the castle of Hunin or Honin, on the south-west of Tell el Kadi; but this is hardly correct (see the remarks on Numbers 13:21, Pent. p. 709). The city, which lay in ashes, was afterwards rebuilt by the Danites, and called Dan, from the name of the founder of their tribe; and the ruins are still to be seen, as already affirmed, on the southern slope of the Tell el Kadi (see Rob. Bibl. Res. pp. 391-2, and the comm. on Joshua 19:47).