Genesis 34
34
The Rape of Dinah
1One day, Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see the women of that place. 2She was seen by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area. Shechem took Dinah and raped her. 3But he was so attracted to her that he fell in love and began expressing his feelings to her. 4He told his father, “Please get this girl for me so that I can marry her.”
5Jacob learned that Shechem had done this very bad thing to his daughter. But all his sons were out in the fields with the cattle. So he did nothing until they came home. 6Then Shechem’s father, Hamor, came out to talk with Jacob.
7In the fields Jacob’s sons heard the news about what had happened. They were very angry because Shechem had brought shame to Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. They came in from the fields as soon as they heard about the terrible thing Shechem had done.
8But Hamor talked to Dinah’s brothers and said, “My son Shechem wants Dinah very much. Please let him marry her. 9This marriage will show we have a special agreement. Then our men can marry your women, and your men can marry our women. 10You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own the land and to trade here.”
11Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah’s brothers and said, “Please accept me. I will do anything you ask me to do. 12I will give you any gift#34:12 gift Or “dowry.” Here, the money a man paid for a wife. you want if you will only allow me to marry Dinah. I will give you anything you ask, but let me marry her.”
13Jacob’s sons decided to lie to Shechem and his father because Shechem had done such a bad thing to their sister Dinah. 14The brothers said to them, “We cannot allow our sister to marry you because you are not yet circumcised. That would bring us shame. 15But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us. 16Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women. Then we will become one people. 17If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah away.”
18This agreement made Hamor and Shechem very happy. 19Shechem was very happy to do what Dinah’s brothers asked.
Shechem was the most honored man in his family. 20Hamor and Shechem went to the meeting place of their city. They spoke to the men of the city and said, 21“These people want to be friends with us. We want to let them live in our land and be at peace with us. We have enough land for all of us. We are free to marry their women, and we are happy to give them our women to marry. 22But there is one thing that all our men must agree to do. They must agree to be circumcised as they are. 23If we do this, we will become rich from all their cattle and other animals. We should make this agreement with them so that they will stay here with us.” 24All the men who heard this in the meeting place agreed with Hamor and Shechem. And every man was circumcised at that time.
25Three days later the men who were circumcised were still sore. Two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, knew that the men would be weak at this time. So they went to the city and killed all the men there. 26Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left. 27Jacob’s sons went to the city and stole everything that was there because of what Shechem had done to their sister. 28So the brothers took all their animals, all their donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. 29The brothers took everything those people owned. They even took their wives and children.
30But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have caused me a lot of trouble. All the people in this place will hate me. All the Canaanites and the Perizzites will turn against me. There are only a few of us. If the people in this place gather together to fight against us, I will be destroyed. And all our people will be destroyed with me.”
31But the brothers said, “Should we let these people treat our sister like a prostitute? They were wrong to do that to our sister!”
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
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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