Genesis 34

Simeon and Levi Kill the Men of Shechem

1Dinah was the daughter Leah had by Jacob. Dinah went out to visit the women of the land. 2Hamor, the Hivite, was the ruler of that area. When his son Shechem saw Dinah, he took her and raped her. 3Then he longed for Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He fell in love with her and spoke tenderly to her. 4Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me that young woman. I want her to be my wife.”

5Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been raped. His sons were in the fields with his livestock. So he did nothing about it until they came home.

6Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields. They came as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and very angry. Shechem had done a very terrible thing. He had forced Jacob’s daughter to have sex with him. He had done something that should never be done in Israel.

8But Hamor said to Jacob and his sons, “My son Shechem wants your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. 9Let your people and ours get married to each other. Give us your daughters as our wives. You can have our daughters as your wives. 10You can live among us. Here is the land. Live in it. Trade in it. Buy property in it.”

11Then Shechem spoke to Dinah’s father and brothers. He said, “I want to please you. I’ll give you anything you ask for. 12Make the price for the bride as high as you want to. I’ll pay you whatever you ask. Just give me the young woman. I want to marry her.”

13Their sister Dinah had been raped. So Jacob’s sons lied to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14They said to them, “We can’t do it. We can’t give our sister to a man who isn’t circumcised. That would bring shame on us. 15We’ll agree, but only on one condition. You will have to become like us. You will have to circumcise all your males. 16Then we’ll give you our daughters as your wives. And we’ll take your daughters as our wives. We’ll live among you and become one big family with you. 17But if you won’t agree to be circumcised, then we’ll take our sister and go.”

18Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19The young man was the most honored of all his father’s family. He didn’t lose any time in doing what Dinah’s father and brothers had said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. 20Hamor and his son Shechem went to the city gate. They spoke to the other men there. 21“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land. Let them trade in it. The land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters. And they can marry ours. 22But they will agree to live with us as one big family only on one condition. All our males must be circumcised, just as they are. 23Won’t their livestock and their property belong to us? Won’t all their animals become ours? So let’s say yes to them. Then they’ll live among us.”

24All the men who went out through the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. So every male in the city was circumcised.

25Three days later, all of them were still in pain. Then Simeon and Levi took their swords. They were Jacob’s sons and Dinah’s brothers. They attacked the city when the people didn’t expect it. They killed every male. 26They also used their swords to kill Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27Jacob’s other sons found the dead bodies. They robbed the city where their sister had been raped. 28They took the flocks and herds and donkeys. They took everything in the city and in the fields. 29They carried everything away. And they took all the women and children. They took away everything in the houses.

30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me. Now I’m like a very bad smell to the Canaanites and Perizzites who live in this land. There aren’t many of us. They may join together against me and attack me. Then I and my family will be destroyed.”

31But they replied, “Should Shechem have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

Genesis 34

CHAPTER 34

1Forsooth Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out to see the women of that country.

2And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of that land, had seen her, he loved her, and he ravished her, and slept with her, and oppressed the virgin by violence.

3And his soul was bound fast with her, and he pleased her sorry with flatterings.

4And he went to Hamor, his father, and said, Take to me this damsel for a wife.

5And when Jacob had heard this thing, while his sons were absent, and occupied in the feeding or the pasturing of [the] sheep, he was still, till they came again.

6Soothly when Hamor, the father of Shechem, was gone out to speak to Jacob,

7lo! his sons came from the field. And when this thing that befelled was heard, they were wroth greatly; for he had wrought a foul thing in Israel, and he had done a thing unleaveful in the defouling of the daughter of Jacob.

8And so Hamor spake to them, The soul of my son Shechem hath cleaved to your daughter; give ye her a wife to him,

9and join we weddings together; give ye your daughters to us, and take ye our daughters,

10and dwell ye with us; the land is in your power; till ye, and make ye merchandise, and wield ye it.

11But also Shechem said to the father and brethren of her, Find I grace before you, and whatever things ye ordain I shall give;

12increase ye the dower, and ask ye for gifts, and I shall give willfully that that ye ask; only give ye this damsel a wife to me.

13The sons of Jacob answered in guile to Shechem and to Hamor, his father, and they were made fierce for the defouling of the maidenhood of their sister,

14We may not do this that ye ask, neither we may give our sister to a man uncircumcised, which thing is unleaveful and abominable with us.

15But in this we shall be able to be bound in peace, if ye will be like us, and each of male kind be circumcised in you;

16then we shall give and take together our daughters and yours; and we shall dwell with you, and we shall be one people.

17Forsooth if ye will not be cir-cumcised, we shall take our daughter, and we shall go away.

18The proffering of them pleased Hamor, and Shechem, his son,

19and the young waxing man delayed not, that not he fulfilled anon that that was asked; for he loved the damsel greatly, and he was the most noble in all the house of his father.

20And they entered into the gate of the city, and spake to the people,

21These men be peaceable, and will dwell with us; make they merchandise in the land, and till they it, which is large and broad, and hath need to tillers; we shall take their daughters to wives, and we shall give our daughters to them.

22One thing is, for which so great good is delayed; if we circumcise our males, and follow the custom of the folk,

23both their substance, and sheep, and all things which they wield, shall be ours; only assent we in this, that we dwell together, and make one people.

24And all men assented, and all [the] males were circumcised.

25And lo! in the third day, when the sorrow of [the] wounds was most grievous, two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, [the] brethren of Dinah, took swords, and entered into the city boldly; and when all [the] males were slain,

26they killed Hamor and Shechem together, and took Dinah, their sister, from the house of Shechem. And when they were gone out,

27 [the] other sons of Jacob felled in on the slain men, and rifled the city, for the vengeance of [the] defouling of the virgin.

28And they wasted the sheep of those men, and droves of oxen, and asses, and all things that were in the houses and fields,

29and led away as prisoners the little children, and [the] wives of those men. And when these things were done hardily,

30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, and have made me hateful to Canaanites and Perizzites, [the] dwellers of this land; we be few, [and] they shall be gathered together against me, and shall slay me, and I shall be done away, and mine house.

31Simeon and Levi answered, Whether they ought to mis-use our sister as a whore?

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Genesis 34

Genesis 34