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 cattle 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; which thing 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, and 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, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister,{Hebrew has, literally, "daughter"} 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 us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.
22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.
23 Won't their cattle and their substance and all their animals be ours? Only let us 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 It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that 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?"
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 34
Commentary on Genesis 34 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 34
At this chapter begins the story of Jacob's afflictions in his children, which were very great, and are recorded to show,
Gen 34:1-5
Dinah was, for aught that appears, Jacob's only daughter, and we may suppose her therefore the mother's fondling and the darling of the family, and yet she proves neither a joy nor a credit to them; for those children seldom prove either the best or the happiest that are most indulged. She is reckoned now but fifteen or sixteen years of age when she here occasioned so much mischief. Observe,
Gen 34:6-17
Jacob's sons, when they heard of the injury done to Dinah, showed a very great resentment of it, influenced perhaps rather by jealousy for the honour of their family than by a sense of virtue. Many are concerned at the shamefulness of sin that never lay to heart the sinfulness of it. It is here called folly in Israel (v. 7), according to the language of after-times; for Israel was not yet a people, but a family only. Note,
Hamor came to treat with Jacob himself, but he turns him over to his sons; and here we have a particular account of the treaty, in which, it is a shame to say, the Canaanites were more honest than the Israelites.
Gen 34:18-24
Here,
Gen 34:25-31
Here, we have Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons, young men not much above twenty years old, cutting the throats of the Shechemites, and thereby breaking the heart of their good father.