Genesis 29:34

29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, ¹  because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. ² 

Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ³  on me by making me a foul odor ⁴  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ⁵  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

[29:34]  ¹ tn Heb “will be joined to me.”

[29:34]  ² sn The name Levi (לֵוִי, levi), the precise meaning of which is debated, was appropriate because it sounds like the verb לָוָה (lavah, “to join”), used in the statement recorded earlier in the verse.

[34:30]  ³ tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.

[34:30]  ⁴ tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.

[34:30]  ⁵ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.