Genesis 34

Shechem's Love and Request Genesis 34:3–5

³Verse 3. His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. ⁴Verse 4. Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.” ⁵Verse 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.

Negotiation for Marriage Genesis 34:6–14

⁶Verse 6. Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. ⁷Verse 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 ought not to be done. ⁸Verse 8. Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. ⁹Verse 9. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰Verse 10. You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”

¹¹Verse 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. ¹²Verse 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.” ¹³Verse 13. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, ¹⁴Verse 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.

The Deceitful Agreement Genesis 34:15–24

¹⁵Verse 15. Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised; ¹⁶Verse 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. ¹⁷Verse 17. But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.” ¹⁸Verse 18. Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. ¹⁹Verse 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.

²⁰Verse 20. Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, ²¹Verse 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 us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. ²²Verse 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. ²³Verse 23. Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”

²⁴Verse 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.

The Vengeful Attack Genesis 34:25–29

²⁵Verse 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. ²⁶Verse 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. ²⁷Verse 27. Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸Verse 28. They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, ²⁹Verse 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.

Jacob's Dismay and Sons' Justification Genesis 34:30–31

³⁰Verse 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.” ³¹Verse 31. They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”