Genesis 34

The Voice

34 One day Dinah, Leah and Jacob’s daughter, went out to visit some of the women who lived in the land. ² But when Shechem (son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region) saw Dinah, he grabbed her and raped her. ³ His soul was drawn to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with her and spoke tenderly to her. ⁴ Shechem went then and spoke with his father, Hamor.

⁵ Now Jacob found out that Shechem had dishonored and raped his daughter, Dinah, but at the time, all of his sons were out in the field working with the livestock. So Jacob stayed calm and did not react until they came back. ⁶ Meanwhile Hamor, Shechem’s father, had come to speak with Jacob to arrange a marriage. ⁷ When news of the attack reached Jacob’s sons, they came in from the field. The young men were appalled and extremely angry because Shechem had done such a horrible thing in Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. Something like this should never happen.

⁸ Hamor tried speaking with them.

¹³ Jacob’s sons were still angry that Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, so they answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.

¹⁸ Hamor and his son Shechem were willing to go along with the demand, ¹⁹ and the young man wasted no time in fulfilling the requirement since he was so taken with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored man in all of his family, ²⁰ so Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of the city and addressed all of the men.

²⁴ So everyone who passed by the city gate listened to Hamor and his son, Shechem, and they all were circumcised—every single man who went out the city gates that day. ²⁵ Three days later, when the men of the city were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting people of the city, killing all of the men. ²⁶ They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword as well; they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house—where she had remained during the negotiations—and then went away. ²⁷ Jacob’s other sons saw those who were killed, and they plundered the city. All of this was done in anger, because it was here that their sister had been raped and the family dishonored. ²⁸ They took all of the flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and the field. ²⁹ All of their wealth, all of their children, and all of their wives—everything they could find in the houses—they plundered and made it their own.