Genesis 33–34

Jacob and Esau Meet

³³Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids.^{* 2}He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. ³He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.^*

⁴But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.^{* 5}When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”^{* 6}Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; ⁷Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. ⁸Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.”^{* 9}But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” ¹⁰Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand, for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me with such favor.^{* 11}Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have everything I want.” So he urged him, and he took it.^*

¹²Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.” ¹³But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me, and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”^*

¹⁵So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?”^{* 16}So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷But Jacob journeyed to Succoth^r and built himself a house and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.^*

Jacob Reaches Shechem

¹⁸Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.^{* 19}And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for one hundred pieces of money^s the plot of land on which he had pitched his tent.^{* 20}There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.^t

The Rape of Dinah

³⁴Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the region.^{* 2}When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force. ³And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. ⁴So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl to be my wife.”^*

⁵Now Jacob heard that Shechem^u had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. ⁶And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him, ⁷just as the sons of Jacob came in from the field. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.^*

⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The heart of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage. ⁹Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰You shall live with us, and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it and get property in it.”^{* 11}Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor with you, and whatever you say to me I will give. ¹²Put the marriage present and gift as high as you like, and I will give whatever you ask me; only give me the young woman to be my wife.”^*

¹³The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah. ¹⁴They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.^{* 15}Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male among you be circumcised. ¹⁶Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people. ¹⁷But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.”

¹⁸Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. ¹⁹And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family.^{* 20}So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, ²¹“These people are friendly with us; let them live in the land and trade in it, for the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters in marriage, and let us give them our daughters. ²²Only on this condition will they agree to live among us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live among us.” ²⁴And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.^*

Dinah’s Brothers Avenge Their Sister

²⁵On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares and killed all the males.^{* 26}They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. ²⁷And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. ²⁸They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. ²⁹All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. ³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”^{* 31}But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?”