Dinah Is Attacked
34 Dinah was the daughter of Leah and Jacob. At this time Dinah went out to visit the women of that land. 2 Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that land, saw Dinah. He took her and raped her. 3 Shechem fell in love with Dinah, and he spoke kindly to her. 4 He told his father, Hamor, “Please get this girl for me so I can marry her.”
5 Jacob learned how Shechem had disgraced his daughter. But Jacob’s sons were out in the field with the cattle. So Jacob said nothing until they came home. 6 And Hamor father of Shechem went to talk with Jacob.
7 When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they came in from the field. They were very angry, because Shechem had done such a wicked thing to Israel. It was wrong for him to have raped Jacob’s daughter. A thing like this should not be done.
8 But Hamor talked to the brothers of Dinah. He said, “My son Shechem is deeply in love with Dinah. Please let him marry her. 9 Marry our people. Give your women to our men as wives. And take our women for your men as wives. 10 You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own land and to trade here.”
11 Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah’s brothers. He said, “Please accept my offer. I will give anything you ask. 12 Ask as much as you want for the payment for the bride. I will give it to you. Just let me marry Dinah.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father with lies. They were angry because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah. 14 The brothers said to them, “We cannot allow you to marry our sister. You are not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us. 16 Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women. Then we will live in your land and become one people. 17 If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah and leave.”
18 What they asked seemed fair to Hamor and Shechem. 19 So Shechem went quickly to be circumcised because he loved Jacob’s daughter.
Now Shechem was the most respected man in his family. 20 So Hamor and Shechem went to the gate of their city. They spoke to the men of their city. They said, 21 “These people want to be friends with us. So let them live in our land and trade here. There is enough land for all of us. Let us marry their women. And we can let them marry our women. 22 But our men must agree to one thing. All our men must agree to be circumcised as they are. Then they will agree to live in our land. And we will be one people. 23 If we do this, their cattle and their animals will belong to us. Let us do what they say, and they will stay in our land.” 24 All the men who had come to the city gate heard this. And they agreed with Hamor and Shechem. And every man was circumcised.
25 Three days later the men who were circumcised were still in pain. Two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi (Dinah’s brothers), took their swords. They made a surprise attack on the city. And they killed all the men there. 26 Simeon and Levi killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left. 27 Jacob’s sons went among the dead bodies and stole everything that was in the city. This was to pay them back for what Shechem had done to their sister. 28 So the brothers took the flocks, herds and donkeys. And they took everything in the city and in the fields. 29 They took every valuable thing those people owned. They even took the wives and children and everything that was in the houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have caused me a lot of trouble. Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in the land will hate me. There are only a few of us. If they join together to attack us, my people and I will be destroyed.”
31 But the brothers said, “We will not allow our sister to be treated like a prostitute.”