Similar practices appear in the Middle Assyrian Laws 11th century BCE with regard to both coerced and consensual sex with an unbetrothed woman. The desires and feelings of the woman are not considered in this equation. This is not to say that Jacob and family were beholden to the laws in Deuteronomy and Exodus, but rather that these laws reflect the social convention of the time. If a man were to have sex with a single woman, under any circumstance, because she is available i.
Thus, the story is about how the brothers handled the debasing of their sister when the perpetrator was a non-Israelite. According to Gen 34, Israelites simply do not marry Hivites, circumcised or not. The story would then reflect a strong polemic against intermarriage, similar to that found in Deuteronomy 7, which specifies the prohibition of marrying Canaanites, and which finds its full expression in the broader polemic against any intermarriage at all, in the Second Temple period Ezra-Nehemiah.
It may be difficult for the modern reader to process the fact that Jacob and, by extension, the brothers were considered the primary injured party in the biblical narrative, and not Dinah! Even more troublesome is the possibility that Dinah is being partially blamed for what happened to her in the opening line of the story:. This negative activity has been interpreted with an ethnic bias. Whether this is the meaning of the verse or not, the Rabbis indeed understood the verse as a criticism of Dinah, and even take this criticism much further, by noting two key phrases in this same opening verse:.
In Genesis Rabbah mid-1st millennium C. Similarly, Midrash Yelamdenu ca. These midrashim, which are cited by no less an authority than Rashi, are particularly cruel, blaming Dinah for what happens to her. In fact, the text never actually tells us if she consented to the sex or not. Interpretations of this liaison run the gamut from rape, to statutory rape, to consensual encounter, to teenage love affair.
The story of Amnon and Tamar also exhibits this usage:. But Genesis 34 says nothing about Dinah refusing or Shechem using force. The debasement in this case is a reference to the insult the sex act offers to the woman and her family and is not focused on consent or the violence done to her.
Rashi , citing Genesis Rabbah , offers an interpretation based on the understanding that two verbs imply that Shechem did two separate things:. Who was this Canaanite woman who mothered a son for Simeon? Genesis Rabbah identifies her as Dinah, and suggests a number of reasons why she would be called a Canaanite woman:. Some of the interpretations in this midrash are harsh and others less so, but even in the more sympathetic portraits, the hero is Simeon who steps up and takes care of his sister.
The message is clear; incest is the lesser of two evils when it comes to marrying a foreigner. For ibn Ezra, the two verbs represent the same act. Dinah finally takes her place as the focus of the story in the interpretation of Nahmanides — , who pushes back against the interpretations of Rashi and ibn Ezra:.
One way is through looking at the overall narrative context: the violent end may influence us to read a violent beginning. In addition, the rape focus may be a result of later readers looking for a crime that better fits the punishment. AL So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us. AX 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys AY and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.
AZ 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, BA taking as plunder BB everything in the houses. BF We are few in number, BG and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed. All rights reserved worldwide. The best value in digital Bible study. Joseph, "Dinah", n. Dinah was the only named daughter of Jacob and Leah and was raped or seduced by Shechem. The Hebrew Bible contains a variety of views about foreigners and their relationship to Israel and to God, reflecting the fact that Israel was in nearly constant contact with foreign peoples.
Marriage in ancient Israel involved practices and assumptions different from those of most people living in western societies today. View more. A Chosen People 1When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us wi The Rape of Dinah 1Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the region.
Relating to or associated with people living in the territory of the northern kingdom of Israel during the divided monarchy, or more broadly describing the biblical descendants of Jacob. Relating to the period in Judean history following the Babylonian exile — B. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel b Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period.
The set of Biblical books shared by Jews and Christians. A more neutral alternative to "Old Testament. Amnon and Tamar 1Some time passed. David's son Absalom had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; and David's son Amnon fell in love with her.
Site HarperCollins Dictionary. People Home Dinah. Add this:. But he is in a difficult position, to say the least -trying to convince the father and brothers of a molested girl that the perpetrator will make a good husband.
After his father has finished speaking, Shechem makes another offer: to give any marriage present they want, if he can marry Dinah. It is technically incorrect, as he well knows, but it is an attempt to show respect for her — perhaps rather clumsy, but well-meant.
But worse than this in their eyes is the fact that he now seems to be offering to give them financial gain through the rape of their sister.
They set out to deceive Shechem and his father. Stone knife with bone handle — a common tool in ancient times. They ask that Shechem and all the able-bodied men of in his territory, all the men capable of going out to fight in an emergency, be circumcised.
They seems unaware or unconcerned that they are demeaning the Covenant, and the significance of circumcision. They say that if the men of the city will agree to circumcision they will agree to the marriage, and will go so far as to settle there. Shechem agrees. He is the eldest son of his family, next in line to rule the city of Shechem, so all the men the city agree to be circumcised. He does not have to explain the reason for this uncomfortable operation: everyone knows what has happened.
They know this is the opportune time, since the third day after circumcision is the most painful, and is also the time when a fever is likely. The men of the city will be unable to retaliate. Simeon and Levi kill every able-bodied man in the city, including Shechem and his father Hamor. They must have been accompanied by many of their tribesmen, because two men alone could not massacre so many, disabled or not.
Scholars have suggested that the massacre may have been carried out by all the brothers, but the curse Jacob put on them and their tribes in Genesis is directed at Simeon and Levi alone :. May I never come into their council; may I not be joined to their company — for in their anger they killed men,and at their whim they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob,and scatter them in Israel.
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