"40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan according to its clans.41 The territory of their inheritance included:
Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon and Rakkon, with the area facing Joppa.
47 (When the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. They settled in Leshem and named it Dan after their ancestor.)
48 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, according to its clans." Joshua 19.
"The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain." Judges 1:34
"27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. 28 There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob.
The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. 30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses,[d] and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. 31 They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of Godwas in Shiloh." Judges 18
So the founding of Dan does not have a very nice story. The Danites didn't take the land the Lord had given them, so they attacked "a people at peace and secure" who had "no one to rescue them" and took their city as their own. But that's the city that we are visiting today.
Spring that feeds the Jordan River
The water is so clear!
Telling how Laish became Dan
Things are so much more lush here than where we've been before. It's higher in elevation and cooler.
It's good to know how to get out of the sinkhole!
Later Mark told us the story of how he was attacked by a rabid dog near these steps just 2 months before when he was visiting with another group! We didn't see any dogs today.
The metal structure is where the altar would have been.
The golden calf was probably on this platform.
When the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom they built administrative buildings over the high place. Mark dug here with Byran, the Jewish archeologist who discovered this site in the 1970s-80s.
Emily is sitting on the Judgement Seat
Near the gate and the judgement seat, an archeologist fell over this "curb" and from her position on the ground saw something no one had noticed before: an inscription that mentioned the "house of David". Gila is her name but Byran, the head archeologist got the credit for finding it.
This gate is from about 1800 BC. Byran believed that Abraham could have passed through this gate when rescuing Lot. (Genesis 14:1-16.) But that could have happened before this gate was built.
When they discovered this gate it was well preserved because it had been buried but then it began to melt (it's made from mud). In order to preserve it they built the shade roof over it and filled in behind the gate with dirt. Mark got to help do that!
We got to experience grocery shopping in Israel to buy our picnic lunches for our next stop.
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