The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Genesis 34
1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she
bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
2 Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite,
the prince of the land, saw her. He took
her, lay with her, and humbled her.
3 His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter
of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and
spoke kindly to the young lady.
4 Shechem 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.
6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out
to Jacob to talk with him.
7 The sons ofJacob came in from the field
whentheyheard it. Themen 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.
8 Hamor talked with them, saying, “The
soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your
daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.
9 Make marriages with us. Give your
daughters tous, andtake ourdaughters for
yourselves.
10 You 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.
12 Ask 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,
14 and 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.
15 Only on this condition will we consent
to you. If you will be as we are, that every
male of you be circumcised,
16 then 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.
17 But if you will not listen to us and be
circumcised, then we will take our sister,†
and we will be gone.”
18 Their words pleased Hamor and
Shechem, Hamor’s son.
19 The 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.
20 Hamor 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.
22 Only 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.
23 Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only
let’s give our consentto 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.
25 On 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.
26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his
son, with the edge of the sword, and took
Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went
away.
27 Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and
plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
28 They took their flocks, their herds,
their donkeys, that which was in the city,
that which was in the field,
29 and all their wealth. They took captive
all their little ones and their wives, and
took as plunder everything that was in the
house.
30 Jacob 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?”
34:17 Hebrew has, literally, “daughter”