Dinah, and a covenant used as a weapon
1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. 3 His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. 4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.” 5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. 7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. 8 Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 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 will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.” 11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. 12 Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.” 13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, 14 and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, 16 then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.” 18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. 20 Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, 21 “These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23 Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” 24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 25 On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. 27 Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, 29 and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. 30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.” 31 They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”
A daughter is violated, her brothers turn the sign of the covenant into a trap, and her father's only objection is that it has damaged his reputation.
The chapter is the ugliest in Genesis and every party in it behaves badly except the one person who never speaks.
Dinah goes out to see the women of the country and is seen by the prince of the land. The verbs are stacked and they are not ambiguous: He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. What follows is stranger — his soul joined to Dinah... and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly — and the combination is not a contradiction in a world where a man could take a woman first and negotiate afterward. It is a proposal made from a position of having already done the thing.
Jacob's reaction is the first indictment: Jacob held his peace until they came. His daughter has been violated and he waits for the men to come in from the fields. He says nothing to Hamor, nothing to Shechem, and nothing recorded to Dinah.
The brothers' anger is the only honest emotion in the chapter, and the narrator endorses its ground: he had done folly in Israel... a thing that ought not to be done.
Then the negotiation, and the two sides are transacting different things. Hamor talks about intermarriage, land and trade — a merger. Shechem offers any price. And the brothers answer with deceit, which the narrator states before quoting a word of it.
What they propose is the atrocity of the chapter, and it is not the killing. They demand circumcision — the sign God gave Abraham, the token of the covenant, the mark of belonging to the promise — and they demand it as the setup for a massacre. The one thing in their possession that speaks of God is picked up and used as a weapon.
Hamor sells it to his city on frankly commercial grounds, and the sentence gives him away: Won't their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? He is not converting anybody. He is buying a rich family by an operation.
On the third day, when they were sore, Simeon and Levi go in with swords and kill every male in a town that has just accepted the sign of their God on their word. Then the rest of the brothers plunder it and take the women and children captive — which is worth stating plainly, because the avengers of one woman's violation end the day carrying off other men's wives.
And Jacob's response is the second indictment, and it is the more damning of the two. You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land... I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me.
Not a word about the dead. Not a word about the covenant sign. Not a word about Dinah. His complaint is reputational and tactical, and it is about himself throughout — me, me, I, I, my house.
The brothers get the last word and it is unanswerable as a question and no defense at all as an argument: Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute? No, he should not have. And that does not make a city of corpses a reply.
Jacob does eventually say what should have been said, on his deathbed, and it is a curse rather than a rebuke — their anger is called fierce and their wrath cruel, and both tribes are scattered for it Genesis 49:5–7.
Dinah does not speak in the chapter. Nobody asks her anything, before or after.
settled What this mark means