Bible Person

Dathan

Meaning: laws or rites · Male · 8 cross references

Dathan is the Reubenite rebel who joins Korah's uprising against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. He is remembered primarily through the judgment that overtakes that rebellion. First appears in Num 16:1.1

AI summary: Dathan matters because the cross references present him as one of the named faces of organized resistance to God's appointed leadership. He refuses Moses' summons, stands publicly with the rebellion, and is swallowed up in the divine judgment that follows. Later biblical remembrance preserves his destruction as a warning to future generations. Taken together, the material presents Dathan as a wilderness rebel whose end reinforces the seriousness of opposing God's established order.1

Central Figure

Dathan

Meaning: laws or rites

Welled; belonging to a fountain, a son of Eliab, a Reubenite, who joined Korah (q.v.) in his conspiracy, and with his accomplices was swallowed up by an earthquake (Num.