במדבר, פרק כ״ו, פסוק מ״ג

The final population count for the tribe of Dan reveals a highly unusual reality. When summarizing the numbers for the other Israelite tribes, the standard practice is to name the founding father of the tribe. However, in the case of Dan, the founder's name is completely absent from the final summary. Instead, the focus shifts entirely to the families of Shuham [ברכת אשר על התורה].

This shift in focus is due to the astonishing size of this specific group. Shuham was the only son of Dan, and it is extraordinary for a single family line to produce an army-ready population of over sixty-four thousand men. Naturally, one might assume that Dan actually had other sons whose descendants eventually blended into the family of Shuham. To prevent this misunderstanding, the record intentionally defines this entire group strictly as the families of Shuham. This clarifies that the massive multitude grew exclusively from the descendants of Dan's single son, without the addition of any other assimilated family lines [אזנים לתורה, מובא בברכת אשר על התורה].