Dan shall judge] In the originall there is a Paanomasia, or an affinity of like sounding syllables, as Chap. 30. 5: 6. for the words are Dan jadin ghnammo; the like is observed of Japhet, Chap. 9. vers. 27. and of Judah, 5: 8. of this Chapter; and this is said of Dan the first borne of the hand-maids issue to incourage him against the conceit of neglect, and contempt, in regard of the condition of his mother; and he shall judge, not only as a distinct Tribe, which shall have Princes, and principall men ordinarily to judge them, as Numb. 1. 5: 4, 16. but sometimes extraordinarily to judge and deliver both them, and their brethren from the hands of oppressours; so did Sampson, who was a Danite by his Tribe, Judg. 13. 2. 24. and he judged Israel twenty yeares, Judg. 15. 20.
As one of the Tribes] Yet not as every one of the Tribes, for every one shall not have that honour, for neither the Tribe of Reuben, Simeon, Gad, nor Asher had any Judges; they that had it, were the Tribe of Benjamin, of which was Ehud, Judges 3:15. and the Tribe of Manasseh, of which was Gideon, Judges 6:15. and Abimelech his son, Judges 9. and Jair, Judges 10:3. and Jephthah, Chap. 11. &c. and the Tribe of Issachar, of which was Tola, Chap. 10. 1. the Tribe of Judah, of which was Ibzan, Cha. 12. 8. and the Tribe of Zebulun, of which came Elon, Chap. 12. 11. the Tribe of Ephraim, of which came Abdon, Chap. 12. 15. the Tribe of Dan, of which came Samson, Chap. 13. vers. 5. and the Tribe of Levi, of which was Samuel, 1 Chronicles 6:34.