CHAPTER IV
DAN -- THE
SERPENT'S TRAIL
The question
naturally arises, "How did the prince, the highest branch of the cedar of
Lebanon, get to the isles of the sea?"
To get to the bottom of that which is involved in the reply to this
question we will need to understand some of the characteristics, and acquaint
ourselves with some of the prophecies, which pertain to the tribe of Dan.
The prophecies
which dying Jacob gave concerning what the posterity of each of his sons was to
become in the last days, is recorded in the forty-ninth chapter of
Genesis. In the seventeenth verse is a
part of the prophecy concerning the tribe of Dan, the first clause of which,
according to the King James' translation, reads as follows: "Dan shall be
a serpent by the way." But a
better translation is as follows: "Dan shall be a serpent's trail." A
few points in the history of the children of Dan will show us how they became a
serpent's trail.
In the
division of the land by lot, a narrow strip of seacoast country, west of
Ephraim and Benjamin, fell to Dan. But
this country soon became too small for the tribe, as we are told in the
following: "The coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them;
therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and
smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and
called Leshem, Dan, after the name of
Dan, their father," (Joshua 19:47).
Concerning the
Danites, we have also the following: "And there went from thence of the
family of the Danites, out of Zorab and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men
appointed with weapons of war. And they
went up, and pitched in Kirjathjearim, in Judah; wherefore they called that
place Mahaneh-dan unto this day," (Judges 18:11-12).
Again we are
told concerning this same company of six hundred that they came to Laish,
"A people that were at quiet and secure; and they smote them with the edge
of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.... And they built a city and dwelt
therein. 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," (Judges 18:29).
A company of
Danites went to Leshem, and it became Dan.
A company of Danites went to Kirjathjearim, and it became
Mahaneh-Dan. They went on to Laish, and
it ceased to exist, but they left their trail, i.e., DAN, the name of their father, and thus their trail can be traced, not
only from Dan to Beer-Sheba, but to
the islands of the sea both by land and by water, for Dan had an inland country
and a coast country. The inland company of Danites went west with the Overland
Column, and the coast company went by water, for "Dan abode in his
ships."
Thus we have
the prophecy concerning the ships of Tarshish, i.e., the ends of the world:
"Be still (margin: silent) ye
inhabitants of the isles; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the
sea, have replenished," (Isa. 23:2). Also,
in the sixth verse, is the following: "Pass ye over to Tarshish: howl, ye
inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous city [Tyre] whose antiquity is of
ancient days? Her own feet [means of travel] shall carry her afar off to
sojourn."
In these
scriptures we are informed that the isles of the sea were replenished by the
ships whose seaports were Tyre and Zidon, which were ports of Palestine. Also
the people by whom the islands were replenished, or peopled, are commanded to keep
silent; just as this same prophet, in another place, commands Israel in the
island to keep silent until they should renew their strength.
When
Shalmanesar descended upon Israel, he did not disturb those portions of the
tribes of Dan and Simeon, which were dwelling on the southwest coast of
Palestine, for the kingdom of Judah was then at peace with Assyria and lay
between them and Samaria. However, both Dan and Simeon had large colonies in
the interior, Dan in the north (Judges 18) and Simeon in the east, at Mount
Sier, the region formerly occupied by the Amelekites (I Chron. 4:42-43). These portions of Dan and Simeon went
with the rest of Samaria-Israel into Assyria, and with them passed out through
the Caucasian Pass. The territory into
and through which the ten tribes made their escape was just north of the
Caucasus, which in ancient geography, as may be seen by consulting ancient
maps, was known as the territory of the Sarmatians, while the pass, or gate,
was sometimes called "The Sarmatian Gate." Not a few have shown, and upon good grounds, that the name of
Sarmatia was derived from Samaria, the earlier home of these wandering people,
whose general name among themselves was Scoloti, but whom the Greeks
called Scythians, or Nomades. From that word Scoloti we have the more modern name Scoti, and the still more modern Scots, which, of course, mean the same as the Greek, Scythia and
Nomades, i.e., wanderers.
But this is
only one of the many names by which these wanderers, or Scots, may be traced,
for in their western march across the European continent, which was necessarily
slow, Ephraim did obey the prophetic injunction, "Set thee up waymarks," (Jer. 31:21). And just here we
must keep in mind the fact that in the ancient Hebrew there are no written vowels,
and that in the word Dan there are
only two letters used which are equivalent to the English D and N. Hence it
makes no difference if the word is Dan, Don, Dun, Din or Den, it is equal to
the Hebrew D-n, in which the speaker sounds the vowel according to characteristics
of his own dialect.
On the west
side of the Black Sea, there is, according to ancient geography, a region
which was called "Moesia," signifying the land of the Moses-ites, and
the people of which were called Moesi, or Mosesites. These people had such
great reverence for a person whom they called Zal-moxis, whom Herodotus, the
father of history, supposed to be their God, and concerning whom he concludes
his account as follows: “Zalmoxis must
have lived many years before Pythagoras; whether therefore he was
a man ot a deity of the Getae, enough has been said of him." T. R. Howlett says, "Zalmoxis, whom
Herodotus supposed them to worship as a god, is without doubt Moses; Zal
signifying "chief," or "leader," while Moxis and Aloses are but
the Greek for the Hebrew Mosie, which
is also rendered Moses in our tongue.
Moesia was
bounded on the south by Mace-Don-ia and the Dar-DAN-ells, and on the north by
the river DAN-ube. In the territory of
Sarmatia, which in some maps is Scythia, in others Gomer, there are the rivers
D-n-iper, D-n-ister, and the DON. The
fact that the Dnieper and the Dniester are written without a vowel between the
D and the N is quite as significant as the fact that the Don has one.
Professor
Totten says: "There is no grander theme
upon the scrolls of history than the story of this struggle of the
Anglo-Saxons westward. The very streams of Europe mark their resting-places,
and in the root of nearly all their ancient names (Dan, or Don) recall the
sacred stream, Jor-dan -- river of rest -- from whose banks, so far away, as
exiles, they set out. It was either the
little colony of Dan, obeying its tribal proclivity for naming everything it
captured (Jud. 18:1-12-29) after
their father, or else the mere survival of a word and custom; but, none the
less, it serves to trace these wanderers like a trail. Hence the Dan-ube, the Dan-ieper, the Dan-iester,
the Dan-au, the Dan-inn. the Dan-aster, the Dan-dan, the Dan-ez, the Daci and Davi, the Dan,
the Don, the U-don the Eri-don, and the thousand other dans and dons
of ancient and early geography, down to the Danes in Dan-emerke, or "Dan's
last resting place." To this we
would add, that, during all these years of blindness concerning the birthright
tribes, the people of Den-mark have been called DAN-es, and that the people in
contiguous countries, while having different local names, have been called by
the same generic name, i.e., Scan-DIN-navia.
Also that Denmark, the modern form of Danemerke, means "Dan's
mark," that too, to the people of the lost birthright. The very people who have hunted most for the
way-marks which God told them to set up.
All that
Scandinavian country, and much more, once belonged to Denmark, which is now
reduced to a comparatively small region.
Yet we believe that little kingdom will stand until the end of this age.
When dying Jacob called his sons together about him that he might tell them
what their posterity should become in the last days, he began his prophecy concerning
Dan as follows: "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of
Israel." Then, immediately
following, is the expression, "Dan shall be a serpent by the way."
(Isaac Leeser's translation.)
In this
prophecy Jacob does not say, as many seem to think, that Dan in the last days
shall become the ruler of the other tribes of Israel; for the Eternal One has
said, "Judah is my law giver."
But what Jacob does say is, that Dan as one of the tribes of Israel shall render a verdict, or judge his
people Israel. How? Because he shall,
like a serpent, leave his mark or trail, that Israel may find it in the last
days, and that they may say, "There is one of the lost tribes of
Israel." When this verdict has been rendered, then Dan will have judged
his people Israel. It may be that the
word Israel, as used in the prophecy above, is used in its broadest sense, and
includes both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. We are inclined to
this opinion, for reasons which follow:
When Dan was
born, Rachel said: "God hath judged me, and bath also heard my voice, and
bath given me a son; therefore she called his name Dan." The word in
Hebrew means "Judge," and
Daniel means "The judge of
God." Thus Dan
"judge," and El "God," hence Daniel, the judge of God. Thus
Jacob in his last day's prophecy concerning the tribe of Dan plays on their
tribal name, and says the judge shall judge, or, in other words, that Dan shall Dan. What? Dan shall Dan!
Yes; and he certainly has Dan-ed, and
Dan-ed, and Dan-ed, and kept on Dan-ing until he has given abundant evidence to
his people that he is one of the tribes of Israel, for they now see the mark of
his trail, i.e., DAN.
It is now more
than two hundred and fifty years since a Danish peasant, who, with his
daughter, was following their plow in their native country. when the daughter's
plow turned up a bright and glittering something, which upon examination proved
to be a golden trumpet. It was taken to the authorities, and, beyond all doubt,
identified as one of the SEVEN Golden
Trumpets used in the altar service of the temple at Jerusalem. This
trumpet, which is now in the National Museum at Copenhagen, is ornamented with
a lily and pomegranate the lily being the national flower of Egypt, and the
pomegranate that of Palestine -- thus showing the half Egyptian and half
Israelitish origin of the birthright nation of which the tribe of Dan was a
part.
Just before
Moses died, he, like Jacob, gave prophecies concerning each tribe in Israel,
and of Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's whelp; he shall leap from
Bashan." Bashan was on Palestinean territory, hence Dan is to leap from
that country, but it is left for history to tell where that leap landed him.
And it is a well-authenticated fact that, after the coast colonies of Dan and
Simeon knew that their king and their brethren were defeated, then they
embarked in their ships and fled to the islands of the sea which are to the
northwest of Europe. For the people who
are known by all historians to have been the first settlers of Ireland are
called "Tuatha de Danaans," which literally means "The tribe of
Dan." These Danaans of Ireland
correspond to the Danaoi of the
Greeks, and Latin Danas, and the
Hebrew Dan.
The Lord, by
the mouth of the Psalmist, declares that "He breaketh [or driveth] the
ships of Tarshish with an east wind." As these Si-don-ians from the port
of Si-don are driven, like Ephraim,
WEST by an east wind, they not only leave their trail along the shores of the
Mediterranean in Dens, Dins and Dons, but on the Peninsula of Spain. Just
before passing out through the strait into the great waters they left a mark
that remains unto this day, i.e., Me-din-a Sidon-ia.
That Dan's
leap landed him in Ireland is evident, for in that island we find to this day
Dans-Lough, Dan-Sower, Dan-Monism, Dun-dalke, Dun-drum, Don-egal Bay and Don-e-gal City,
with Dun-glow and Lon-don-derry just north of them. But there is also Din-gle, Dun-garven
and Duns-more, which means "More Dan's." And, really, there
are so many more that we have no space for them, except to mention Dangan
Castle, where the Duke of Wellington was born, and to say that Dunn in the Irish language means just
what Dan means in the Hebrew, i.e., a judge.
It is
remarkable that there is not only a river Don
in Scotland, but also a river Doon, and
that there is also a river Don in
England. Also that these countries are as full of Dans, Dons and Duns as
Ireland, for in them are not only such names as Dundee, Dunkirk, Danbar,
Dunraven, and many others, but the name of DAN, the son of Jacob, son of
Isaac, son of Abraham, lies buried in the name of their capital cities, i.e.,
E-DAN-burgh and Lon-don. Surely Dan hath Dan-ed, or judged among his people, and thus
fulfilled the sure word of prophecy.
We are told
that, in the days of Solomon, "Every three years came the ships of
Tarshish." Eight hundred and sixty years before Christ we are told that
Jonah went to Joppa, a seaport within the borders of Dan, and found a ship
going to Tarshish, and that he took passage in it to go to Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord. Just how long the ships of Palestinean seaports had been
replenishing, or colonizing, the isles, even before the Assyrian captivity of
the ten tribes, is not known, but historians place the time as early as 900 B.
C. This gives abundant time for some prince of the Zarah branch of Judah's
family to have preceded Israel to the isles, and to have had a large colony
even before the Birthright went to Assyria, an event which did not occur until
721 B. C. That one of those princes did precede Israel to the isles of the sea
is evident; first, because God says he did, and, second, because it is recorded
in the Milesian records of Ireland
that the prince Herremon, to whom Tea Tephi was married, was a prince of the "Tuatha de Daanans."
Mark
this! If that prince was a prince of the tribe of Dan -- and authentic history
declares he was -- then he was a prince of the family of Judah, for there can
be no Prince of Dan other than a
prince of the royal family of HIS
RACE, and that family has but one fountain head, i.e., Judah, the fourth son of
Jacob and Leah, to whom pertains the sceptre blessing.
But this rule
seems to have worked both ways, for the family ensign of Judah is a lion, and
since one of his whelps (young lion) went to the northwest isles with Dan, as a
matter of course the ensign of his family, the royal family, went with him.
Thus it became associated with the "Tuatha de Daanans," the tribe of
Dan, and in time found its way into their national seal. See the accompanying cut.
The figure on
this seal is described as "A Lion's
Whelp with a Serpent's Tail." The largest of these represent Denmark,
and the other two Norway and Sweden, which were at that time under the dominion of Denmark.