The Camp of Dan and the Camp of Yahweh

Abstract

As the name of a particular location the Camp of Dan (Mahaneh-Dan) appears only twice in the Bible, on both occasions in the Book of Judges. In xiii 25 it describes a spot between Zorah and Eshtaol where the spirit of Yahweh began to stir Samson, and according to xviii 12 there is a place of the same name just west of Kiriath-jearim where six hundred Danites from Zorah and Eshtaol encamped on their way to the north, having set out to seek a new home. These two places are connected by eight miles of sunken road which follows the course of the wadi el-Hamar and at one time formed part of the boundary between the territories of Benjamin and Judah 1). The short distance between them, together with the fact that they are on the same road, seem to make it very unlikely that we are dealing here with different villages both with the same name, and it is for this reason that BURNEY assumed the name to be erroneously inserted in the Samson narrative 2). Nevertheless Biblical writers are usually very particular about topographical determinations so that we ought to work on the assumption that there were indeed two sites called Mahaneh-Dan, eight miles from one another on the same road. For ALT this peculiar fact provides further evidence for his interpretation of Israel's early history. He argues that the name dates back to the time when the originally nomadic Danites began to settle as farmers. They may have erected a few service buildings but nevertheless continued to live in tents. In this way they retained a certain mobility which suited their primitive agriculture, for when the summer drought hit the fields down below in the valley they could all move to a camp high