Laish

Biblical Text and Narrative

Laish is a city that appears in Judges 18. Among the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of Dan had not yet obtained land in which to settle, so it sent five men from Zorah and Eshtaol as spies. The place they came to was Laish. Judges 18:7 relates that the people there dwelt "careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure," that they were far from the Zidonians, and that they had no business with any man.

The tribe of Dan then sent six hundred armed men. On the way, in the hill country of Ephraim, they seized Micah's idol and his Levite priest. They then struck Laish, burned it, and rebuilt the city, renaming it Dan after their ancestor Dan. Judges 18:29 notes, "howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first." In Joshua 19:47, which briefly summarizes the same event, the city is called "Leshem."

Background

According to Judges 18:28, Laish lay in the valley near Beth-rehob. It is generally identified today with Tel Dan (Arabic Tell el-Qadi), where one of the headwaters of the Jordan River rises. Bronze Age city gates and walls have been excavated at the site, although scholars differ on the dating and interpretation of individual remains.

The name Laish (Hebrew Layish) is identical in form to a Hebrew word for "lion." Whether the place name actually derives from that meaning is uncertain. A person of the same name also appears in the Bible: "Phalti the son of Laish" in 1 Samuel 25:44 is one example, though this individual has no connection to the city.

Significance in the Wider Biblical Narrative

After Laish became Dan, the city came to mark the northern limit of the land of Israel, so that the expression "from Dan even to Beersheba" came to denote all Israel (Judges 20:1 and elsewhere). Judges 18:30–31 relates that the Danites set up the idol they had taken, and records that Jonathan, son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, and his descendants became their priests. The same passage notes that at that time the house of God was in Shiloh, setting the two places of worship in contrast.

Later, Jeroboam placed a golden calf in Dan (1 Kings 12:29), and the city thus became associated with the idolatry of the northern kingdom of Israel. The name Laish does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Debate

Judges 17–21 repeatedly states, "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Interpreters often read the conquest of Laish within this framework.

• Critical reading: Noting that the tribe of Dan failed to take possession of the territory originally allotted to it (cf. Judges 1:34) and instead attacked a remote city whose people lived in peace, this reading sees the account as illustrating the disorder and spiritual decline of the period of the judges.
• Conquest-account reading: This reading regards the account as a record of part of the process of settlement in the land of Canaan.

The text neither directly praises nor condemns the conquest; moral evaluation is left to the interpreter.

Genesis 14:14 records that Abraham pursued his enemies "unto Dan." Opinions differ as to whether this "Dan" refers to the later Laish. One view holds that the name was later updated to a place name familiar to subsequent readers; another holds that it refers to a different location.