34
Sheckem raped Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter
1 Some time later, Jacob and Leah's daughter Dinah+ went to visit some of the women that lived in that country. 2 On the way there, Sheckem saw her. Sheckem was the son of Hamor who was the Hivite leader for that country. When Sheckem saw Dinah, he grabbed her and raped her. 3 But then, Sheckem fell in love with Dinah and said sweet words to her. He wanted her to love him. 4 Sheckem went home and said to his father Hamor, “Can you ask Jacob if I can marry Dinah?”
5 Dinah went home and told her father what Sheckem did to her. Jacob listened, but he did not say anything until his sons came home from working with their animals. 6 While he was waiting for his sons to come home, Hamor and Sheckem came to talk to Jacob. 7 They were still talking when Jacob's sons came home from their work. When her brothers heard what Sheckem did to Dinah they were very angry. Sheckem had done the wrong thing and shamed all of Israel's family.
8 Hamor said to Jacob and his sons, “My son Sheckem really loves Dinah. Will you let him marry her? 9 And I have an idea. Why don't your daughters and sons marry our sons and daughters? 10 Why don't you come and live here with us? You can own your own land and buy and sell things just like we do.”
11-12 Sheckem said to Jacob, “Please be kind to me. I will give you anything you ask for. Ask for as much money or animals as you like, just let me marry your daughter.”
Jacob's sons trick Sheckem and his family
13 Jacob's sons were thinking about the bad thing that happened to their sister Dinah. So they made up their minds to trick Sheckem and his father Hamor. 14 Jacob's sons said, “We cannot let you marry our sister. You have not had that young men's ceremony.+ If we let you marry Dinah, we would all be shamed. 15 There is only one way we will let you marry Dinah, all your men must have that young men's ceremony. Then we will all be the same. 16 Then you can marry our women and our men can marry your women and it will be like we are one nation. 17 But if you will not have that young men's ceremony, we will take Jacob's daughter Dinah and leave this country.”
18 Hamor and Sheckem both thought it was a good idea to have that young men's ceremony. 19-20 Sheckem loved Dinah that much, he wanted to have that operation straight away. Sheckem was the most important person in Hamor's family and so he and his father went to the town gate+ and had a meeting with all the leaders. 21 They said to the leaders, “These people that have come to live here are very friendly. We think we should let them live with us. We have plenty of room and our sons can marry their daughters and their sons can marry our daughters. 22 But they will only stay here if all our men have their young men's ceremony. If we do that we can be one big mob together. 23 You see, if we agree to do that, they will stay here. All their animals and everything they own will be ours too. Come on, let's do what they ask.”
24 All the men in the town agreed with Hamor and Sheckem and had the young men's ceremony.
25 Simeon and Levi, 2 of Jacob's sons and full brothers for Dinah, waited until the 3rd day after all the men had the operation and the men were still in a lot of pain. Then Simeon and Levi picked up their long knives, and they moved quickly into the town and killed all the men.
26 They killed Hamor and Sheckem and then took Dinah from Sheckem's house and went home.
27-29 Then all of Jacob's sons joined Simeon and Levi and together they took everything they could find from the town where their sister was raped. They took all the women and children as prisoners. And they even took all the animals that were in the paddocks.
30 When they went home, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have made a lot of trouble for me. All the Canaanite people that live in this country will hate me. What were you thinking? We are only a small family. If the Canaanites and Perizzites gang up and fight us, we will be finished. All my family will die.”
31 But his sons said, “Sheckem should not have treated our sister like a woman that sleeps with men for money.”
+ 34:1 Genesis 30:21; 46:15 + 34:14 Genesis 17:10-27; 21:4; Exodus 4:26; 12:44,48; Leviticus 12:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Acts 7:8; Romans 4:11 + 34:19-20 Genesis 19:1; 38:14-16; Ruth 4:1