While Jacob and his sons were sitting in the house of learning,
occupied with the study of the Torah,[283] Dinah went abroad to see the
dancing and singing women, whom Shechem had hired to dance and play in
the streets in order to entice her forth.[284] Had she remained at
home, nothing would have happened to her. But she was a woman, and all
women like to show themselves in the street.[285] When Shechem caught
sight of her, he seized her by main force, young though she was,[286]
and violated her in beastly fashion.[287]
This misfortune befell Jacob as a punishment for his excessive
self-confidence. In his negotiations with Laban, he had used the
expression, "My righteousness shall answer for me hereafter." Besides,
on his return to Palestine, when he was preparing to meet his brother,
he concealed his daughter Dinah in a chest, lest Esau desire to have
her for wife, and he be obliged to give her to him. God spoke to him,
saying: "Herein hast thou acted unkindly toward thy brother, and
therefore Dinah will have to marry Job, one that is neither circumcised
nor a proselyte. Thou didst refuse to give her to one that is
circumcised, and one that is uncircumcised will take her. Thou didst
refuse to give her to Esau in lawful wedlock, and now she will fall a
victim to the ravisher's illicit passion."[288]
When Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter, he sent twelve
servants to fetch Dinah from Shechem's house, but Shechem went out to
them with his men, and drove them from his house, and he would not
suffer them to come unto Dinah, and he kissed and embraced her before
their eyes. Jacob then sent two maidens of his servants' daughters to
remain with Dinah in the house of Shechem. Shechem bade three of his
friends go to his father Hamor, the son of Haddakum, the son of Pered,
and say, "Get me this damsel to wife." Hamor tried at first to persuade
his son not to take a Hebrew woman to wife, but when Shechem persisted
in his request, he did according to the word of his son, and went forth
to communicate with Jacob concerning the matter. In the meanwhile the
sons of Jacob returned from the field, and, kindled with wrath, they
spoke unto their father, saying, "Surely death is due to this man and
his household, because the Lord God of the whole earth commanded Noah
and his children that man shall never rob nor commit adultery. Now,
behold, Shechem has ravaged and committed fornication with our sister,
and not one of all the people of the city spake a word to him." And
whilst they were speaking, Hamor came to speak to Jacob the words of
his son concerning Dinah, and after he ceased to speak, Shechem himself
came to Jacob and repeated the request made by his father. Simon and
Levi answered Hamor and Shechem deceitfully, saying: "All you have
spoken unto us we will do. And, behold, our sister is in your house,
but keep away from her until we send to our father Isaac concerning
this matter, for we can do nothing without his counsel. He knows the
ways of our father Abraham, and whatever he saith unto us we will tell
you, we will conceal nothing from you."
Shechem and his father went home thereafter, satisfied with the result
achieved, and when they had gone, the sons of Jacob asked him to seek
counsel and pretext in order to kill all the inhabitants of the city,
who had deserved this punishment on account of their wickedness. Then
Simon said to them: "I have good counsel to give you. Bid them be
circumcised. If they consent not, we shall take our daughter from them,
and go away. And if they consent to do this, then, when they are in
pain, we shall attack them and slay them." The next morning Shechem and
his father came again to Jacob, to speak concerning Dinah, and the sons
of Jacob spoke deceitfully to them, saying: "We told our father Isaac
all your words, and your words pleased him, but he said, that thus did
Abraham his father command him from God, that any man that is not of
his descendants, who desireth to take one of his daughters to wife,
shall cause every male belonging to him to be circumcised."
Shechem and his father hastened to do the wishes of the sons of Jacob,
and they persuaded also the men of the city to do likewise, for they
were greatly esteemed by them, being the princes of the land.
On the next day, Shechem and his father rose up early in the morning,
and they assembled all the men of the city, and they called for the
sons of Jacob, and they circumcised Shechem, his father, his five
brothers, and all the males in the city, six hundred and forty-five men
and two hundred and seventy-six lads. Haddakum, the grandfather of
Shechem, and his six brothers would not be circumcised, and they were
greatly incensed against the people of the city for submitting to the
wishes of the sons of Jacob.
In the evening of the second day, Shechem and his father sent to have
eight little children whom their mothers had concealed brought to them
to be circumcised. Haddakum and his six brothers sprang at the
messengers, and sought to slay them, and sought to slay also Shechem,
Hamor, and Dinah. They chided Shechem and his father for doing a thing
that their fathers had never done, which would raise the ire of the
inhabitants of the land of Canaan against them, as well as the ire of
all the children of Ham, and that on account of a Hebrew woman.
Haddakum and his brothers finished by saying: "Behold, to-morrow we
will go and assemble our Canaanitish brethren, and we will come and
smite you and all in whom you trust, that there shall not be a remnant
left of you or them."
When Hamor and his son Shechem and all the people of the city heard
this, they were sore afraid, and they repented what they had done, and
Shechem and his father answered Haddakum and his brothers: "Because we
saw that the Hebrews would not accede to our wishes concerning their
daughter, we did this thing, but when we shall have obtained our
request from them, we will then do unto them that which is in your
hearts and in ours, as soon as we shall become strong."
Dinah, who heard their words, hastened and dispatched one of her
maidens whom her father had sent to take care of her in Shechem's
house, and informed Jacob and his sons of the conspiracy plotted
against them. When the sons of Jacob heard this, they were filled with
wrath, and Simon and Levi swore, and said, "As the Lord liveth, by
to-morrow there shall not be a remnant left In the whole city."
They began the extermination by killing eighteen of the twenty young
men who had concealed themselves and were not circumcised, and two of
them fled and escaped to some lime pits that were in the city. Then
Simon and Levi slew all the city, not leaving a male over, and while
they were looking for spoils outside of the city, three hundred women
rose against them and threw stones and dust upon them, but Simon
single-handed slew them all, and returned to the city, where he joined
Levi. Then they took away from the people outside of the city their
sheep, their oxen, their cattle, and also the women and the little
children, and they led all these away, and took them to the city to
their father Jacob. The number of women whom they did not slay, but
only took captive, was eighty-five virgins, among them a young damsel
of great beauty by the name of Bunah, whom Simon took to wife. The
number of the males which they took captive and did not slay was
forty-seven, and all these men and women were servants to the sons of
Jacob, and to their children after them, until the day they left Egypt.