Dan
Name meaning: "judgment; he that judges"
Dan (meaning judgment or he that judges) was the fifth son of Jacob, born to Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid (Genesis 30:6). Rachel named him Dan, saying, "God has judged me." He was the progenitor of the tribe of Dan, which in the wilderness encampment led the north section of Israel's formation (Numbers 2:25). The tribe received a coastal allotment west of Benjamin but was unable to hold it against the Philistines (Judges 1:34–35), leading to a migration northward where they conquered Laish and renamed it Dan (Judges 18). The city of Dan at the far northern frontier gave rise to the proverbial phrase from Dan to Beersheba denoting the full extent of the land of Israel. Jeroboam I erected one of his golden calves at Dan (1 Kings 12:29), making it a center of the northern kingdom's rival worship.