The historical narrative of the rape of Dinah and the revenge of her brothers begins when Jacob travels with his family to Shalem and pitches his tents. They were nomads traveling where there was good grazing for their livestock. They also stopped by the city of Shelem for trade purposes. Jacobs’ first wife, Leah, had a daughter named Dinah. The name Dinah means – judgment. Dinah was curious about the young women of Shalem, so she innocently went to meet them. That’s when the trouble starts, as it often does: an innocent act of curiosity becomes a tragedy.
The entire 34th chapter of Genesis is set aside to share this historical tragedy. The rape is only part of the tragedy, but the rape is egregious. “Verse 2 says, “And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.” Apparently, he just saw a young woman he liked and felt it was his privilege to rape her as the “prince of the country.” That requires enormous arrogance, depravity, and disregard for women. There was no excuse, and there is nothing in the Bible about her enticing the prince or seduction. It was a mindless act of violence, lust, and ego on the part of Shechem. But his lustful act resulted in him falling in love with her.
Shechem Shares His Love for Dinah with His Father
Later, Shechem shares his love for Dinah with his father, King Hamor, and asks his father to get Dinah for him as a wife. Why he thought Dinah would want her rapist to be her husband, I’ll never understand. Jacob was told what happened but held his peace. King Hamor went to Jacob, “saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife.” Genesis 34:8. At this time, I would have snapped his neck and left him in the sun for the buzzards. But Jacob was more level-headed. He waited to tell his sons when they came in from tending the flocks.
King Hamor tried to sweeten the deal by saying they could exchange daughters from their kingdom with daughters of Jacob’s tribe for marriages. These marriages would intermingle all the people, and they could stay in the land permanently. When Jacob’s sons heard this, they were angry. But Jacob’s sons decided to deceive the King instead of attacking in the moment. They said sure, that sounds like a great idea, let’s do that, but in their hearts, they had formed a plot.
Revenge of Her Brothers
The plot the brothers devised to take revenge on Shechem was devious. They said yes. What you said about taking each other’s daughters as wives sounds great, but due to our covenant with God, we need every male to get circumcised. Circumcision is a painful and debilitating minor surgery. The person circumcised will feel miserable and will spike a fever about three days after the surgery and then gradually recover. Their body fights off any infection.
On the third day, after the entire kingdom got circumcised – at their weakest point, the sons of Jacob came into the city and slaughtered every man. Genesis 34:26 says, “And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.” Apparently, after Dinah was raped, she was kept by Shechem in the city. Through all the negotiating and promises of unlimited dowry, yet they never brought Dinah back to her father. That was truly obnoxious. After killing all the men, Jacob’s sons took all the goods, livestock, wives, and children from the city as payback for the rape of their sister Dinah. Given these facts, it looks like the city of Shalem was left inhabited by nothing but old ladies. Everyone else was taken and added to Jacob’s nomadic tribe.
Jacob was upset! He was not upset at what they did but that it would cause the people of Cannan to attack them and destroy them for what his sons did. This reality was a legitimate concern. But God spoke to Jacob and sent him and his people out of that land, saying, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God.” Genesis 35:1
Rape of Dinah and the Revenge of Her Brothers
This piece of history is horrible on a couple of levels. First, rape is never acceptable. Some scholars believe the sex may have been mutual and not forced, but I don’t see any sign of that in scripture, so I’m sure it was non-consensual rape. Second, the revenge her brothers took on the people of Shalem was excessive. Romans 12:19 says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” That was a quote from Deuteronomy 32:35 rendered by Paul to make a point. We are not to be vengeful because vengeance belongs to God. Now, if one of the brothers witnessed the rape and stabbed the prince to death out of rage, I could understand. I wouldn’t even call it murder, but defense of his sister. But these brothers developed a plot to murder every male in the city and followed through with the murders. That is unacceptable.
So, what have we learned from this horrible incident? We learned that rape is never acceptable behavior. Holding a woman hostage while you negotiate her marriage to your son is evil, criminal, and obnoxious behavior. Plotting vengeance of any kind is unbiblical behavior and an affront to God. Murder is never acceptable, and murder is the unlawful, premeditated killing of one human being by another with forethought and hatred. We are called to love our enemies as we love ourselves, not take vengeance using murderous conspiracies. If vengeance is needed, let God handle it in His own time and in His own way.
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