Genesis 34
34
Chapter 34
Dinah
1Dinah was the daughter of Leah and Jacob. One day she went out to visit the young women who lived near Shechem city. 2Hamor the Hivite ruled that region. When his son, Shechem, saw Dinah, he took hold of her. Dinah could not get free and Shechem had sex with her. 3He liked Dinah very much. He loved her. He spoke kind words to her so that she would love him too. 4Shechem said to his father, Hamor, ‘I want to marry this girl. Please get her for me.’ 5Jacob heard that Shechem had had sex with his daughter. At that time, Jacob's sons were taking care of his animals in the fields. So he did not do anything until his sons came home.
6Shechem's father, Hamor, went to talk to Jacob about Dinah. 7Jacob's sons now heard what had happened and they came home from the fields. They were very angry because Shechem had done such a bad thing. When he caught Dinah and had sex with her, he had brought shame on Jacob's family. It was a bad thing that nobody should ever do.
8Hamor said to Jacob and his sons, ‘My son Shechem loves your daughter. Please give her to him so that she can be his wife. 9There should be more marriages between your people and our people. Our men should marry your daughters and our daughters should become wives for your men. 10Then you can live among us. You can live anywhere you want to in this land. You should live here, buy and sell things. Buy land and houses here.’ #34:10 Hamor wanted the Hivites to have some of Jacob's riches.
11Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, ‘I would like to make you happy. So ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you. 12I will pay you the gifts that you ask for Dinah. It can be as much as you like. I will pay it all, because I want to have Dinah as my wife.’
13Because of the bad thing that Shechem had done to Dinah, Jacob's sons decided to deceive him. And they deceived his father Hamor too. 14They said, ‘We cannot give our sister to a man who has not been circumcised. We would be ashamed to do this. 15If you want to marry Dinah, you must do one thing. You must circumcise all your males. Then you will become like us and we will agree for you to marry Dinah. 16Then we will give you our daughters so that your men can marry them. And our men will marry your daughters. We will live among you, so that we become one people with you. 17But your men must agree to be circumcised. If not, we will take our sister with us and we will leave this place.’
18This idea seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19Shechem's family respected him as an important person. So Shechem and his father quickly did what Jacob's sons told them. Shechem agreed to do it because he wanted very much to marry Dinah. 20So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of the city. They spoke to their men there. 21They said, ‘Jacob's family are our friends. Let them live in our land, and buy and sell things. This land is big enough for them and us. We can marry their daughters, and they can marry our daughters. 22But we must do the one thing that they have asked us to do. We must circumcise all our males in the same way that they do. If we do that, they will agree to live among us. 23Then their things and their animals will all become our things. So we should agree to be circumcised, as they ask. Then they will live among us.’
24All the men who were at the city gate agreed with Hamor and Shechem. So every male in the city was circumcised.
25Three days after the men were circumcised, they still had a lot of pain. Then two of Jacob's sons attacked Shechem's men with their swords. None of the men were ready to fight. Jacob's two sons were Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers. They killed every male in the city. 26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and they left.
27Jacob's other sons also saw that the men of the city were dead. So they took everything that they wanted from the city. They did that because it was the place where Shechem had done a very bad thing against their sister. 28They took all the sheep, goats, cows and donkeys. They took everything that was in the city and in the fields near there. 29They carried away every valuable thing for themselves. They also took all the men's wives and their children. They took everything from the houses in the city.
30When they returned to Jacob, he said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have brought bad trouble to me! The people who live in this land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, will hate me. I will be like a bad smell to them. We do not have many men to fight for us. If the Perizzites and Canaanites join together and they attack us, they will destroy our whole family!’ 31But Simeon and Levi replied, ‘Shechem should not have had sex with our sister as if she were a prostitute.’
MissionAssist 2018
Genesis 34
34
1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. 3His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. 4Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.”
5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. 6Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. 7The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. 8Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”
11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. 12Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, 14and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. 15Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, 16then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister,#34:17 Hebrew has, literally, “daughter” and we will be gone.”
18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. 20Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, 21“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. 22Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”
24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 25On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 26They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. 27Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, 29and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. 30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”
31 They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”
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