Page 20 - Holyland Magazine - 2016 Edition

Hill of Judgment
Tel Dan is one of the best places in Israel to truly learn the lessons
of the tempestuous rise and fall of the Northern Kingdom

By Miriam Feinberg Vamosh The judge grew angry that any one of them, read, “Dan will provide justice for his people,”
Photos: Yael Ilan all created equal by God, could presume to to know where he was. Since 1966, the
be greater than another, and he decided to results of the longest-running archaeological
When American clergyman and punish them. ‘The three shall become one.’” excavation in Israel, headed by Professor
explorer Edward Robinson And as you see, the locals explained to Avraham Biran of the Hebrew Union College
showed up in 1838 at the large, Robinson, the three streams in this area unite Nelson Gluck School of Archaeology, have
flat-topped mound rising next to to form the Jordan, and the judge’s sentence proven Robinson correct. This is Dan – where
a powerful stream in the shadow is the reason. Jeroboam set up his golden calf to rival the
of Mount Hermon, he asked the locals one Jerusalem Temple, and which was destroyed
question: “What do you call this hill?” But Robinson, a scriptural geographer, by the Assyrians in 732 BCE.
trained by the best semitic linguists of the day,
“We call it the hill of the judge,” they realized that folk names in the Holy Land often Christians visiting Dan find a wealth of
responded. “Long ago,” they told him they contained the kernel of biblical names. All he opportunities to make biblical history come
heard from their grandfathers, “the three had to do was to open to Genesis 49:16 and alive. They can also enjoy a walk through
rivers of this region came before a great judge
who used to sit on this hill. ‘Judge between
us, which is the greatest,’ they demanded.

20 The Dan River winds through a flourishing reserve rich with species few associate with the Israeli landsc1ap0e