Genesis · 31 verses

Genesis 34

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

A whole city accepts circumcision as a bargain, calculating that Jacob’s livestock and possessions will become theirs; three days later, while the men are still in pain, the bargain turns into a massacre.

A proposal with two facesvv. 1–19

Dinah goes out to visit the daughters of the land, and Shechem sees her, takes her by force, and then speaks of love and tenderness. His father Hamor comes to Jacob with an offer of marriage, open land, and intermarriage; Shechem adds that any dowry will do, provided Dinah is given to him. Jacob is silent until his sons return from the field, but they answer Hamor and Shechem deceitfully: the men of the city must all be circumcised. It is a peculiar doorway into family alliance, and Hamor and Shechem find it perfectly agreeable.

The bargain comes duevv. 20–26

At the city gate, Hamor and Shechem present the arrangement as an excellent investment. The land is large enough, the families may intermarry, and the livestock, possessions, and animals of Jacob’s people may become theirs. The men listen, and every male is circumcised. Three days later, while they are still in pain, Simeon and Levi enter the unsuspecting city with swords and slaughter every male. Hamor and Shechem are killed, Dinah is taken from Shechem’s house, and the bargain has acquired a quite different sort of arithmetic.

Jacob objects, and the sons ask whyvv. 27–31

Jacob’s other sons come upon the slaughter and loot the city, taking flocks, herds, donkeys, possessions, women, and children. Jacob objects that Simeon and Levi have made him a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, and fears that the people of the land will unite against his household. Their reply is one question, short enough to stand like a door slammed shut: should Shechem have treated their sister like a prostitute?

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Gen 34:1Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
Gen 34:2When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
Gen 34:3And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.
Gen 34:4So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”
Gen 34:5 Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.
Gen 34:6Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.
Gen 34:7When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
Gen 34:8But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.
Gen 34:9Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.
Gen 34:10You may settle among us, and the land will be open to you. Live here, move about freely, and acquire your own property.”
Gen 34:11Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.
Gen 34:12Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!”
Gen 34:13But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.
Gen 34:14“We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.
Gen 34:15We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.
Gen 34:16Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We will dwell among you and become one people.
Gen 34:17But if you will not agree to be circumcised, then we will take our sister and go.”
Gen 34:18Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Gen 34:19The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
Gen 34:20So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:
Gen 34:21“These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.
Gen 34:22But only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and be one people: if all our men are circumcised as they are.
Gen 34:23Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.”
Gen 34:24All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.
Gen 34:25Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
Gen 34:26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
Gen 34:27 Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.
Gen 34:28They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.
Gen 34:29They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.
Gen 34:30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
Gen 34:31But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Canaanplace

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 211 passages were voted onto 24 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

1 Genesis 30:21After that, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
10 Genesis 42:34But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.’”
10 Genesis 47:27Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number.
10 Genesis 13:9Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Genesis 20:15And Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Settle wherever you please.”
20 Ruth 4:1Meanwhile, Boaz went to the gate and sat down there. Soon the kinsman-redeemer of whom he had spoken came along, and Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
25 Genesis 49:5–7Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.
1 Jeremiah 2:36How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
2 Matthew 5:28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
4 Judges 14:2So he returned and told his father and mother, “I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”
7 Judges 20:6Then I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel’s inheritance, because they had committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.
7 Joshua 7:15The one who is caught with the things devoted to destruction must be burned, along with all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD and committed an outrage in Israel.’”
12 Exodus 22:16–17If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and sleeps with her, he must pay the full dowry for her to be his wife.
24 Genesis 23:10Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham,
24 1 Corinthians 7:19Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.
30 Psalms 105:12When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,

Onward

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