Who was Dinah?

Warning: this is a tough story to read in the Bible. It points out some of the rough aspects of humanity, even reminding us of some of our sin. But stick with me as we investigate the story of Dinah, which is found in the first book of the Bible: Genesis. 

Leah’s daughter Dinah, whom Leah bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area. When Shechem—son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region’s chieftain—saw her, he took her and raped her. He became infatuated with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her. “Get me this girl as a wife,” he told his father. Genesis 34:1-4 CSB

Background

So Dinah’s father is Jacob. He was Abraham’s grandson and Isaac’s son, following the line that would be God’s people. Back in Genesis 20, Abraham showed his deceiving nature. This must’ve been a family trait because Isaac repeated his father’s sin by deceiving Abimelech in Genesis 26. Jacob would then go on to deceive his own twin brother, Esau, in Genesis 27. Keep this deceitful nature in mind as now we have witnessed it in full force for three straight generations. 

Jacob had several wives and lots of sons, 12 to be exact. At this time, he would’ve had 10 sons of decent age, since Joseph would’ve been a small child and Benjamin would not have yet been born. Dinah’s mom was Leah, Jacob’s first wife. Leah had several full blooded sons with Jacob- Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 

Jacob had left home after stealing his brother’s birthright and married his wives while away. Now that his family was established, Jacob knew he had to get away from his father-in-law. Directly prior to this story of Dinah in chapter 34, we see Jacob and his long lost brother, Esau, reunite. It was a great reunification and Esau didn’t actually want Jacob dead, as he feared. Aww, so sweet. Interesting tid-bit to note is that in Genesis 33:14 Jacob tells his brother to continue on his path and that he and his family would join Esau in Seir. But did Jacob do what he said he would do? NOPE. Esau and his crew lived south, so after the meeting, would have had to turn around and go back south, where the mountainous Seir region is. Instead Jacob went the opposite direction and decided to make his home near the city of Shechem.

After Jacob came from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at Shechem in the land of Canaan and camped in front of the city. He purchased a section of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.  Genesis 33:18-19 CSB

“DeeDee, do we really need to know all of this background info?” Well to understand some of the story, it helps to understand the history and what has led the family to where they are now- Shechem. This town was obviously full of people who did not worship the true God. 

Dinah

Leah’s daughter Dinah, whom Leah bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area. Genesis 34:1 CSB

We have covered the first half of this verse already with the background info about who Dinah is. And I’ll be honest, my first read of this verse, I thought nothing of the second half. Oh, nice, Dinah is going out on the town for a day. Neat. 

But no, because we can’t think in terms of 2024 culture, but we must think in ancient middle eastern culture. It would have been expected that a young, unmarried girl be escorted by a male relative when going to another place. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that there was a festival going on in the town of Shechem that Dinah attended. We don’t know for sure if she was going for an event, just to people watch the other ladies, or if she had already struck up friendships with some of the townspeople. We also don’t know if it was on her own accord or if her parents and brothers knew she was going alone. All we really know is that Dinah went into town by herself, which would definitely have been frowned upon. Let’s look at what happened next.

When Shechem—son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region’s chieftain—saw her, he took her and raped her. Genesis 34:2 CSB

So the town was named after the leader’s son (or maybe the son after the town??), so don’t let that confuse you. But if you’re flabbergasted that this prince would see Dinah and decide he wanted her, and force that, you’re right to be flabbergasted. It seems very opposite of godly character for sure. We know that Dinah shouldn't have been traveling in the city alone, and even by 2024 standards that doesn’t give any man the right to have his way with her. 

Let’s look at 2 cross references that go along with this verse. 

2 Samuel 13:14 But he refused to listen to her, and because he was stronger than she was, he raped her.

Deuteronomy 21:14 Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.

The 2 Samuel verse is part of a larger context where King David’s son Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar. Wowzers, right? So we can clearly tell this is an unwanted experience for Dinah if the cross reference matches the experience of Tamar. 

Now the Deuteronomy verse is a little more tricky. Remember that it has to do with the Dinah situation since it has been cross referenced there. The context we find verse 21:14 is in a section titled “Fair Treatment of Captured Women”. This part of the laws deal with human interaction and are not one-size-fits-all-laws but rather y’all-are-terrible-so-if-but-probably-when-you-commit-this-sin-this-is-how-you-deal-with-it-laws. 

The biggest takeaways I get from the fact that the Dinah story is cross referenced with Deuteronomy and 2 Samuel (even though both were written much later) is that Dinah must have been humiliated and her rape was not a wanted experience. Some commentators suggest otherwise, that she had wanted the prince’s attention and sought him out. I don’t see evidence of this being the case. 

Let’s continue…

He became infatuated with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her. “Get me this girl as a wife,” he told his father. Genesis 34:3-4 CSB

So after Shechem takes Dinah’s virginity, he has compassion on her and decides he wants to marry her. John Gill writes that Shechem speaking tenderly to Dinah is more like “to soften her mind towards him, and take off the resentment of it to him, because of the injury he had done her, and to gain her good will and affection, and her consent to marry him; professing great love to her, promising her great things, what worldly grandeur and honour she would be advanced to, and how kindly he would behave towards her.” Basically after his humiliation of her, his approach of her shifted into kind words and trying to convince her to marry him. What a sweet-talker!

I’ll sum up the rest of the story for you, but definitely go read it on your own- because it’s a doozy. 

Shechem’s daddy Hamor goes to Jacob and asks for Dinah to marry Shechem. Meanwhile Dinah is still held captive by Shechem in Shechem (hehe, I had to). Jacob had already heard what happened and instead of chastising Leah or discussing the matter with anyone, he is quiet and says nothing to anyone until Dinah’s brothers return from the fields. And BOY are the brothers upset. Hamor is hopeful that a marriage with Shechem and Dinah would combine their families, but it was previously forbidden for the family to marry Cannanites. Shechem tells Jacob and the brothers that he’ll pay whatever dowry they want, whatever they want so he can have Dinah as his wife. The brothers are cunning and tell Shechem and Hamor that they are okay with the marriage as long as all of the men of the town are circumcised. So the townsmen obliged and were all circumcised. Guess how Dinah’s brothers got their revenge, though? While all the men were in pain from their procedure (I don’t imagine there was much oxycodone available for pain relief back then lol), Simeon and Levi went and killed them. Then they took Dinah back and robbed the city of anything and everything they wanted. 

Jacob finds out and rebukes Simeon and Levi and tells them they have brought trouble and dishonor to Jacob and the entire family. Simeon and Levi respond by justifying their behavior to enact justice for their sister, Dinah. 

That’s it. That’s all we know about poor Dinah. We can extrapolate or add our own details. There have been fiction books written about other’s ideas of what happened next with Dinah. We simply don’t know. (If you want to go down some rabbit holes of possibilities, I can point you to a few FICTION resources.) 

What can we learn from Dinah’s story?

First, let me loudly and clearly say- rape is not okay. While that is a big part of this story, I don’t think that is what we should focus on. Did Dinah’s brothers do the right thing? That’s debatable. In my selfishly earthly mind, sure! They were defending their sister. But God doesn’t let on that it was the right thing to do. We have to remember that some things we find in the Bible are descriptive and not prescriptive. Description describes something that took place, while prescriptive would be a prescription to do something. This text does not let us know that tricking the townspeople in order to kill them when they are at their weakest is the right thing to do. In fact there are many Scriptures that point to God’s justice being the ultimate justice (Romans 12:19).

So what can we take away from this story? I think there are a couple things: 1. Before we act on a desire, pray and consider if it is a God-glorifying decision. Imagine how that may have changed so many aspects of this story. 2. Justice is God’s alone. 3. Be careful with whom we associate. Dinah sought to see and be a part of the townswomen’s activities. Either she was curious about them or she wanted to be rebellious, either way she chose to associate with their ungodly ways. While we are to minister to unbelievers, we have to be careful not to idolize them or want to mimic their ways. 

This is a tough story. It isn’t easy to read and surely isn’t easy to think about. If you have felt uncomfortable reading this, good. Sit in your uncomfortableness and seek God. Express your disdain for this event that really took place so many years ago. Be open with God and tell Him your thoughts and feelings, because He really does listen and He really does care.