Genesis 34

1Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.

2When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and violated her.

3But his heart was drawn to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

4So Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

5Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept quiet until they came home.

6Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to Jacob to speak with him.

7Meanwhile Jacob’s sons had come in from the field as soon as they heard what had happened. The men were deeply hurt and very angry, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

8But Hamor spoke with them: “My son Shechem has set his heart on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

9Intermarry with us. Give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves.

10You can live among us, and the land will be open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

11Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.

12Set the bride-price and the gift as high as you like, and I will give whatever you ask of me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

13But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully.

14They said to them, “We cannot do this; we cannot give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

15We will agree with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising every male among you.

16Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people.

17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”

18Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and to Hamor’s son Shechem.

19The young man did not delay in doing it, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most respected member of his father’s household.

20So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city.

21“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in the land and trade in it. The land has plenty of room for them. We can take their daughters as wives and give them our daughters.

22But the men will agree to live with us and become one people only on this condition: that every male among us be circumcised as they are.

23Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals become ours? Let us just agree with them, and they will live among us.”

24All the men who went out through the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out through the gate of his city.

25On the third day, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, and they killed every male.

26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and left.

27Then Jacob’s sons came upon the dead and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.

28They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the fields.

29They carried off all their wealth and all their little children and their wives, and they looted everything in the houses.

30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the people who live in the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have only a few men. If they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

31But they said, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”