Avenging Dinah
Avenging Dinah
Image by Karen Nadine from Pixabay
Leah’s Daughter
Leah’s daughter Dinah, the daughter she gave birth to for Jacob, went to visit with the young ladies of the land.
After Jacob’s return to Canaan, the story begins to shift from his story to the story of his children, now grown into their teens and early twenties. It starts by reintroducing Dinah, the youngest of Leah’s seven children and Jacob’s only known daughter.1 But this simple description of a teenage girl leaving the camp to visit some friends subtly reveals a deep rift in Jacob’s family.
In the ancient Near East, the name of someone’s father functioned like a last name. So Isaac’s full name was yitshaq ben-avraham (“Isaac son of Abraham”), and he married rivqah bath-bethuʾel (“Rebekah daughter of Bethuel”).2 Calling Dinah Leah’s daughter makes her sound illegitimate. And that’s exactly how Jacob felt about Leah and her children. He considered them illegitimate, and he didn’t hide his favoritism for Rachel and her children.3
Jacob’s strained relationship with the majority of his sons serves as the background for not only chapter 34 but also the rest of Genesis. It would soon put his entire household in danger.4 Eventually, it would cost him his favorite son.5 God gave Jacob peace with his uncle and his brother, but could he give Jacob peace with his own children?
Dinah Raped
Now Hamor the Hivite ruled that area. When his son Shechem saw Dinah, he abducted and raped her. Then his heart yearned for Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the girl and spoke reassuringly to her. So he told Hamor, his father, “Get this child as a wife for me!”
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As Dinah walked toward town, she caught the eye of a young man named Shechem, the son of Hamor. Hamor was the leader of the town, and Shechem was a spoiled brat clearly used to getting whatever he wanted. And he wanted Dinah. In a fit of passion, he raped the poor girl, an act considered as heinous then as it is now.6
After humiliating Dinah, Shechem decided he loved her. So he tried to woo her with comforting words. This probably included a promise to cover up her shame by marrying her. Nothing indicates how Dinah felt throughout her ordeal or whether Shechem’s words had any effect. She was a prisoner held captive to the whims of a man who didn’t care how his actions affected her or anyone else.
Though Shechem spoke to Dinah reassuringly, he spoke about her disparagingly. He called her a child! By demanding Hamor arrange for him to marry Dinah, Shechem showed he didn’t respect his father either. Yet at no point did Hamor rebuke his son for his words or his behavior. Jacob contributed to the looming crisis by neglecting his children. Hamor contributed to it by pampering his.
Finding Out
Jacob found out Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were in the field with the livestock, so he held his tongue until they returned. Then Hamor, Shechem’s father, went to speak with Jacob. As soon as they found out, Jacob’s sons returned from the field grief-stricken and furious because he had done something so appalling in Israel as raping Jacob’s daughter. Such things should never be done!
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Shechem’s crime didn’t remain a secret long, and word reached Jacob at the family’s camp. But his sons had taken the livestock out to pasture. Afraid of conflict with the local Hivites, Jacob said and did nothing while he waited for his sons. Scripture doesn’t say what, if anything, Jacob intended to do once his sons returned. But at this point, Shechem still held Dinah captive.7 Jacob didn’t even demand he return her. He cared more for his own welfare than for his daughter’s.
In contrast, Jacob’s sons grieved for their sister and were furious with her attacker. They rushed home as soon as they heard the news. Their later descendants, the Israelites, shared their outrage. Regardless of how Jacob viewed her, Dinah was his daughter and a member of the covenant community that would become the nation of Israel. Her defilement constituted an affront against the entire community and against the God they served. If her father wouldn’t avenge her, her brothers would!
The Marriage Offer
Hamor said to them, “My son desires your daughter. Please allow him to marry her. Intermarry with us. Allow us to marry your daughters, and we’ll allow you to marry our daughters. If you live with us here, you’ll have access to the land to live, trade, and acquire property.”
Then Shechem told her father and brothers, “Favor me, and I’ll give you whatever you ask. Make the bride-price and gift as high as you like. I’ll give it to you if you’ll allow me to marry the girl.”
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Hamor obeyed his son and went to speak to Jacob on his behalf. Shechem accompanied him, but it was the responsibility of the two fathers to negotiate a potential marriage contract. Hamor made a tempting offer. As outsiders, Jacob and his family depended on the goodwill of the local population to live there. Accepting Hamor’s offer would have integrated them into society and given them free access to the land.
Of course, Hamor failed to mention how his son had attacked Dinah. And he didn’t know Isaac had forbidden Jacob from intermarrying with the people of Canaan. Jacob and his descendants lived as foreigners intentionally, waiting for the day when God would give Canaan to them.8 Jacob didn’t need Hamor’s permission to live in the land God had promised him.
Before Jacob could respond, Shechem interrupted to add his own offer. He would willingly pay an unusually high bride price. This corresponds with the penalty for raping a virgin under the law.9 Once violated, a woman would have few prospects for marriage.10 At this point, Shechem was likely the only man who would marry Dinah, leaving Jacob in a tough spot. Indeed, Dinah still lived in her father’s household when the family moved to Egypt years later.11
One Condition
Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father, Hamor, deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah. “We can’t do that. It would be shameful for us to give our sister in marriage to an uncircumcised man. We’ll agree to the marriage on one condition. Every male among you must be circumcised, as we are. Then we’ll allow you to marry our daughters, and we’ll marry your daughters. We’ll live here with you, and we’ll become one people. But if you don’t agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our daughter and leave.”
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After hearing Shechem’s offer, Jacob still failed to respond. Instead, his sons jumped in with a proposal of their own. They would agree to the marriage if all the males in Shechem were circumcised. On both sides, the sons preempted their fathers and took over the negotiations. But in their fury, Jacob’s sons plotted to deceive Hamor and Shechem. They claimed they couldn’t intermarry with the Hivites because they were uncircumcised. But the problem with marrying a Canaanite had nothing to do with circumcision.
As the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham, circumcision was a sacred rite required of all males joining the covenant community. The removal of the foreskin represented their separation from a world in rebellion against Yahweh.12 But Jacob’s sons promised to “become one” with those who defiled their sister. Instead of inviting the world to join them in serving Yahweh, they offered to join the world. Worse, they intended the whole mess as nothing but a ruse. They twisted the sign of God’s covenant into a tool for vengeance!
Shechem Circumcised
Hamor and his son Shechem approved of their proposal. Because Jacob’s daughter delighted him, the young man wasted no time implementing it. He was the most influential member of his father’s household. So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gateway to speak with the men of the town.
“These men desire peace with us. We should allow them to live here in this land and to trade in it. There’s plenty of room for them! Then we can marry their daughters, and they’ll marry our daughters. They have one condition before agreeing to live with us and to become one people. All the males among us must be circumcised as they are circumcised. But won’t their livestock and possessions and all their other animals belong to us if we just accept? Then they’ll live with us.”
All the citizens of the town agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. So every male among the citizens of the town was circumcised.
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Hearing that Jacob’s family required only circumcision pleased Hamor and Shechem. Enduring a few days of pain beat paying an exorbitant bride-price. But they had to sell the idea to the rest of the men of the town, who wouldn’t care about Shechem’s desire to marry Dinah.
Shechem wasted no time speaking to the men in the gateway, where they discussed public matters. He and his father presented circumcision as benefitting the whole town because they would acquire Jacob’s wealth. This need not imply any intent to cheat Jacob. He and his family would become citizens of the town, so their wealth would become part of the town’s wealth. Moreover, a man with eleven sons would have to pay more bride-prices than he received.13 Intermarriage meant his wealth would naturally pass to the men of Shechem.
Hamor and Shechem convinced the men circumcision would enrich the town. They all believed Jacob and his sons wanted to live with them in peace. But Jacob’s sons had anything but peaceful intentions.
Vengeance
On the third day, [the men of Shechem] were in pain. Then two of Jacob’s sons, Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting town, killing all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left. Jacob’s sons attacked the slain and plundered the town because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and everything else in the town and the fields. They plundered all their wealth, everything in their homes, and took captive their wives and children.
Image by Brandon Rowe from Freely Photos
By the third day, every male in Shechem had been circumcised, but they had not yet recovered from the procedure.14 The time had come for Jacob’s sons to exact their revenge. Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s full brothers, led an attack against the town. But they didn’t simply rescue Dinah from Shechem’s house. In their rage, they slaughtered Hamor, Shechem, and every other male in the town.
Though circumcision had incapacitated the men of the town, Simeon and Levi couldn’t have killed them all themselves. They probably took some servants with them, and possibly also those of their brothers old enough to fight. But Simeon and Levi planned and led the assault. Strangely, Dinah’s oldest brother, Reuben, played no role in rescuing and avenging his sister despite being the firstborn and natural leader of Jacob’s sons. Already the text hints he may not lead the family.
After killing the men, Simeon and Levi plundered their possessions and took their families captive. Some translations make the plundering of Shechem a separate crime committed by Jacob’s other sons, but the Hebrew doesn’t support this. It requires adding the word “other” and translating the same Hebrew verb phrase differently in verses 25 and 27. Rather than recording a separate incident, verse 27 reiterates the reason why Simeon and Levi attacked Shechem—to avenge the defilement of their sister.
Rebuked
Then Jacob rebuked Simeon and Levi, “You have put me in grave danger by making me odious to the inhabitants of this land, the Canaanites and Perizzites! I have few men with me. If they unite against me, I and my household will be destroyed!”
“Should he have treated our sister like a whore?”
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Jacob’s reaction shows he had no part in or foreknowledge of the massacre of Shechem. He found his sons’ actions appalling. Yet he didn’t rebuke Simeon and Levi for their anger, their violence, or even their misuse of the covenantal sign of circumcision.15 He rebuked them for putting him in danger.
To that point, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had all lived in peace with the other residents of Canaan. But Simeon and Levi had given the Canaanites ample reason to hate and fear Jacob. The Hivites of Shechem were related to the other groups and likely allied with some of the neighboring towns.16 If the other Canaanites saw Jacob as a threat and banded together against him, Jacob’s household wouldn’t stand a chance.
Simeon and Levi responded to Jacob’s rebuke with a rebuke of their own. Shechem had treated Dinah like a prostitute, yet Jacob did nothing. “Our sister” at the end of the story parallels “Leah’s daughter” at the beginning.17 Both emphasize Dinah’s relationship to someone other than her father. Jacob didn’t view Dinah as his daughter, but Simeon and Levi viewed her as their sister. They felt they had to act because Jacob refused to defend Dinah’s honor. Jacob shared some blame for the massacre.
- It’s entirely possible Jacob had other daughters. The Bible rarely mentions the birth of children who have no role in the story.
- Genesis 25:19–20.
- Genesis 29:20–30; 37:3; 44:19–20; see Leah.
- Genesis 34:30.
- Genesis 37:3–35.
- Genesis 34:7; 2 Samuel 13:11–13.
- Genesis 34:26.
- Genesis 28:1–4.
- Deuteronomy 22:28–29.
- See 2 Samuel 13:1–20.
- Genesis 46:15.
- See Circumcision.
- Jacob’s twelfth son, Benjamin, had not been born yet.
- “The third day” includes the day when the circumcisions began. So the attack came two days later.
- See One Condition.
- Genesis 10:15–17.
- See Leah’s Daughter.