Dedan

דדן


Dedan, Dodanim (דֹדָנִים) and Dan (דן) seem to be etymologically connected, and possibly Midyan (מִדְיָן) too. We shall see if they are, or not.

Genesis 10:7 names Dodan as a descendant of Ra'amah ben Kush, siblinged with Sheva (Sheba); which probably means that both were tribes from the region of Ra'amah (רַעְמָה), Sheva on this occasion being the one on the Persian Gulf (see Be'er Sheva for an explanation of this comment, and the other places bearing the name Sheva or Sheba).

But Genesis 25:3 gives it as a people of northern Arabia descended from Keturah and bordering Edom; see also Jeremiah 49:8 and 25:23, and Ezekiel 25:13, all of which place the town of Dedan precisely in the mountainous region of Midyan on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Various sources, including Eusebius and Gesenius, believe them to have been Phoenician traders who settled there, and thus link them to the Dodanim. However Dodanim is itself a disputed name: it appears to be a confusion between the Rodanim (the inhabitants of Rhodos), the Dardanim (the Trojans), and the Danaans (the Hittite followers of the mother-goddess Danaë  from whom the tribe of Dan and the Phoenicians themselves almost certainly originate). This may explain why the ancients thought the Semitic Dedanim were a Phoenician colony, which they clearly were not; see for example Yechezke-El's lament for Tsur (Tyre) in Ezekiel 27:15, where Dedan is clearly understood to be Rhodos.

Copyright © 2019 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press