The Rape of Dinah

34 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land; ² and when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humbled her. ³ And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob; he loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her. ⁴ So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this maiden for my wife.” ⁵ Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. ⁶ And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. ⁷ The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it; and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had wrought folly in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

⁸ But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; I pray you, give her to him in marriage. ⁹ Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ You shall dwell with us; and the land shall be open to you; dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.” ¹¹ Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. ¹² Ask of me ever so much as marriage present and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; only give me the maiden to be my wife.”

¹³ The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. ¹⁴ They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. ¹⁵ Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male of you be circumcised. ¹⁶ Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. ¹⁷ But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”

¹⁸ Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. ¹⁹ And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family. ²⁰ So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, ²¹ “These men are friendly with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters in marriage, and let us give them our daughters. ²² Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³ Will not their cattle, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.” ²⁴ And all who went out of the gate of his city hearkened to Hamor and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

Dinah’s Brothers Avenge Their Sister

²⁵ On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came upon the city unawares, and killed all the males. ²⁶ They slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. ²⁷ And the sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled; ²⁸ they took their flocks and their herds, their asses, and whatever was in the city and in the field; ²⁹ all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. ³⁰ Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Per′izzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” ³¹ But they said, “Should he treat our sister as a harlot?”

Jacob Returns to Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; ³ then let us arise and go up to Bethel, that I may make there an altar to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.

⁵ And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were round about them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. ⁶ And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, ⁷ and there he built an altar, and called the place El-bethel,^[a] because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. ⁸ And Deb′orah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel; so the name of it was called Al′lon-bacuth.^[b]

⁹ God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. ¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So his name was called Israel. ¹¹ And God said to him, “I am God Almighty:^[c] be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. ¹² The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.” ¹³ Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. ¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.

The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷ And when she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Fear not; for now you will have another son.” ¹⁸ And as her soul was departing (for she died), she called his name Ben-o′ni;^[d] but his father called his name Benjamin.^{[e] 19} So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), ²⁰ and Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. ²¹ Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²² While Israel dwelt in that land Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of it.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. ²³ The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Is′sachar, and Zeb′ulun. ²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naph′tali. ²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

The Death of Isaac

²⁷ And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kir′iath-ar′ba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. ²⁸ Now the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ And Isaac breathed his last; and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The Divine Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

²⁴ Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants^[a] of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants^[b] said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³¹ Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; ³² it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

The Parable of the Yeast

³³ He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

The Use of Parables

³⁴ All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. ³⁵ This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet:^[c]

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷ He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; ³⁸ the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴² and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.