Genesis 33–34

Jacob Meets Esau

33Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men, so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two concubines. ²He put the concubines and their children first, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ³Jacob went ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. ⁴But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms round him, and kissed him. They were both crying. ⁵When Esau looked round and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?”

“These, sir, are the children whom God has been good enough to give me,” Jacob answered. ⁶Then the concubines came up with their children and bowed down; ⁷then Leah and her children came, and last of all Joseph and Rachel came and bowed down.

⁸Esau asked, “What about that other group I met? What did that mean?”

Jacob answered, “It was to gain your favour.”

⁹But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have.”

¹⁰Jacob said, “No, please, if I have gained your favour, accept my gift. To see your face is for me like seeing the face of God, now that you have been so friendly to me. ¹¹Please accept this gift which I have brought for you; God has been kind to me and given me everything I need.” Jacob kept on urging him until he accepted.

¹²Esau said, “Let’s prepare to leave. I will go ahead of you.”

¹³Jacob answered, “You know that the children are weak, and I must think of the sheep and cattle with their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die. ¹⁴Please go on ahead of me, and I will follow slowly, going as fast as I can with the livestock and the children until I catch up with you in Edom.”

¹⁵Esau said, “Then let me leave some of my men with you.”

But Jacob answered, “There is no need for that for I only want to gain your favour.”^{l 16}So that day Esau started on his way back to Edom. ¹⁷But Jacob went to Sukkoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was named Sukkoth.^m

¹⁸On his return from Mesopotamia Jacob arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan and set up his camp in a field near the city. ^19*He bought that part of the field from the descendants of Hamor father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. ²⁰He put up an altar there and named it after El, the God of Israel.

The Rape of Dinah

34One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women. ²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her. ³But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection.^{n 4}He said to his father, “I want you to get this woman for me as my wife.”

⁵Jacob learnt that his daughter had been disgraced, but because his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back. ⁶Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob, ⁷just as 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 and had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. ⁸Hamor said to him, “My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter; please let him marry her. ⁹Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours. ¹⁰Then you may stay here in our country with us; you may live anywhere you wish, trade freely, and own property.”

¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Do me this favour, and I will give you whatever you want. ¹²Tell me what presents you want, and set the payment for the bride as high as you wish; I will give you whatever you ask, if you will only let me marry her.”

¹³Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way. ¹⁴They said to him, “We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us. ¹⁵We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males. ¹⁶Then we will agree to intermarriage. We will settle among you and become one people with you. ¹⁷But if you will not accept our terms and be circumcised, we will take her and leave.”

¹⁸These terms seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem, ¹⁹and the young man lost no time in doing what was suggested, because he was in love with Jacob’s daughter. He was the most important member of his family.

²⁰Hamor and his son Shechem went to the meeting place at the city gate and spoke to the people of the town: ²¹“These men are friendly; let them live in the land with us and travel freely. The land is large enough for them also. Let us marry their daughters and give them ours in marriage. ²²But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised. ²³Won’t all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us.” ²⁴All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.

²⁵Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men, ²⁶including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. ²⁷After the slaughter Jacob’s other sons looted the town to take revenge for their sister’s disgrace. ²⁸They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. ²⁹They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.

³⁰Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I haven’t many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.”

³¹But they answered, “We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore.”