Bible Dictionary Definitions

Click here to show/hide instructions.

Verse You Selected:

Translation	Verse	Text
Strong Concordance	Ge 49:17	Dan [01835] shall be a serpent [05175] by the way [01870], an adder [08207] in the path [0734], that biteth [05391] the horse [05483] heels [06119], so that his rider [07392] shall fall [05307] backward [0268].

Summary Of Definitions Associated With The Selected Verse

Open All | Close All Open All | Close All

Word	American Tract Society - Definition
ADDER	A species of serpent, more commonly called viper. The word adder is used five times in the Bible, as a translation of four different serpents of the venomous sort. In Ge 49:17, it seems to mean the cerastes, or horned viper, of the color of sand, and very deadly bite; accustomed to lie hidden in the tracks in the sand, and dart up on the unwary traveller. In Ps 58:4 91:13, it is probably the asp. In Ps 140:3 perhaps the tarantula, or some serpent that strikes backwards. See SERPANT, VIPER.

Word

American Tract Society - Definition

ADDER

A species of serpent, more commonly called viper. The word adder is used five times in the Bible, as a translation of four different serpents of the venomous sort. In Ge 49:17, it seems to mean the cerastes, or horned viper, of the color of sand, and very deadly bite; accustomed to lie hidden in the tracks in the sand, and dart up on the unwary traveller. In Ps 58:4 91:13, it is probably the asp. In Ps 140:3 perhaps the tarantula, or some serpent that strikes backwards. See SERPANT, VIPER.

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

ADDER

(Ps. 140:3; Rom. 3:13, "asp") is the rendering of, (1.) Akshub ("coiling" or "lying in wait"), properly an asp or viper, found only in this passage.

(2.) Pethen ("twisting"), a viper or venomous serpent identified with the cobra (Naja haje) (Ps. 58:4; 91:13); elsewhere "asp."

(3.) Tziphoni ("hissing") (Prov. 23:32); elsewhere rendered "cockatrice," Isa. 11:8; 14:29; 59:5; Jer. 8:17, as it is here in the margin of the Authorized Version. The Revised Version has "basilisk." This may have been the yellow viper, the Daboia xanthina, the largest and most dangerous of the vipers of Palestine.

(4.) Shephiphon ("creeping"), occurring only in Gen. 49:17, the small speckled venomous snake, the "horned snake," or cerastes. Dan is compared to this serpent, which springs from its hiding-place on the passer-by.

Top

Word	King James Dictionary - Definition
ADDER	A venomous snake.

Top

Word	Easton Dictionary - Definition
BY	in the expression "by myself" (A.V., 1 Cor. 4:4), means, as rendered in the Revised Version, "against myself."

Top

Word	American Tract Society - Definition
DAN	A judge, 1. A son of Jacob by Bilhah, Ge 30:3 35:25. The tribe of Dan was second only to that of Judah in numbers before entering Canaan, Nu 1:39 26:43. A portion was assigned to Dan, extending southeast from the seacoast near Joppa. It bordered on the land of the Philistines, with whom the tribe of Dan had much to do, Jud 13:1-16:31. Their territory was fertile, but small, and the natives were powerful. A part of the tribe therefore sought and conquered another home, Jos 19:1-51 Jud 18:1-31 2. A city originally called Laish, Jud 18:29, at the northern extremity of Israel, in the tribe of Naphtali. "From Dan to Beersheba" denotes the whole extent of the land of promise, Dan being the northern city, and Beersheba the southern one. Dan was seated at the foot of Mount Hermon, four miles west of Paneas, near one source of the Jordan, on a hill now called Tell-el-Kady. Laish at one time belonged to Zidon, and received the name of Dan from a portion of that tribe who conquered and rebuilt it, Jud 18:1-31. It was an idolatrous city even then, and was afterwards the seat of one of the golden calves of Jeroboam, 1Ki 12:28 Am 8:14. Though once and again a very prosperous city, Jud 18:10 Eze 27:19, only slight remains of it now exist.

Word

American Tract Society - Definition

DAN

A judge,

1. A son of Jacob by Bilhah, Ge 30:3 35:25. The tribe of Dan was second only to that of Judah in numbers before entering Canaan, Nu 1:39 26:43. A portion was assigned to Dan, extending southeast from the seacoast near Joppa. It bordered on the land of the Philistines, with whom the tribe of Dan had much to do, Jud 13:1-16:31. Their territory was fertile, but small, and the natives were powerful. A part of the tribe therefore sought and conquered another home, Jos 19:1-51 Jud 18:1-31

2. A city originally called Laish, Jud 18:29, at the northern extremity of Israel, in the tribe of Naphtali. "From Dan to Beersheba" denotes the whole extent of the land of promise, Dan being the northern city, and Beersheba the southern one. Dan was seated at the foot of Mount Hermon, four miles west of Paneas, near one source of the Jordan, on a hill now called Tell-el-Kady. Laish at one time belonged to Zidon, and received the name of Dan from a portion of that tribe who conquered and rebuilt it, Jud 18:1-31. It was an idolatrous city even then, and was afterwards the seat of one of the golden calves of Jeroboam, 1Ki 12:28 Am 8:14. Though once and again a very prosperous city, Jud 18:10 Eze 27:19, only slight remains of it now exist.

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

DAN

a judge. (1.) The fifth son of Jacob. His mother was Bilhah, Rachel's maid (Gen. 30:6, "God hath judged me", Heb. dananni). The blessing pronounced on him by his father was, "Dan shall judge his people" (49:16), probably in allusion to the judgeship of Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan.

The tribe of Dan had their place in the march through the wilderness on the north side of the tabernacle (Num. 2:25, 31; 10:25). It was the last of the tribes to receive a portion in the Land of Promise. Its position and extent are described in Josh. 19:40-48.

The territory of Dan extended from the west of that of Ephraim and Benjamin to the sea. It was a small territory, but was very fertile. It included in it, among others, the cities of Lydda, Ekron, and Joppa, which formed its northern boundary. But this district was too limited. "Squeezed into the narrow strip between the mountains and the sea, its energies were great beyond its numbers." Being pressed by the Amorites and the Philistines, whom they were unable to conquer, they longed for a wider space. They accordingly sent out five spies from two of their towns, who went north to the sources of the Jordan, and brought back a favourable report regarding that region. "Arise," they said, "be not slothful to go, and to possess the land," for it is "a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth" (Judg. 18:10). On receiving this report, 600 Danites girded on their weapons of war, and taking with them their wives and their children, marched to the foot of Hermon, and fought against Leshem, and took it from the Sidonians, and dwelt therein, and changed the name of the conquered town to Dan (Josh. 19:47). This new city of Dan became to them a new home, and was wont to be spoken of as the northern limit of Palestine, the length of which came to be denoted by the expression "from Dan to Beersheba", i.e., about 144 miles.

"But like Lot under a similar temptation, they seem to have succumbed to the evil influences around them, and to have sunk down into a condition of semi-heathenism from which they never emerged. The mounds of ruins which mark the site of the city show that it covered a considerable extent of ground. But there remains no record of any noble deed wrought by the degenerate tribe. Their name disappears from the roll-book of the natural and the spiritual Israel.", Manning's Those Holy Fields.

This old border city was originally called Laish. Its modern name is Tell el-Kady, "Hill of the Judge." It stands about four miles below Caesarea Philippi, in the midst of a region of surpassing richness and beauty.

(2.) This name occurs in Ezek 27:19, Authorize Version; but the words there, "Dan also," should be simply, as in the Revised Version, "Vedan," an Arabian city, from which various kinds of merchandise were brought to Tyre. Some suppose it to have been the city of Aden in Arabia. (See MAHANEH-DAN.)

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

HORSE

always referred to in the Bible in connection with warlike operations, except Isa. 28:28. The war-horse is described Job 39:19-25. For a long period after their settlement in Canaan the Israelites made no use of horses, according to the prohibition, Deut. 17:16. David was the first to form a force of cavalry (2 Sam. 8:4). But Solomon, from his connection with Egypt, greatly multiplied their number (1 Kings 4:26; 10:26, 29). After this, horses were freely used in Israel (1 Kings 22:4; 2 Kings 3:7; 9:21, 33; 11:16). The furniture of the horse consisted simply of a bridle (Isa. 30:28) and a curb (Ps. 32:9).

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

SERPENT

(Heb. nahash; Gr. ophis), frequently noticed in Scripture. More than forty species are found in Syria and Arabia. The poisonous character of the serpent is alluded to in Jacob's blessing on Dan (Gen. 49:17; see Prov. 30:18, 19; James 3:7; Jer. 8:17). (See ADDER.)

This word is used symbolically of a deadly, subtle, malicious enemy (Luke 10:19).

The serpent is first mentioned in connection with the history of the temptation and fall of our first parents (Gen. 3). It has been well remarked regarding this temptation: "A real serpent was the agent of the temptation, as is plain from what is said of the natural characteristic of the serpent in the first verse of the chapter (3:1), and from the curse pronounced upon the animal itself. But that Satan was the actual tempter, and that he used the serpent merely as his instrument, is evident

(1.) from the nature of the transaction; for although the serpent may be the most subtle of all the beasts of the field, yet he has not the high intellectual faculties which the tempter here displayed.

(2.) In the New Testament it is both directly asserted and in various forms assumed that Satan seduced our first parents into sin (John 8:44; Rom. 16:20; 2 Cor. 11:3, 14; Rev. 12:9; 20:2)." Hodge's System. Theol., ii. 127.

Top