Abraham’s Family · c. 1905 BC
Chapter 11
Dinah
Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”
For parents
This chapter tells how Shechem forced himself on Jacob’s daughter Dinah (Genesis 34:2), how her brothers tricked the men of his town, and how Simeon and Levi killed them all while the brothers looted the town and carried off the women and children (34:13–29). It also tells, in one sentence, that Reuben slept with his father’s concubine (35:22), and that Rachel died giving birth (35:16–19). None of it is described in detail. Parents may want to read it first, or read it together.
was the daughter of Leah and Jacob. She went out to see the young women of that land. saw her. He was the son of the , who ruled that land. He took her and forced himself on her, and disgraced her.
Then Shechem became deeply attached to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He loved the young woman and spoke kindly to her. He said to his father Hamor, “Get this young woman for me to be my wife.”
heard that Shechem had disgraced his daughter Dinah, but his sons were out in the fields with his animals. Jacob kept quiet until they came home. Meanwhile Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they came in from the fields. They were deeply hurt and furious, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel’s family. He had forced himself on Jacob’s daughter, and that should never be done.
Hamor talked with them. “My son Shechem has set his heart on your daughter,” he said. “Please let him marry her. Let our families marry each other: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You can live among us. The land is open to you. Live here, trade here, and own property here.”
Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Please be kind to me, and I will give you whatever you ask. Ask as much as you like for the bride-price, the payment a man gives for his bride. I will pay whatever you tell me. Only let me marry the girl.”
Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with a trick, because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah. They said, “We can’t do this. We can’t give our sister to a man who isn’t . That would be a disgrace to us.
“We will say yes on one condition only: you must become like us, and every male among you must be circumcised. Then we will let our daughters marry your men, and we will marry your daughters. We will settle among you, and we will all be one people. But if you won’t listen to us and be circumcised, we will take our sister and leave.”
Hamor and his son Shechem liked what they said. The young man Shechem didn’t wait to do what they asked, because he wanted Jacob’s daughter so much. He was also the most respected member of his father’s household.
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to their town gate and talked with the men of the town. “These men are friendly to us,” they said. “Let them live and trade in our land. The land has room enough for them. Let’s marry their daughters, and let them marry ours. But there is one condition. They will agree to live with us and become one people only if every male among us is circumcised, as they are. And won’t their livestock, their property and all their animals become ours? Let’s just say yes, and they will live among us.”
All the men of the town agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. So every male in the town was circumcised.
On the third day, while the men were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, and , took their swords. They were Dinah’s brothers. They attacked the town when no one there expected it, and they killed every male. Hamor and his son Shechem were among the men they killed with their swords. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left.
Then Jacob’s sons went in among the dead and robbed the town, because the people there had disgraced their sister. They took the flocks and herds and donkeys, everything in the town and in the fields. They carried off all their wealth, took all their children and wives as captives, and took everything in the houses.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have caused me trouble. You have made the people who live in this land hate me, the and the . There are only a few of us. If they join together against me and attack me, I will be destroyed, and my whole household with me.”
They said, “Should he treat our sister as if she were a ?”
God said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to , and make your home there. Build an there for God, who appeared to you when you ran away from your brother .”
So Jacob told his household and everyone who was with him, “Throw away the foreign gods you have among you. Make yourselves clean, and put on fresh clothes. Come, let’s go up to Bethel. There I will make an altar to God, who answered me when I was in trouble and has been with me all along the way.”
So they handed Jacob every foreign god they had, and their earrings as well. Jacob hid them under the oak near the town of . Then they set out, and a terror from God fell on the towns around them, and no one chased Jacob’s sons.
Jacob and everyone with him came to Luz in the land of Canaan. Luz is the same place as Bethel. There he built an altar, and he named the place El Beth El, “the God of Bethel”. He named it that because that was where God had shown himself to him when he ran away from his brother.
Deborah, the woman who had looked after since she was a child, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.
After Jacob came back from , God appeared to him once more and blessed him. “Your name is Jacob,” God told him, “but you won’t be called Jacob anymore. Your name will be Israel.” So God named him .
God said to him, “I am . Have many children, and let your family grow and grow. A nation, and a whole group of nations, will come from you, and some of your descendants will be kings. I gave this land to and , and I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you.”
Then, at the place where God had been speaking with Jacob, God went up from him. In that same place Jacob set up a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, a gift of drink for God, and he poured oil on it too. Jacob gave a name to the place where God had spoken with him: Bethel.
Then they traveled on from Bethel. They still had some way to go to reach Ephrath when ’s baby began to come, and her labor was very hard. While she was struggling to give birth, the woman helping her said, “Don’t be afraid. You have another son.”
As Rachel was dying, with her last breath she named him Benoni, which means “son of my trouble”. But his father named him , which means “son of my right hand”.
So Rachel died, and she was buried on the road to Ephrath, also called . Jacob set up a pillar on her grave, and it is still called the Pillar of Rachel’s Grave.
Israel traveled on and set up his tent past the tower of Eder. While he was living there, went and slept with , his father’s , and Israel heard about it.
Jacob had twelve sons. ’s sons were Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, and Simeon, Levi, , and . Rachel’s sons were and Benjamin. Rachel’s servant Bilhah was the mother of and , and Leah’s servant was the mother of and . These were Jacob’s sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.
Jacob came home to his father Isaac at , near Kiriath Arba, also known as . Abraham and Isaac had lived there as foreigners. Isaac lived 180 years. He breathed his last and died an old man, after a long, full life, and he joined his ancestors. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
This is the record of Esau’s family. Esau is also called . He married women from Canaan. One was Adah, whose father was Elon the . Another was Oholibamah, whose father was Anah, from the family of Zibeon the Hivite. The third was Basemath, ’s daughter and ’s sister. Adah had a son, Eliphaz. Basemath had Reuel. Oholibamah had Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were Esau’s sons, born to him in the land of Canaan.
Esau took his wives, his sons and daughters, and everyone in his household. He took his livestock and all his animals, and everything he had gained in the land of Canaan. Then he moved away from his brother Jacob to another land. Esau and Jacob owned too much to live in the same place. The land where they were living could not support them both, because they had so many animals. So Esau lived in the hill country of . Esau is Edom.
This is the family of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir. Esau’s son Eliphaz had five sons, among them Teman and Kenaz. He also had a son named with Timna, his concubine. Esau’s son Reuel had four sons. And Oholibamah, Esau’s wife, had given Esau three sons, Jeush, Jalam and Korah.
Esau’s sons and grandsons became the chiefs of Edom. Seven chiefs came from the family of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn, four from the family of Reuel, and three from Oholibamah’s sons. Those were the sons of Esau, also called Edom, and the chiefs who came from them.
The people who already lived in the land were the , the family of Seir the Horite. Seir’s seven sons became the chiefs of the Horites in the land of Edom, and their sons and daughters are listed by name. One of them, Anah, was the man who found the hot springs in the desert while he was looking after his father Zibeon’s donkeys.
Before any king ruled over the people of Israel, Edom had kings. There were eight of them, one after another. The first was Bela son of Beor, whose city was Dinhabah, and the last was Hadar, whose city was Pau. When each king died, the next one took his place as king. One of them, Hadad, defeated in the country of .
Here are the chiefs who came from Esau, listed by their clans and the places where they lived. There were eleven of them, from Timna to Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, in the land they owned. This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.