²Hamor the Hivite was the ruler of that area. When his son Shechem saw Dinah, he took her and raped her. ³Then his heart longed for Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He fell in love with her and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me that woman. I want her to be my wife.”

⁵Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been made “unclean.” His sons were in the fields with his livestock. So he kept quiet about it until they came home.

⁶Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. ⁷Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields. They came as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with sadness and anger.

Shechem had done a very terrible thing. He had forced Jacob’s daughter to have sex with him. He had done something that should never be done in Israel.

⁸But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem wants your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.

⁹“Let your people and ours get married to each other. Give us your daughters as our wives. You can have our daughters as your wives. ¹⁰You can settle among us. Here is the land. Live in it. Trade in it. Buy property in it.”

¹¹Then Shechem spoke to Dinah’s father and brothers. He said, “I want to please you. I’ll give you anything you ask. ¹²Make the price for the bride as high as you want to. I’ll pay anything you ask me. Just give me the woman. I want to get married to her.”

¹³Their sister Dinah had been made “unclean.” So Jacob’s sons lied to Shechem and his father Hamor. ¹⁴They said to them, “We can’t do it. We can’t give our sister to a man who isn’t circumcised. That would bring shame on us. ¹⁵We’ll agree, but only on one condition. You will have to become like us. You will have to circumcise all of your males.

¹⁶“Then we’ll give you our daughters as your wives. And we’ll take your daughters as our wives. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. ¹⁷But if you won’t agree to it, then we’ll take our sister and go.”

¹⁸Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. ¹⁹The young man was the most honored of all of the men in his father’s family. He didn’t lose any time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

²⁰Hamor and his son Shechem went to the city gate. They spoke to the other men in town. ²¹“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land. Let them trade in it. The land has plenty of room for them. We can get married to their daughters. And they can marry ours.

²²“But they will agree to live with us as one people only on one condition. All of our males must be circumcised, just as they are.

²³“Won’t their livestock and their property belong to us? Won’t all of their animals become ours? So let’s say yes to them. Then they’ll settle among us.”

²⁴All of the men who went out through the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. So every male in the city was circumcised.

²⁵Three days later, all of them were still in pain. Then Simeon and Levi took their swords. They were Jacob’s sons and Dinah’s brothers. They attacked the city when the people didn’t expect it. They killed every male. ²⁶They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords. Then they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.

²⁷Jacob’s other sons found the dead bodies. They robbed the city where their sister had been made “unclean.” ²⁸They took the flocks and herds and donkeys. They took everything that was in the city and out in the fields. ²⁹They carried everything away. And they took all of the women and children. They took away everything that was in the houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me. Now I’m like a very bad smell to the Canaanites and Perizzites who live in this land. There aren’t many of us. They may join together against me and attack me. Then I and my family will be destroyed.”

³¹But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

Jacob Returns to Bethel

35Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to honor me. That’s where I appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

²So Jacob spoke to his family and to everyone who was with him. He said, “Get rid of the strange gods you have with you. Make yourselves pure, and change your clothes. ³Come, let’s go up to Bethel. There I’ll build an altar to honor God. He answered me when I was in trouble. He’s been with me everywhere I’ve gone.”

⁴So they gave Jacob all of the strange gods they had. They also gave him their earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree at Shechem.

⁵Then Jacob and everyone who was with him started out. The terror of God fell on the towns all around them. So no one chased them.

⁶Jacob and all of the people who were with him came to Luz. Luz is also called Bethel. It’s in the land of Canaan. ⁷Jacob built an altar at Luz. He named the place El Bethel. There God made himself known to Jacob when he was running away from his brother.

⁸Rebekah’s attendant Deborah died. They buried her body under the oak tree below Bethel. So it was called Allon Bacuth.

⁹After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. And God blessed him. ¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. But you will not be called Jacob anymore. Your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

¹¹God said to him, “I am the Mighty God. Have children and increase your numbers. A nation and a community of nations will come from you. Kings will come from your body. ¹²I am giving you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. I will also give it to your children after you.”

¹³Then God left him at the place where he had talked with him.

¹⁴Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him. He poured out a drink offering on it. He also poured oil on it. ¹⁵Jacob named the place Bethel. That’s where God had talked with him.

Rachel and Isaac Die

¹⁶They moved on from Bethel. Ephrath wasn’t very far away when Rachel began to have a baby. She was having a very hard time of it.

¹⁷The woman who helped her saw that she was having problems. So she said to her, “Don’t be afraid. You have another son.”

¹⁸But Rachel was dying. As she took her last breath, she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel died. Her body was buried beside the road to Ephrath. Ephrath was also called Bethlehem. ²⁰Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. The pillar marks the place of Rachel’s tomb to this very day.

²¹Israel moved on again. He set up his tent beyond Migdal Eder.

²²While Israel was living in that area, Reuben went in and made love to Bilhah. She was the concubine of Reuben’s father. And Israel heard about it.

Here are the 12 sons Jacob had.

²³Leah was the mother of

Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son.

Her other sons were

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel were

Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Rachel’s female servant Bilhah were

Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶The sons of Leah’s female servant Zilpah were

Gad and Asher.

Those were Jacob’s sons. They were born in Paddan Aram.

²⁷Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre. Mamre is near Kiriath Arba, where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. The place is also called Hebron.

²⁸Isaac lived 180 years. ²⁹Then he took his last breath and died. He was very old when he joined the members of his family who had already died. His sons Esau and Jacob buried his body.

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