Dan: The Gate of Judgment

 

Heading east from the pistachio tree, crossing an old trench of the Israeli army (for Dan is on the border with Lebanon and the army had positions here until 1967) we take the steps down the rampart and continue east, arriving at a large gate system attributed to Ahab. (There are traces of an older gate that may well go back, along with the cobbled plaza, to Jeroboam son of Nebat, first ruler of the northern kingdom.) In a wall bordering the cobbled plaza, a large stone fragment with an Aramaic inscription turned up, containing a rare extra-biblical reference to "the house of David." (It is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.)

 

The gate system is paltry reconstructed. As we enter, we see a small platform, original and in situ, with carved stone bases (one of them original) at its corners. These held wooden posts which supported a canopy. To the right is a long bench.

 

Often in the Bible we read of a court session taking place in the city gate or of the elders sitting there. This makes sense, because most people were not living in the city at all, rather in villages outside. Often there would be disputes involving the rural folk, and the ideal place would be the gate. Here at Dan, uniquely, the courtroom has been found: both the platform which supported the ruler's throne and the bench for the elders.

 

 

The whole procedure was sanctified by a standing stone (Heb. masseba) to the left of the platform: the ruler's right.

After facing the Chief Justice, if we now turn to the right, we see a modest construction including five standing stones (below).

 

 

When the ancients located a place as sacred, they often set up such stones or massebot. Example This was a sanctuary. The low benches must have held offerings. There was a time, apparently, when many towns in Israel and Judah had shrines in their gates, for King Josiah, we learn, destroyed them: "He broke down the high places of the gates." (2 Kings 23:8) This shrine at Dan escaped Josiah: his reforming hand did not reach so far north.

 

There was a logic in having shrines at the gates. People wanted divine protection at their borders, whether of the city or the nation.

 

Concerning the nation, the first king of the north, Jeroboam son of Nebat, set up shrines with golden calves at the two extremities of his domain: Bethel and Dan. The high place at Bethel has not been found, but Biran has excavated the one at Dan. We head in its direction, but several things will interrupt us on the way.  

 

We go through the gates with their chambers, noting the stones in which the hinges swiveled and, on the inside of the inner gate, the mark of the slamming door. As we ascend the path, our right side would be exposed to the Israelite wall (if it were still there). Since most people are right-handed, members of an attacking army would have had their spears in their right hands and their shields in the left. The access is set up, then, to catch right-handed attackers here. An enemy army would send its left-handed soldiers first, but there is another bend above to deal with them. This double-L access is standard through the ages (e.g., the main Crusader gate at Caesarea Maritima, the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem).

 

At the top of the zigzag path are the remains of yet another gate, this about a century later than Ahab's. It was built as an extra defense against the Assyrians, who first conquered the land in 735 BC. The whole gate complex was destroyed at this time. (Biran, p. 246)