CITIES
DEBORAH AND BARAKNO SHOW AT DEBORAH'S BATTLE
The Danites settled into their rebuilt city and took up much the same way of life their predecessors had enjoyed. Removed from the other Israelite tribes, they integrated more and more into the surrounding culture. The land was fertile, and they grew more food than they needed. So they traded with the seaports on the coast, quickly becoming a food basket for the whole coastal strip. They journeyed back and forth in baggage trains on the road to the coast, with frequent contact with non-Israelite cities like Sidon and Tyre. Before long they began to emulate these sophisticated coastal cities - something the Bible writers did not like at all. Meanwhile the other Hebrew tribes were locked in a struggle with the Canaanite city-states and the Philistines. They needed the people of Dan to help. The Dan-ites wanted nothing more than to be left alone. They were doing good business, and did not want to rock the boat.
For this reason, when Deborah summoned the tribes to help her general Barak face the Canaanite general Sisera, the Danites ignored her summons. Deborah was not impressed. Their failure to show at the battle where they were sorely needed is recorded in the Song of Deborah '... and Dan, why did he abide with the ships? (Judges 5:17) - the ships in this case being a nick-name for the Philistines in the coastal cities. But worse was to come. THE PAGAN SHRINE - how they forgot their Hebrew heritage....
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