Genesis 34:1-5

Dinah and the Shechemites

34:1 Now Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore to Jacob, went to meet ¹  the young women ²  of the land. 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, ³  and sexually assaulted her. ⁴  34:3 Then he became very attached ⁵  to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her. ⁶  34:4 Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Acquire this young girl as my wife.” ⁷  34:5 When ⁸  Jacob heard that Shechem ⁹  had violated his daughter Dinah, his sons were with the livestock in the field. So Jacob remained silent ¹⁰  until they came in.

[34:1]  ¹ tn Heb “went out to see.” The verb “to see,” followed by the preposition בְּ (bÿ), here has the idea of “look over.” The young girl wanted to meet these women and see what they were like.

[34:1]  ² tn Heb “daughters.”

[34:2]  ³ tn Heb “and he took her and lay with her.” The suffixed form following the verb appears to be the sign of the accusative instead of the preposition, but see BDB 1012 s.v. שָׁכַב.

[34:2]  ⁴ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) in the Piel stem can have various shades of meaning, depending on the context: “to defile; to mistreat; to violate; to rape; to shame; to afflict.” Here it means that Shechem violated or humiliated Dinah by raping her.

[34:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “his soul stuck to [or “joined with”],” meaning Shechem became very attached to Dinah emotionally.

[34:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he spoke to the heart of the young woman,” which apparently refers in this context to tender, romantic speech (Hos 2:14). Another option is to translate the expression “he reassured the young woman” (see Judg 19:3, 2 Sam 19:7; cf. NEB “comforted her”).

[34:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “Take for me this young woman for a wife.”

[34:5]  ⁹ tn The two disjunctive clauses in this verse (“Now Jacob heard…and his sons were”) are juxtaposed to indicate synchronic action.

[34:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Shechem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:5]  ¹¹ sn The expected response would be anger or rage; but Jacob remained silent. He appears too indifferent or confused to act decisively. When the leader does not act decisively, the younger zealots will, and often with disastrous results.