Jacob had eleven sons but only one daughter.
Her name was Dinah. One day, she went out to
be with some of the young women of that area.
While she was there, a prince named Shechem
saw her and raped her.
After he was done, he felt affection for her and
spoke tenderly to her. He said to his father, “I
love this girl and I want you to talk with her father
so she can be my wife.”
Jacob heard about his daughter’s rape while
his sons were away watching the cattle. Before
they returned, Shechem’s father came and talked
to Jacob about the possibilities of a wedding.
Dinah’s brothers were furious when they heard
about all of this. They felt this was an outrage to
the entire family of Israel.
The young man’s father said, “Please think
about the good that can come from this. My son
loves your daughter. Let them get married. We’ll
then give you our daughters to marry, and we’ll
become one people.”
Shechem said, “I’ll do whatever you ask if
you’ll allow me to marry Dinah.”
Jacob’s sons thought of a plan to get revenge.
They said, “We can’t give you our women because
your men aren’t circumcised. That would be a
disgrace to us. The only way we could agree
to your terms is if every man in your city was
circumcised. If you agree to this, we’ll give you
Dinah and take your daughters as our wives. But if
you refuse to do this, we will take Dinah and leave.”
Shechem and his father were happy with
these terms. They went back to the city and met
with all the men. They explained the agreement
and then said, “This is a great deal for us. They
have a lot of possessions. In time, it’ll all be ours.
All we have to do is be circumcised.”
All the men agreed and were immediately
circumcised. Three days later, they were still in
great pain. Two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and
Levi, went into the city and totally caught the
men by surprise. Systemically, they killed them
all with swords. They also killed Shechem and his
father and took Dinah from their house.
Afterwards, the other brothers went and
plundered the city. They looted every house and
all the fields. They took the women and children,
their possessions, and all the livestock.
Jacob was shocked when he found out about
this. He said to Simeon and Levi, “You’ve caused
this whole land to turn against us. Once news of
this gets out, all the surrounding towns will come
at us with a mighty force and totally destroy us.”
They said, “What choice did we have? They
can’t treat our sister like a prostitute.”
God said to Jacob, “Hurry! Go to Bethel. Build
an altar at the spot I appeared to you when you
were running from Esau.”
Jacob then gave instructions to his family
and all the people with him. He said, “Purify your
hearts and get rid of all your idols. We’re going to
Bethel, and I’m going to build an altar to God. He
has always helped me wherever I’ve gone.”
So the people gave him all their false gods
and earrings. Jacob hid them under an oak near
the town of Shechem.
They then went to Bethel, where Jacob built
an altar. God sent a terror over the cities around
them, so they were afraid to attack Jacob and
his sons. God met with him and gave him all the
promises of Abraham.
Afterwards they left Bethel and moved south.
Along the way, Rachel died giving birth to her
son Benjamin. She was buried near Bethlehem.
© God Child