Genesis 34:22-31

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² Only on this condition will they agree to live among us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³ Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live among us.” ²⁴ And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.^(A)

Dinah’s Brothers Avenge Their Sister

²⁵ On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares and killed all the males.^{(B) 26} They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. ²⁷ And the other 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 donkeys, 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 Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”^{(C) 31} But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?”