Note 515 — Chapter V · THE MOST PROMINENT FIGURES IN HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. (continued 2)

This hymn is applied to Dan, to whom it is quite unsuitable, as Dan has a solar character. We are tempted to conjecture that it originally referred to a non-solar figure, perhaps actually to Levi, whose name is synonymous with nâchâsh ‘serpent.’ This is the more probable, because no separate section of Jacob’s Blessing is devoted to this son, and in the only words relating to him he is coupled with Simeon.