דן ידין עמו, אמר כי מדן יהיה שופט כמו מאחד שבטי ישראל, והוצרך לומר זה מפני שהיה בן השפחה אעפ"כ יהיה כאחד שבטי ישראל בגדולה, וכן היה ראש דגל, ושפט את ישראל, ואמר זה על שמשון, כמו שנאמר והוא שפט את ישראל (שופטים י"ו): דן ידין עמו, Yaakov predicts that a judge will emerge from among the Danites as, or equal to, any of the other tribes of Israel. The reason why Yaakov had to make such a strange sounding comment was that Dan was a son of Rachel’s maid, Bilhah, and the status of the descendants of the maidservants of the matriarchs might have been questioned. Yaakov wants it understood that there is not going to be such a relationship between his sons. To emphasise this, Moses appointed the tribe of Dan as one of the four tribes who were leaders of their respective army corps comprising three tribes each. (compare Numbers 2,25) The judge from the tribe of Dan who presided over the court was Shimshon, of whom we are told in Judges 16,31 that he judged the people for 20 years.