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34
1 Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter, went to visit some of the local women. 2 Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her. He grabbed hold of her and raped her. 3 However, then he fell deeply in love with Dinah and tried to get her to love him too. 4 He went and asked his father, “Get this young girl for me so I can marry her.”
5 Jacob found out that Shechem had violated*“Violated”: the word here is the one used in connection with being unclean. his daughter Dinah, but as his sons were away looking after the flocks in the fields he didn't say anything until they came home. 6 In the meantime Hamor, Shechem's father, arrived to talk with Jacob. 7 When Jacob's sons returned from the fields they were very upset when they heard the news and became extremely angry because Shechem had done something outrageous in Israel by having sex with Jacob's daughter—something that should never be done.
8 Hamor told them, “My son Shechem is very much in love with your daughter and your sister Dinah.†“And sister Dinah”: supplied for clarity, since Hamor is addressing both Jacob and his sons. Please allow him to marry her. 9 In fact we can have more marriages—you can give us your daughters and you can have our daughters. 10 You can live among us and settle down wherever you like. You can go where you want and buy land for yourselves.”
11 Then Shechem himself spoke up, and said to Dinah's father and brothers, “Please accept me and my proposal, and I'll do whatever you ask. 12 You can set the bride price as high as you like, and I'll pay it along with all the gifts I'll give. Just let me have the girl so I can marry her.”
13 Jacob's sons weren't honest when they answered him and his father Hamor because Shechem had violated their sister Dinah. 14 They told them, “We can't do this! We can't allow our sister to marry a man who's not circumcised. That would bring disgrace on us. 15 We will only agree to it with this condition: all of you must be circumcised like us. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters, and we will live among you and become one family. 17 But if you don't agree with us that you should be circumcised, then we'll take our sister and leave.”
18 Hamor and his son Shechem agreed to what was proposed. 19 The young man Shechem didn't waste any time in arranging this because he was infatuated with Jacob's daughter, and he was viewed as the most important person in his father's family. 20 Hamor and Shechem went to the town gate and spoke to the other leaders there.
21 “These men are our friends,” they told them. “Let's have them live here in our country and allow them to go wherever they want—it's big enough for all of them too. We can take their daughters as wives, and we can give our daughters to them to marry. 22 But they will only agree to this on one condition: they will only join us and become one family if every male among us is circumcised like they are. 23 If that happens, won't all their livestock and property—all their animals—end up belonging to us? We just have to agree to this and they will come and live among us.”
24 Everyone there at the town gate agreed with Hamor and Shechem so every male in the town was circumcised. 25 Three days later while they were still suffering pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons and Dinah's brothers, came with their swords into the town. Unopposed, they slaughtered every male. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem's house, and left.
27 Jacob's other sons arrived, robbed the dead bodies, and looted the town where their sister had been violated. 28 They took their sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. They took whatever was in the town, and in the fields— 29 all their possessions. They captured all their women and children, and plundered everything in their homes.
30 But Jacob criticized Simeon and Levi, telling them, “You've just caused me a lot of trouble! You've made me like a bad smell among the people in this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I only have a few men, and if these people gather to attack me, I and my whole family will be wiped out.”
31 But they replied, “Should we have let him treat our sister like a prostitute?”

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*34:5 “Violated”: the word here is the one used in connection with being unclean.

†34:8 “And sister Dinah”: supplied for clarity, since Hamor is addressing both Jacob and his sons.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher