The question might seem absurd, but for its solution I must refer to my paper on the subject in the _Expositor_ for October 1893.
The _sole_ authorities for a calf at Dan are 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2 Kings x. 29. If in the former passage we alter _one letter_, and read האפד (the "ephod") for האחד (the "one")--as Klostermann suggests--we throw light on an obscure and perhaps corrupt passage. The allusion then would be to Micah's old idolatrous image (which _may_ have been a calf) at Dan. The two words "and in Dan" in 2 Kings x. 29 may easily have been (as Klostermann thinks) an exegetical gloss added from the error of one letter in 1 Kings xii. 30.
Dan was a most unlikely place to select: for (1) It was a remote frontier town; and (2) there was no room, and no necessity there, for a new cultus beside the ancient one established some centuries earlier, and still served by priests who were direct lineal descendants of Moses (Judg. xviii. 30, 31).
This would further account for the absolute silence of prophets and historians about any golden calf at Dan; and it adds to the inherent probability, also supported by some evidence, that there were _two_ cherubic calves at Bethel.
For further arguments I must refer to my paper.
_DATES OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AS GIVEN BY KITTEL AND OTHER MODERN CRITICS[920]_
Ahaziah 855-854 Jehoram 854-842 Jehu 842-814 Jehoahaz 814-797 Joash 797-781 Jeroboam II. 781-740 Zachariah 740 Shallum 740 Menahem 740-737 Pekahiah 737-735 Pekah 735-734 Hoshea 734-725