34Genesis 34

The Rape of Dinah

1One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women.Select Genesis 34:1

2When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her.Select Genesis 34:2

3But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection.Select Genesis 34:3

4He told his father, “I want you to get Dinah for me as my wife.”Select Genesis 34:4

5Jacob learned that his daughter had been disgraced, but because his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back.Select Genesis 34:5

6Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob,Select Genesis 34:6

7just as Jacob's sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing and had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob's daughter.Select Genesis 34:7

8Hamor said to him, “My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter; please let him marry her.Select Genesis 34:8

9Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours.Select Genesis 34:9

10Then you may stay here in our country with us; you may live anywhere you wish, trade freely, and own property.”Select Genesis 34:10

11Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, “Do me this favor, and I will give you whatever you want.Select Genesis 34:11

12Tell me what presents you want, and set the payment for the bride as high as you wish; I will give you whatever you ask, if you will only let me marry her.”Select Genesis 34:12

13Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way.Select Genesis 34:13

14They said to him, “We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us.Select Genesis 34:14

15We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males.Select Genesis 34:15

16Then we will agree to intermarriage. We will settle among you and become one people with you.Select Genesis 34:16

17But if you will not accept our terms and be circumcised, we will take her and leave.”Select Genesis 34:17

18These terms seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem,Select Genesis 34:18

19and the young man lost no time in doing what was suggested, because he was in love with Jacob's daughter. He was the most important member of his family.Select Genesis 34:19

20Hamor and his son Shechem went to the meeting place at the city gate and spoke to the people of the town:Select Genesis 34:20

21“These men are friendly; let them live in the land with us and travel freely. The land is large enough for them also. Let us marry their daughters and give them ours in marriage.Select Genesis 34:21

22But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on the condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised.Select Genesis 34:22

23Won't all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us.”Select Genesis 34:23

24All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.Select Genesis 34:24

25Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men,Select Genesis 34:25

26including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.Select Genesis 34:26

27After the slaughter Jacob's other sons looted the town to take revenge for their sister's disgrace.Select Genesis 34:27

28They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields.Select Genesis 34:28

29They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.Select Genesis 34:29

30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have gotten me into trouble; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I do not have many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.”Select Genesis 34:30

31But they answered, “We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore.”Select Genesis 34:31