So, they were Danites. Genesis 49 records some of the prophetic character of the tribe of Dan. This, perhaps, is the most curious of all the prophesies that Jacob gave, because Dan is a curious people.
Just on the surface, here, it seems that the people of Dan make good judges. "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." That, perhaps, is a fairly good interpretation of this. However, even though they may be good leaders, if we take it to mean that, they have a knack for trickery, guerilla warfare, underhandedness, not playing by the rules. That is what a snake does. A serpent by the path that jumps up and bites the horse's heels so that the rider falls backward—that is underhanded. That is like striking out of ambush. Even though they may be good leaders, they have this underhanded tendency to do things not by the book, to go around the rules.
There is another way of looking at verse 16 and that is that Dan, his people, will judge as one of the tribes of Israel, which is another way of turning the syntax around, meaning that Dan himself, will judge himself to be one of the tribes of Israel. He will consider himself to be one of the tribes of Israel, but he will do things his own way. That is another way of looking at it. We should think of these things in terms of Samson as we go through his life. Samson certainly thinks of himself as a faithful Israelite, but he is going to do things his own way, just like the tribe of Dan decided that, yes, they are a part of Israel, but they would go their own way.
Now, we have always talked about the 'serpent by the way' being their tendency to name things, regions, and cities and towns by their own name: Danube, Dneiper, Denmark, Dan this, Dan that. That is certainly a one way to look at this. But, I think that we have to look at this also in what Jesus said about the wisdom of a serpent. That is how they tended to be; wise, but sometimes wise in a tricky way.
Now, what about, "I have waited for your salvation, O Lord," which is tacked on to the end of this? Is this a plea from Jacob, "God! Save my son, Dan!"? Perhaps. Revelation 7 does not list Dan among the tribes of Israel in the 144,000. Their place is taken by Manasseh. Joseph is given two, and Dan is the one that is dropped. Could it be that Dan takes himself so much away from the rest of the tribes of Israel that God hardly considers him one of the tribes of Israel anymore but allows his place to be taken by the half-tribe of Manasseh. Perhaps.
What Jacobs says is a bit controversial. Just about everything, it seems, can be translated a different way or understood in a different way. But keying off the meaning of Dan, which means "judge," verse 16 implies one of two things and they are opposites. It could imply that Dan judges Israel or that the tribes of Israel judge Dan. It could work both ways in the Hebrew. It may mean his people will judge Dan as one of the tribes of Israel. That at a certain point they will say, "Yeah, they're one of us, they are part of us." Or it could mean, conversely, that Dan's decisions or Dan's victories will benefit all Israel. It is really hard to say because the wording is just very imprecise.
It also says that Dan is a serpent by the way. This, again, could be taken in a couple of ways. It could imply that Dan uses cunning tactics, maybe guerilla war, that allows them to defeat stronger enemies. Or it could mean that like a viper moving in sand, Dan leaves a trail behind it. That is how the church has looked at it in the past because Dan has a tradition of leaving his name, the tribe's name, behind wherever they migrate. So you have rivers like the Danube, you have the Dnieper, you have Denmark, you have Dunkirk, and various other places that have "Dan" as part of a place name.
Finally, when Jacob says, "I have waited for your salvation, O Lord," this may imply that Dan may be the last of the Israelites tribes to turn to God. They are missing from the tribal roll call in Revelation 7, so we have to ask, will most of the tribe have to wait until the second resurrection before joining Israel? And that may be the answer to the earlier question that the tribes of Israel will judge that Dan is part of them. I do not know, it is hard to say, but these are possibilities.
That is not a nice thing to say about your son. Jacob called Dan a snake, sitting near the path, ready to cause mischief. You get the idea that Dan is not like the other tribes of Israel. Dan is different. Dan tends to be sneaky, one who will fight from ambush. Even though it says that he will judge his people (I guess they have some good qualities), you get the idea that Danites are not quite up to the level of the other Israelite tribes for some reason.
