Judges 18:29
And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
The Danites took possession of Laish, destroyed it, built a city there, and renamed it Dan after Dan their ancestor who was born to Israel, the city having previously been called Laish. The city may also have borne the name Dan before this conquest, alongside the name Leshem. The verse falls in Judges 17-21, which record events from the early part of the judges period, earlier than the events in chapters 11-16, rather than at the end of that history, whose main narrative ends with chapter 16. Together with Judges 17:1 and Judges 18:1, 31, the verse shows the book of Judges was not written until about the time there was a king in Israel.
The verse belongs to closing stories that give a sad record of Israel's transgressions, grave moral disorder, and constant lapsing into idolatry at a time when there was no king and people did what seemed right to themselves, showing how low Israel had fallen before Samuel the prophet was called, alongside God's effort to restore them. The renamed city became the northern home of the Danites, where they set up images and established the Levite as their priest, and it continued as a center of idolatrous worship until the ten tribes were taken into captivity. The idolatrous history begun at Dan later made it easier for Jeroboam to establish calf worship there.
Judges 18 shows the first apostasy of the tribe of Dan, which is suggested as a reason the tribe may have been left out of the tribes numbered in the sealing. The record of Dan renaming Laish stands in mighty contrast to the miracles and teaching of Jesus in Luke, yet together with them it speaks of the goodness and mercy of God.