1 One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women.

2 Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her. He grabbed her and raped sexually defiled her.

3 He found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her. So he tried to win her affection.

4 He told his father: »I want you to get Dinah for me as my wife.«

5 Jacob learned that his daughter had been disgraced. Since his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back.

6 Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.

7 About that time Jacob’s sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing. He had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter.

8 Hamor said to him: »My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter. Please let him marry her.

9 »Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours.

10 »Then you may stay here in our country with us. You may live anywhere you wish. You may trade freely and own property.«

11 Shechem added: »Let me have your favor and I will give you whatever you want.

12 »Ask anything as the bride price, no matter how expensive. I will do anything. Just let me marry Dinah.«

13 Jacob’s sons wanted to get even with Shechem and his father because of what happened to their sister.

14 So they tricked them by saying: »You are not circumcised! It would be a disgrace for us to let you marry Dinah now.

15 »But we will let you marry her, if you and the other men in your tribe get circumcised.

16 »Then we will give our daughters to you. And we will take your daughters for us. We will live with you as one people.

17 »But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go.«

18 Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

19 The young man did not delay to do what was required. This was because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter. He was the most honored of all his family.

20 Hamor and his son Shechem went to their city gate to speak to the men of their city. They said:

21 »These people are friendly toward us. So let them live in our land and move about freely in the area. Look, there is plenty of room in this land for them. We can marry their daughters and let them marry ours.

22 »These people will consent to live with us and become one nation on one condition: Every male must be circumcised, as they are.

23 »Then all their livestock and everything else they own will be ours. So let us agree that they can live among us.«

24 All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed. Then all the males were circumcised.

25 Three days later the men who had been circumcised were still weak from pain. So Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s brothers, attacked with their swords and killed every man in town.

26 They also killed Hamor and Shechem. Then they took Dinah and left.

27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain. They plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.

28 They took their flocks and their herds, their asses and whatever was in the city and in the field.

29 They captured their wives and all their little ones. They took all the wealth that was in their houses.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: »You have brought trouble on me by making me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Per’izzites. My numbers are few. If they gather themselves against me and attack my household I will be destroyed.«

31 They responded: »Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?«