Jacob’s fifth son, the first born to Rachel’s maid Bilhah, and named for a verdict: God has judged me, dananni, Rachel says, and has also heard my voice and given me a son (Genesis 30:6, already on these pages). ⭐ Jacob’s oracle plays on the name and then turns it dark: Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel, and then let Dan be a serpent on the way, a viper on the path, biting the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward (Genesis 49:16–17, already on these pages). ⚠ At Deuteronomy 27:13 he is one of the six tribes stationed on Mount Ebal for the curse. The tribe later gives its name to the northern city of Dan, the far end of from Dan to Beersheba, after migrating there from its first allotment — a story told in Judges 18 (not yet on these pages), and the same chapter in which a carved and cast image, the object of Deuteronomy 27:15’s first curse, travels north with them.