Genesis 34
Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.
1One day Dinah, Jacob’s daughter by Leah, went out to get to know the young women of that country. 2Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who ruled that region, caught sight of her. He seized her and forced her to lie with him, and so he shamed her. 3But then he became deeply attached to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the girl and spoke to her gently to win her heart. 4So Shechem went to his father Hamor and said, “Arrange for me to marry this girl.” 5Jacob learned that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were out in the fields with his herds, so he held his peace until they returned. 6Meanwhile Hamor, Shechem’s father, came out to Jacob to discuss the matter with him. 7Jacob’s sons came in from the fields when they heard the news. They were deeply hurt and burning with anger, for Shechem had done a vile thing in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a deed that is never to be done. 8Hamor talked with them and said, “My son Shechem has given his heart to your daughter. I ask you, let him marry her. 9Join with us in marriage. You can give your daughters to our men and take our daughters for your own. 10You can live among us. Settle here, move about freely, and buy property of your own; the whole land lies before you.” 11Then Shechem spoke up to Dinah’s father and brothers: “Be kind to me, and I will pay anything you name. 12Ask as high a bride-price and as rich a gift as you want, and I will pay whatever you say. Just let me have the girl for my wife.” 13Jacob’s sons gave Shechem and his father Hamor a deceitful answer, because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah. 14They told them, “We cannot do such a thing. To give our sister to a man who is not circumcised would bring shame on us. 15There is only one way we will consent: you must become as we are, and every male among you must be circumcised. 16Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters as wives, and we will live among you as one people. 17But if you refuse to be circumcised as we ask, we will take our daughter and be on our way.” 18Hamor and his son Shechem liked what they heard. 19The young man did not wait to carry out the condition, so taken was he with Jacob’s daughter. He was the most respected person in his whole family. 20So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the city gate and addressed the men of the town. 21“These people mean us no harm,” they said. “Let them live here and do business in the land; there is room enough and to spare for them. We can take their daughters as wives and give them our daughters. 22But there is one condition before the men will consent to live with us and become one people: every male among us has to be circumcised, just as they are. 23Think of it: their herds, their goods and all their animals will end up belonging to us. We have only to say yes to them, and they will make their home with us.” 24All the men who went in and out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the town, every one of those men, was circumcised. 25On the third day, while the men were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s full brothers, took up their swords. They walked into the city without any resistance and put every male to death. 26Hamor and his son Shechem they struck down with the sword. Then they brought Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 27The rest of Jacob’s sons came over the bodies of the dead and looted the city, since it was there their sister had been defiled. 28They carried off their sheep and goats, their cattle and their donkeys, everything in the town and in the countryside. 29All their goods, all their little children and their wives they took as captives and loot, along with everything inside the houses. 30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin on me. You have made me hateful to the people who live here, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My men are few. If those peoples band together and come against me, they will wipe out me and my whole family.” 31But they answered, “Was he to be allowed to use our sister as if she were a prostitute?”