Tribe of Dan

Part 2: Dan became the type or pattern, personified as evil-doing throughout the Old Testament. The tribe was placed to the north (Numbers 2:25), and this being the never-regions of darkness and wickedness (Jeremiah 1:14: “Then the LORD said to me, "Out of the north the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land”), because of the tribe’s idolization which covered the world in a darkness (Numbers 2:25: "On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai,”). Yet, if we go even further back, we see a tradition to which identifies the serpent and the lion (Genesis 49:17, also in Deuteronomy 33:22) with Belial (see the literature in Bousset's -- “Antichrist," 1895, pages. 87, 113). Irenæus, book ("Adversus Hæreses," volume. 302), Hippolytus ("De Christo et Antichristo," pp. 14, 15), and other Church fathers that obligate a tradition which cannot but be of Jewish origin, that the Antichrist comes from the tribe of Dan, and this thesis is based on Jeremiah 8:16: "The snorting of his [the enemy's] horses was heard from Dan" — this section referred also in Genesis 46:23 to Dan's idolatry. Irenæus remarks that Dan is, in view of this tradition, not in the Apocalypse (Revelation 7:5-7) among the 144,000 saved one of the twelve tribes. Nor is the omission of Dan in I Chronicles 4 et seq. unintentional. Bousset, who has a special chapter devoted to the “Dan Antichrist theory” (l.c. pp. 112-115), believes that the connection of Dan with Belial in Test. Patr., Dan, 5 points to the same tradition. This seems to find corroboration in Targ. Yer. (Mishnaic Hebrew targûm). Reading of Deuteronomy 34:3, we see where the war against Ahriman )and Gog and Magog in the vision of Moses seem to refer to Dan, (compare Sifre, L.C. translation of the Hebrew word.).

"And Jeremiah does not merely point out his [Antichrist] sudden coming, but he even indicates the tribe from which he shall come, thus stated in Genesis 49:17, 'We shall hear the voice of his swift horses (in reference to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse found in Revelation 6) from Dan; the whole earth shall be moved by the voice of the neighing of his galloping horses: he shall also come and devour the earth, and the fullness thereof, the city also, and they that dwell therein.' This, too, is the reason that this tribe is not reckoned in the Apocalypse along with those which are saved." [Irenaeus, "Against Heresies," Book V, Chap. 30]

The Danish word ‘Daner’ ultimately from a source related to in Old High German “tanar” meaning "sand bank," in reference to their homeland; or from Proto-Germanic *den- "low ground,” and possibly from the root word tsiyim, "wild beasts of the desert, sand, desolate" or "wild beasts of the islands [from PIE *akwa- "water;" see aqua-) + land "land"],” or tsiyyi, “wild beast of the desert, that dwell in inhabiting the wilderness.”  Apply the meanings of tanar and tsiyim to Revelation 13:1, 2. I believe the root word tsiyim is the true meaning of the nature of Dan. Dan is Arab, and the Dragon (a great sea-monster, or the beast that comes out of the sea). The Hebrew word, tannin "a great sea-monster," and tan, a desert mammal believed to be the jackal. Jackal (n.) c.1600, from Turkish çakal, from Persian shaghal, from or cognate with Sanskrit srgala-s, literally "the howler." Figurative sense of "skulking henchman" is from the old belief that jackals stirred up a game for lions.

“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. ²And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.…”   Revelation 13:1, 2

The word tannim, "jackals," from the King James Version "dragons"; compare Arabic tinan, "wolf"; and compare tannin, with Arab tinnin, "sea monster" or "monster" the English Revised Version "dragon" (Job 7:12, Psalm 74:13; Psalm 148:7, Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9, Jeremiah 51:34), "serpent" (Exodus 7:9, 10, 12, Deuteronomy 32:33, Psalm 91:13), the King James Version "whale" (Genesis 1:21, Job 7:12); but tannin, "jackals," the King James Version "sea monsters" (Lamentations 4:3), "jackal's well," the King James Version "dragon well" (Nehemiah 2:13), and tannim, "monster," the King James Version and the English Revised Version "dragon" (Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2).

         I.  'Iyim, "wolves," the King James Version "wild beasts of the islands"; compare 'i, plural iyim, "island"; also 'ayyah, "a cry," 'awah, "to cry," "to howl"; Arabic `auwa', "to bark" (of dogs,   wolves, or jackals); 'ibn 'awa', colloquially wawi, "jackal."

        II.  Tsiyim, "wild beasts of the desert."

       III.  Ochim, "doleful creatures."

The word "Jackals" occurs as a translation of tannim, in the King James Version, and "dragons," in Job 30:29, Psalm 44:19, Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 34:13; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 43:20 Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 14:6; Jeremiah 49:33; Jeremiah 51:37; of the feminine plural form tannoth in Malachi 1:3, and of tannin in Nehemiah 2:13 and Lamentations 4:3. Tannim is frequently referred to as a root meaning "to howl," and a root meaning "to stretch out,” "to run swiftly, i.e. with outstretched neck and limbs extended" (Gesenius). Either derivation would suit "wolf" equally as well as "jackal." The expression in Jeremiah 10:22, "to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals," seems, however, especially appropriate of jackals. The same is true of Isaiah 34:13 Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 49:33, again in 51:37. The purpose for focusing the words like tannin and tsiyim and all their variations is to try and determine consistency between these translations. It appears to me that the King James translation comes the closet or more accurate with its consistency. The King James Version "dragons,” "serpents" is consistent with the time-period when the tribe of Dan was still a part of the twelve tribes, once they left on ships the etymology of the verbiage changes to "wild beasts of the islands.” This will help us greatly in understanding the verbiage in Daniel 11:30, Numbers 24:24, and Isaiah 23:1, regarding “ships of Kittim,” or the “land of Kittim.”

¹³The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia, you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites  Isaiah 21:13

de'-dan, de'dan-its (the King James Version Dedanim, ded'-a-nim; dedhan, "low," dedhanim): An Arabian people named in Genesis 10:7 as descended from Cush; in Genesis 25:3 as descended from Keturah. Evidently, they were, like the related Sheba (Sabaeans), of mixed race (compare Genesis 10:7, 28). In Isaiah 21:13 allusion is made to the "caravans of Dedanites" in the wilds of Arabia, and Ezekiel mentions them as supplying Tyre with precious things (Ezekiel 27:20; in verse 15, "Dedan" should probably be read as in Septuagint, "Rodan," i.e. Rhodians). The name seems still to linger in the island of Dadan, on the border of the Persian Gulf. It is found also in Min. and Sab. inscriptions (Glazer, II, 392).