Genesis 34–35

The Dinah Incident

34Now ^aDinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ²And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he ^btook her and lay with her, and violated her. ³His soul ¹was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke ²kindly to the young woman. ⁴So Shechem ^cspoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”

⁵And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob ^dheld ³his peace until they came. ⁶Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. ⁷And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he ^ehad done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, ^fa thing which ought not to be done. ⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. ⁹And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. ¹⁰So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.”

¹¹Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. ¹²Ask me ever so much ^gdowry ⁴and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.”

¹³But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke ^hdeceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. ¹⁴And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is ⁱuncircumcised, for ^jthat would be a reproach to us. ¹⁵But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, ¹⁶then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. ¹⁷But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.”

¹⁸And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. ¹⁹So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was ^kmore honorable than all the household of his father.

²⁰And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the ^lgate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: ²¹“These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. ²²Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” ²⁴And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son; every male was circumcised, all who ^mwent out of the gate of his city.

²⁵Now it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, ⁿSimeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. ²⁶And they ^okilled Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went out. ²⁷The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. ²⁸They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, ²⁹and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that was in the houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ^p“You have ^qtroubled me ^rby making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; ^sand since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.”

³¹But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a harlot?”

Jacob’s Return to Bethel

35Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to ^aBethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, ^bwho appeared to you ^cwhen you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

²And Jacob said to his ^dhousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away ^ethe foreign gods that are among you, ^fpurify yourselves, and change your garments. ³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, ^gwho answered me in the day of my distress ^hand has been with me in the way which I have gone.” ⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign ¹gods which were in their hands, and the ⁱearrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under ^jthe terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

⁵And they journeyed, and ^kthe terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. ⁶So Jacob came to ^lLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷And he ^mbuilt an altar there and called the place ²El Bethel, because ⁿthere God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸Now ^oDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called ³Allon Bachuth.

⁹Then ^pGod appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and ^qblessed him. ¹⁰And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; ^ryour name shall not be called Jacob anymore, ^sbut Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. ¹¹Also God said to him: ^t“I am God Almighty. ^uBe fruitful and multiply; ^va nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. ¹²The ^wland which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” ¹³Then God ^xwent ⁴up from him in the place where He talked with him. ¹⁴So Jacob ^yset up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. ¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, ^zBethel.

Death of Rachel

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; ^ayou will have this son also.” ¹⁸And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name ⁵Ben-Oni; but his father called him ⁶Benjamin. ¹⁹So ^bRachel died and was buried on the way to ^cEphrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave ^dto this day.

²¹Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond ^ethe tower of Eder. ²²And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and ^flay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it.

Jacob’s Twelve Sons

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: ²³the sons of Leah were ^gReuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; ²⁴the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; ²⁵the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; ²⁶and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.

Death of Isaac

²⁷Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at ^hMamre, or ⁱKirjath Arba ⁷(that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. ²⁸Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹So Isaac breathed his last and died, and ^jwas ⁸gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And ^khis sons Esau and Jacob buried him.