Genesis 34
34
1-4One day Dinah, the daughter Leah had given Jacob, went to visit some of the women in that country. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was chieftain there, saw her and raped her. Then he felt a strong attraction to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, fell in love with her, and wooed her. Shechem went to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl for my wife.”
5-7Jacob heard that Shechem had raped his daughter Dinah, but his sons were out in the fields with the livestock so he didn’t say anything until they got home. Hamor, Shechem’s father, went to Jacob to work out marriage arrangements. Meanwhile Jacob’s sons on their way back from the fields heard what had happened. They were outraged, explosive with anger. Shechem’s rape of Jacob’s daughter was intolerable in Israel and not to be put up with.
8-10Hamor spoke with Jacob and his sons, “My son Shechem is head over heels in love with your daughter—give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and we’ll give our daughters to you. Live together with us as one family. Settle down among us and make yourselves at home. Prosper among us.”
11-12Shechem then spoke for himself, addressing Dinah’s father and brothers: “Please, say yes. I’ll pay anything. Set the bridal price as high as you will—the sky’s the limit! Only give me this girl for my wife.”
13-17Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father with cunning. Their sister, after all, had been raped. They said, “This is impossible. We could never give our sister to a man who was uncircumcised. Why, we’d be disgraced. The only condition on which we can talk business is if all your men become circumcised like us. Then we will freely exchange daughters in marriage and make ourselves at home among you and become one big, happy family. But if this is not an acceptable condition, we will take our sister and leave.”
18That seemed fair enough to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19The young man was so smitten with Jacob’s daughter that he proceeded to do what had been asked. He was also the most admired son in his father’s family.
20-23So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public square and spoke to the town council: “These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle down here and make themselves at home; there’s plenty of room in the country for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage. But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as they themselves are. This is a very good deal for us—these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we’re going to get our hands on it. So let’s do what they ask and have them settle down with us.”
24Everyone who was anyone in the city agreed with Hamor and his son, Shechem; every male was circumcised.
25-29Three days after the circumcision, while all the men were still very sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each with his sword in hand, walked into the city as if they owned the place and murdered every man there. They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem, rescued Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left. When the rest of Jacob’s sons came on the scene of slaughter, they looted the entire city in retaliation for Dinah’s rape. Flocks, herds, donkeys, belongings—everything, whether in the city or the fields—they took. And then they took all the wives and children captive and ransacked their homes for anything valuable.
30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You’ve made my name repulsive to the people here, these Canaanites and Perizzites. If they decided to gang up on us and attack, as few as we are we wouldn’t stand a chance; they’d wipe me and my people right off the map.”
31They said, “Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it.”
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Genesis 34: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 34
34
CHAPTER 34
1Forsooth Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out to see the women of that country.
2And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of that land, had seen her, he loved her, and he ravished her, and slept with her, and oppressed the virgin by violence.
3And his soul was bound fast with her, and he pleased her sorry with flatterings.
4And he went to Hamor, his father, and said, Take to me this damsel for a wife.
5And when Jacob had heard this thing, while his sons were absent, and occupied in the feeding or the pasturing of [the] sheep, he was still, till they came again.
6Soothly when Hamor, the father of Shechem, was gone out to speak to Jacob,
7lo! his sons came from the field. And when this thing that befelled was heard, they were wroth greatly; for he had wrought a foul thing in Israel, and he had done a thing unleaveful in the defouling of the daughter of Jacob.
8And so Hamor spake to them, The soul of my son Shechem hath cleaved to your daughter; give ye her a wife to him,
9and join we weddings together; give ye your daughters to us, and take ye our daughters,
10and dwell ye with us; the land is in your power; till ye, and make ye merchandise, and wield ye it.
11But also Shechem said to the father and brethren of her, Find I grace before you, and whatever things ye ordain I shall give;
12increase ye the dower, and ask ye for gifts, and I shall give willfully that that ye ask; only give ye this damsel a wife to me.
13The sons of Jacob answered in guile to Shechem and to Hamor, his father, and they were made fierce for the defouling of the maidenhood of their sister,
14We may not do this that ye ask, neither we may give our sister to a man uncircumcised, which thing is unleaveful and abominable with us.
15But in this we shall be able to be bound in peace, if ye will be like us, and each of male kind be circumcised in you;
16then we shall give and take together our daughters and yours; and we shall dwell with you, and we shall be one people.
17Forsooth if ye will not be cir-cumcised, we shall take our daughter, and we shall go away.
18The proffering of them pleased Hamor, and Shechem, his son,
19and the young waxing man delayed not, that not he fulfilled anon that that was asked; for he loved the damsel greatly, and he was the most noble in all the house of his father.
20And they entered into the gate of the city, and spake to the people,
21These men be peaceable, and will dwell with us; make they merchandise in the land, and till they it, which is large and broad, and hath need to tillers; we shall take their daughters to wives, and we shall give our daughters to them.
22One thing is, for which so great good is delayed; if we circumcise our males, and follow the custom of the folk,
23both their substance, and sheep, and all things which they wield, shall be ours; only assent we in this, that we dwell together, and make one people.
24And all men assented, and all [the] males were circumcised.
25And lo! in the third day, when the sorrow of [the] wounds was most grievous, two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, [the] brethren of Dinah, took swords, and entered into the city boldly; and when all [the] males were slain,
26they killed Hamor and Shechem together, and took Dinah, their sister, from the house of Shechem. And when they were gone out,
27 [the] other sons of Jacob felled in on the slain men, and rifled the city, for the vengeance of [the] defouling of the virgin.
28And they wasted the sheep of those men, and droves of oxen, and asses, and all things that were in the houses and fields,
29and led away as prisoners the little children, and [the] wives of those men. And when these things were done hardily,
30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, and have made me hateful to Canaanites and Perizzites, [the] dwellers of this land; we be few, [and] they shall be gathered together against me, and shall slay me, and I shall be done away, and mine house.
31Simeon and Levi answered, Whether they ought to mis-use our sister as a whore?
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