Dan (once Canaanite Laish) stood near the junction
of two major roads in the time of the First Testament. Since there
were then no bridges in the land, travelers
on the Great Trunk Road between Egypt
and Damascus had only two options for dealing with the Upper Jordan:
either to ford it on the basalt barrier east of Hazor
or to circumvent its springs, including the one at Dan.
The other major road also came from Damascus, stretched westward
from the city and reached the sea at Tyre or Sidon. This may have
been the "way of the sea" (Vulgate: via maris) of Isaiah
9:1, quoted in Matthew
4:15. The connection with Sidon is obliquely attested in Judges
18:7, The people of Laish) "were far from the Sidonians and had
no dealings with anyone."
A third major road passed nearby: it stretched north from Hazor to
the cities of the Tigris, via Carchemish and Haran.
|
Having command of such a junction, Dan would not have allowed a rival to
develop at the nearby spring of Banias. If
you didn't pay your toll and spend your money, you would soon find out that
"Dan
shall be a serpent in the way,
A horned
snake in the path,
That bites
the horse's heels,
So that
his rider falls backward."
(Genesis 49:17)
The site includes a sumptuous nature reserve as
well as many unique archaeological finds.
The reserve is laid out with several options for walks, including a paved
path and a wooden ramp along part of the roaring river. If you want to reach
the spring, however, you'll need good shoes, good balance, good bones, good
luck and both hands free.
The
spring puts out about 250 million cubic meters of water per year, or
roughly eight cubic meters per second. This is more than an eighth
of all the water that present-day Israel uses in a year.
Its
origin is rain on the lower slopes of Mt. Hermon (9146 feet above
sea level). Mixing with dead plant debris in the soil, the water picks
up carbon dioxide and becomes somewhat acidic. Percolating into the
mountain, this acidic solution gradually dissolves some of the
rock, moving sideways along the cracks between layers and fractures,
until emerging (under gravity and hydraulic pressure) as a spring.
Such a spring is called "karstic." (On karst.) Here at Dan we have
the largest karstic spring in the Middle East.
|
We sit
beside it and read Psalms 42 and 43, songs of the "sons of Korah." Several
names in the psalm refer to this region, although we cannot identify Mt. Mizar.
(Psalms
42-43 )
©
2003
Near East Tourist Agency
(NET)
Text
© 2003 Stephen
Langfur
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN
STANDARD BIBLE(r),
(c) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995 by
The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
(www.Lockman.org)
MAIN MENU
|
