Genesis 34
34
1And Dina the daughter of Lia went out to see the women of that country.
2And when Sichem, the son of Hemor the Hevite, the prince of that land, saw her, he was in love with her: and took her away, and lay with her, ravishing the virgin.
3And his soul was fast knit unto her: and, whereas she was sad, he comforted her with sweet words.
4And going to Hemor his father, he said: Get me this damsel to wife.
5But when Jacob had heard this, his sons being absent, and employed in feeding the cattle, he held his peace till they came back.
6And when Hemor, the father of Sichem, was come out to speak to Jacob,
7Behold, his sons came from the field: and hearing what had passed, they were exceeding angry, because he had done a foul thing in Israel, and committed an unlawful act, in ravishing Jacob's daughter.
8And Hemor spoke to them; The soul of my son Sichem has a longing for your daughter; give her him to wife:
9And let us contract marriages one with another: give us your daughters, and take you our daughters,
10And dwell with us: the land is at your command, till, trade, and possess it.
11Sichem also said to her father and to her brethren: Let me find favor in your sight: and whatsoever you shall appoint I will give.
12Raise the dowery, and ask gifts, and I will gladly give what you shall demand: only give me this damsel to wife.
13The sons of Jacob answered Sichem and his father deceitfully, being enraged at the deflowering of their sister:
14We cannot do what you demand, nor give our sister to one that is uncircumcised, which with us is unlawful and abominable.
15But in this way may we be allied with you, if you will be like us, and all the male sex among you be circumcised:
16Then will we mutually give and take your daughters, and ours: and we will dwell with you, and will be one people:
17But if you will not be circumcised, we will take our daughter and depart.
18Their offer pleased Hemor, and Sichem his son.
19And the young man made no delay, but forthwith fulfilled what was required: for he loved the damsel exceedingly, and he was the greatest man in all his father's house.
20And going into the gate of the city, they spoke to the people:
21These men are peaceable and willing to dwell with us: let them trade in the land, and till it, which being large and wide wanteth men to till it. We shall take their daughters for wives, and we will give them ours.
22One thing there is for which so great a good is deferred: We must circumcise every male among us, following the manner of the nation.
23And their substance, and cattle, and all that they possess, shall be ours: only in this let us condescend, and by dwelling together, we shall make one people.
24And they all agreed, and circumcised all the males.
25And, behold, the third day, when the pain of the wound was greatest, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dina, taking their swords, entered boldly into the city, and slew all the men:
26And they killed also Hemor and Sichem, and took away their sister Dina, out of Sichem's house.
27And when they were gone out, the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain; and plundered the city in revenge of the rape.
28And they took their sheep and their herds and their asses, wasting all they had in their houses and in the fields.
29And their children and wives they took captive,
30And when they had boldly perpetrated these things, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have troubled me, and made me hateful to the Chanaanites and Pherezites, the inhabitants of this land. We are few: they will gather themselves together and kill me; and both I, and my house, shall be destroyed.
31They answered: Should they abuse our sister as a strumpet?
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Genesis 34: DRC1752
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An historical text. In 1955 the Douay-Rheims Challoner Bible received the Imprimatur ✠ of the English Catholic Church from the Archbishop of Westminster.
Genesis 34
34
Shekem’s mob tried to make an agreement with Jacob’s mob
1-2This story is about what happened to Jacob’s family in the town called Shekem, in Canaan country. The big boss of that town was called Hamor, and he was from the Hiv tribe. And Hamor had a son called Shekem.
Jacob and Leah’s daughter was called Dinah, and she was a young woman. One day, she went out to visit some other women that lived in that place. But that man Shekem, he saw Dinah, and he wanted to have her for himself. So he grabbed Dinah and he made her sleep with him, like a woman sleeps with her husband. Shekem really shamed Dinah.
3Shekem fell in love with Dinah, and he thought that she was wonderful. So he talked to her and tried to get her to love him too. 4Then Shekem talked to his father Hamor and said, “I want to marry that woman. Ask her father to give her to me, so that she can be my wife.”
5At that time, Jacob was in his camp, and Jacob’s sons were out in the grass lands looking after Jacob’s animals. Then somebody went and told Jacob that Shekem did that bad thing to his daughter Dinah. But Jacob didn’t say anything, because he wanted to wait for his sons to come home.
6-7Then somebody went and told Jacob’s sons that Shekem did that bad thing to Dinah. So Jacob’s sons got really upset and angry. They said, “Shekem slept with our sister. That was a properly wrong thing that he did. He made our family shamed.” And Jacob’s sons left the grass lands, and they quickly went back to Jacob’s camp.
Hamor, Shekem’s father, he went to Jacob’s camp to talk to Jacob, and Shekem went with him. 8And Hamor talked to Jacob and his sons. Hamor said, “My son Shekem, he loves your daughter Dinah, and he really wants to marry her. Please give her to him, so that she can be his wife. 9And let’s make an agreement between our families. Let’s agree that the men in my family can marry the women in your family, and the men in your family can marry the women in my family. 10You mob can live in our land, and you can do whatever you want here. You can buy things and sell things here, and you can even buy some of the land for yourself.”
11Then Shekem talked to Dinah’s father Jacob and her brothers. He said, “Please be good to me and do what I ask, and I will give you whatever you want.”
12In that culture, when a man married a woman, he used to pay money to that woman’s family and give them presents. So Shekem talked to Dinah’s father and brothers about that. He said, “Tell me how much money you want, and I will give it to you. Even if you want lots and lots of money and presents, I will give them to you. Please just let me marry that young woman Dinah.”
13But Jacob’s sons were still thinking about that bad thing that Shekem did to their sister Dinah. So they pretended to make an agreement with Shekem and Hamor, but really, they were tricking them. 14Jacob’s sons said, “You know, all of us men and boys in our mob, we had a young man operation. But you mob don’t do that operation on your boys. We can’t let our sister marry a man that didn’t have that operation. That will make our family shamed. 15So listen, we will make an agreement with you mob. You and all the men and boys in your mob, you have to have that young man operation. Then you will be like us. 16If you agree to do that, then we will let our sister marry Shekem. We will let our women marry your men, and our men will marry your women. We will live with you, and our mob will join together with your mob, and we will become one tribe. 17But if you will not agree to do what we say, if you will not do that young man operation on your boys and your men, then we will take our sister and we will leave this place.”
18Hamor and his son Shekem, they liked that idea, and they agreed to do what Jacob’s sons said. 19Shekem really loved Dinah, and he really wanted to marry her soon, so he went quickly to do those things. Shekem was the most important person in his father’s family. 20Hamor and his son Shekem, they went to the town gate, and they had a meeting with the other men that lived in that town. Hamor and Shekem said to those men, 21“You know, that man Jacob and his sons, they are friendly to us. So let them live here in our land, and let them buy things and sell things here. Our land is big, and there is plenty of room for them. Our men can marry their women, and their men can marry our women. 22But first, there is one thing that we have to do. All of us men and boys in our mob, we have to have a young man operation, just like Jacob and his family. If we do that, then Jacob and his sons will agree to live with us, and their mob will join together with our mob, and we will become one tribe. 23Then all their animals will belong to us, and everything else that they own, it will belong to us too. We just have to agree to do what they say. We have to have that young man operation. Then they will live here with us.”
24The men that lived in that town, they listened to Hamor and his son Shekem, and they agreed to do what Hamor and Shekem said. So all the boys and all the men that lived in that town, they had a young man operation.
Jacob’s sons finished up Shekem’s mob
25That young man operation hurt a lot. And 3 days later, all the men in Shekem’s mob still felt really weak. Then 2 of Jacob’s sons, they got some long knives, and they went to attack Shekem’s mob. Those 2 sons were Simeon and Levi, and they were Dinah’s brothers. Nobody in Shekem’s mob knew that Dinah’s brothers wanted to attack them, so they were not ready to fight. Simeon and Levi went into the town, and they killed all the boys and men there. 26They also killed Hamor and his son Shekem with those long knives.
At that time, Dinah was in Shekem’s house. So Simeon and Levi got Dinah from Shekem’s house, and they left the town.
27Then Jacob’s other sons went into the town, and they saw all the dead bodies of Shekem’s mob. So Jacob’s sons took everything that they wanted in that town. They thought, “Shekem did that bad thing to our sister, so we will take everything that belonged to his mob.” 28They took all the sheep, and cows, and donkeys. They took everything that was in the town, and everything that was in the grass lands. 29They took everything that was in the houses. And they got all the women and all the young kids, and they took them away, like they were prisoners.
30Then Jacob talked strongly to his sons Simeon and Levi. He said, “You made big trouble for me. You know about the other tribes that live in this land, the Canaan tribe and the Periz tribe. Well, now those tribes will hate us, because you finished up Shekem’s mob. And maybe those tribes will join together and attack us. My mob is small, so we will not be able to fight those big tribes, and then they will finish us up, me and my family.”
31But Simeon and Levi said, “That man did a bad thing to our sister. He made her sleep with him, like a woman sleeps with her husband, and then he tried to pay us money for her. Somebody had to do payback to his mob.”
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