Dathan ( ''Dāṯān'') was an

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

mentioned in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

as a participant of the Exodus. He was a son of Eliab, the son of Pallu, the son of

Reuben Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Reuvein in Yiddish or as an English variant spelling on th ...

. Together with his brother Abiram, the Levite Korah and others, he rebelled against

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

and

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

. The

Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers (from Biblical Greek, Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi'', , ''Bəmīḏbar'', ; ) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final f ...

relates that "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses." (Book of Numbers 16:31). Dathan is also mentioned in Psalm 106.

In Rabbinic literature

Dathan, together with his brother Abiram, were among the quarrelsome and seditious personages in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and in the wilderness who sought, on every occasion, to place difficulties in the way of Moses. Being identified with the two Israelites at strife who were the cause of Moses' flight from Egypt (Ex. ii. 13–15), the two were thus regarded as having interfered with him at the beginning of his career. Later, as punishment for their treachery, they became poor and were degraded in rank; yet they did not cease their hostility to Moses, and opposed his first endeavor to deliver Israel. It was Abiram and Dathan who were the immediate cause of the bitter reproaches made to Moses and Aaron recounted in Ex. v. 20, 21. When, despite this, the exodus from Egypt took place, Dathan and Abiram tried to induce the people at the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

to return (Ex. xiv. 11, 12); and in the failure of this attempt, they made an effort, through disregard of Moses' commands, to incite the people against their leader—Ex. xvi. 20 being applied to them—until they thought they had a following sufficiently numerous to risk the great rebellion under Korah. On this occasion, also, Dathan and Abiram were conspicuous for their wickedness. Not only were they among Korah's chief supporters, but they were impertinent and insulting in their speech to Moses, who, in his modesty and love of peace, went to them himself in order to dissuade them from their pernicious designs (Sanh. 109b; 'Ab. Zarah, 5a; Ex. R. i.; Num. R. xviii. 4). L.G.

Movie depiction

Edward G Robinson in The Ten Commandments film trailer

Dathan is portrayed by modern popular culture in

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

's epic film '' The Ten Commandments'' (1956) where he is played by Edward G. Robinson. In the film, he acts as the secondary antagonist and is an Israelite who works as an overseer of the Hebrews and informant for the Egyptians, and later, after betraying Moses' Hebraic origin to Ramesses, he becomes Governor of Goshen, with his brother Abiram as his second. During the plagues, he repeatedly tries to dissuade the Israelites from listening to Moses. In spite of his loyalty and service to Pharaoh, he is expelled from Egypt after the Plague of the Firstborn and forced to join Moses and the other Israelites in their Exodus. After the Exodus, he encourages the Israelites to blame Moses when the Egyptians come after them at the Red Sea, and he leads the Israelites in their worship of the

golden calf According to the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, the golden calf () was a cult image made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai (bible), Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as "the sin of the calf" (). It is first mentio ...

. He is one of those swallowed up in the earth when Moses (

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...

) smashes the tablets of the Ten Commandments in a rage, after discovering the Israelites' idolatry. Dathan is also depicted in the 1923 silent film version of the same story, with Lawson Butt in the role. As the Moses story only takes up a portion of this film, Dathan's role is correspondingly smaller. However, throughout the golden calf sequence, he is shown madly obsessed with

Miriam Miriam (, lit. ‘rebellion’) is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Torah refers to her as "Miria ...

, frequently touching or smelling her hair. Later in the film, he manages to seduce her and, much to his horror, she has

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

on her hands, causing him to withdraw from her and run away. He is last seen surrounded by throngs of people, who blame him for bringing them destruction "with thy gods of gold". Dathan appears in the 2007 CGI animated version voiced by Canadian voice actor

Lee Tockar Lee William Tockar (born February 11, 1969) is a Canadian voice actor and visual artist who works for several studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is also a writer of children's literature, a musician, sculptor, illustrator and col ...

. His role is sort of similar to his 1956 counterpart, only he is more of a dissenter for Moses when he comes to free the slaves, often expressing doubt and impatience towards Moses. He doesn’t get any better after the Hebrews get freed as even after witnessing God’s miracles, Dathan still thinks the Hebrews deserve better than the situation they are currently in. He, his brother and some of his followers are swallowed up into the Earth after they create Golden Calf. In this adaptation, Dathan is given the appearance as a short, stubby, balding man.

References

* * * {{Authority control Book of Numbers people Moses Psalms people Tribe of Reuben