Dinah at Shechem

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

The narrator names the act as force before any word of love or marriage is spoken.

And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly. So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”

The verse sets his love and his request after the act, so neither undoes the force named in the verse before it.

When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

The brothers' grief and fury rest on the narrator's own verdict that this should not be done.

Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask. Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!”

The offer turns the wrong into a bargain between two households.

But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully. “We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us. We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.

The narrator calls the answer deceitful, and the sign of the covenant becomes its bait.

Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.”

Hamor wins the city over with the hope of taking Jacob's livestock and goods.

Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.

The killing waits until the men are still in pain from the circumcision and cannot defend themselves.

Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field. They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.

The plunder carries the revenge past the guilty man to the households of a whole city.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

The verse sets Jacob's fear for his household against the brothers' defence of their sister.

As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

God's terror on the cities answers the danger Jacob named in Genesis 34:30.

If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

The law uses the verb of Genesis 34:2 for a man who seizes a virgin, and it binds him to pay her father and marry her.

“No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing! Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.” But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.

Tamar calls the deed nevalah, the word of Genesis 34:7, and the narrator uses anah, the verb of Genesis 34:2, for what Amnon did.

So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him. He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead. Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”

Levi's sword, which Jacob cursed for the slaughter at Shechem, is turned to the LORD's service at the golden calf.

Concerning Levi he said: “Give Your Thummim to Levi and Your Urim to Your godly one, whom You tested at Massah and contested at the waters of Meribah. He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not consider them.’ He disregarded his brothers and did not know his own sons, for he kept Your word and maintained Your covenant.

Moses' blessing of Levi praises a zeal that set God's covenant above kin.