2 Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was chieftain there, saw her and raped her. 3 Then he felt a strong attraction to Dinah, Jacob's daughter, fell in love with her and wooed her. 4 Shechem went to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl for my wife." 5 Jacob heard that Shechem had raped his daughter Dinah, but his sons were out in the fields with the livestock so he didn't say anything until they got home.
6 Hamor, Shechem's father, went to Jacob to work out marriage arrangements. 7 Meanwhile Jacob's sons on their way back from the fields heard what had happened. They were outraged, explosive with anger. Shechem's rape of Jacob's daughter was intolerable in Israel and not to be put up with. 8 Hamor spoke with Jacob and his sons, "My son Shechem is head over heels in love with your daughter - give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and we'll give our daughters to you. 10 Live together with us as one family. Settle down among us and make yourselves at home. Prosper among us." 11 Shechem then spoke for himself, addressing Dinah's father and brothers: "Please, say yes. I'll pay anything. 12 Set the bridal price as high as you will - the sky's the limit! Only give me this girl for my wife." 13 Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father with cunning. Their sister, after all, had been raped. 14 They said, "This is impossible. We could never give our sister to a man who was uncircumcised. Why, we'd be disgraced. 15 The only condition on which we can talk business is if all your men become circumcised like us. 16 Then we will freely exchange daughters in marriage and make ourselves at home among you and become one big, happy family. 17 But if this is not an acceptable condition, we will take our sister and leave."
18 That seemed fair enough to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19 The young man was so smitten with Jacob's daughter that he proceeded to do what had been asked. He was also the most admired son in his father's family. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public square and spoke to the town council: 21 "These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle down here and make themselves at home; there's plenty of room in the country for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage. 22 But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as they themselves are. 23 This is a very good deal for us - these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we're going to get our hands on it. So let's do what they ask and have them settle down with us." 24 Everyone who was anyone in the city agreed with Hamor and his son, Shechem; every male was circumcised.
25 Three days after the circumcision, while all the men were still very sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each with his sword in hand, walked into the city as if they owned the place and murdered every man there. 26 They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem, rescued Dinah from Shechem's house, and left.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 34:2-26
Commentary on Genesis 34:1-19
(Read Genesis 34:1-19)
Young persons, especially females, are never so safe and well off as under the care of pious parents. Their own ignorance, and the flattery and artifices of designing, wicked people, who are ever laying snares for them, expose them to great danger. They are their own enemies if they desire to go abroad, especially alone, among strangers to true religion. Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged children, like Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretence was, to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable among them; she went to see, yet that was not all, she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintance with the Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of Dinah's gadding. The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. How great a matter does a little fire kindle! We should carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it.
Commentary on Genesis 34:20-31
(Read Genesis 34:20-31)
The Shechemites submitted to the sacred rite, only to serve a turn, to please their prince, and to enrich themselves, and it was just with God to bring punishment upon them. As nothing secures us better than true religion, so nothing exposes us more than religion only pretended to. But Simeon and Levi were most unrighteous. Those who act wickedly, under the pretext of religion, are the worst enemies of the truth, and harden the hearts of many to destruction. The crimes of others form no excuse for us. Alas! how one sin leads on to another, and, like flames of fire, spread desolation in every direction! Foolish pleasures lead to seduction; seduction produces wrath; wrath thirsts for revenge; the thirst of revenge has recourse to treachery; treachery issues in murder; and murder is followed by other lawless actions. Were we to trace the history of unlawful commerce between the sexes, we should find it, more than any other sin, ending in blood.