Genesis 34:3

34:3 Then he became very attached ¹  to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her. ² 

Genesis 34:8

34:8 But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. ³  Please give her to him as his wife.

Genesis 42:21

42:21 They said to one other, ⁴  “Surely we’re being punished ⁵  because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was ⁶  when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress ⁷  has come on us!”

[34:3]  ¹ tn Heb “his soul stuck to [or “joined with”],” meaning Shechem became very attached to Dinah emotionally.

[34:3]  ² 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”).

[34:8]  ³ tn Heb “Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter.” The verb means “to love” in the sense of being emotionally attached to or drawn to someone. This is a slightly different way of saying what was reported earlier (v. 3). However, there is no mention here of the offense. Even though Hamor is speaking to Dinah’s brothers, he refers to her as their daughter (see v. 17).

[42:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”

[42:21]  ⁶ tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”

[42:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”

[42:21]  ⁸ sn The repetition of the Hebrew noun translated distress draws attention to the fact that they regard their present distress as appropriate punishment for their refusal to ignore their brother when he was in distress.