Monday, January 23, 2017

To be the only daughter among 12 brothers would have been both trying, and special.  They all loved Dinah.  And protected her.  In the one story we have about her, they defended her, and rescued her.

When Jacob returned to his homeland (with his 2 wives, 2 concubines, 12 sons, 1 daughter and a multitude of livestock) Esau met him and wrapped his arms around him and wept.  He had long ago forgiven Jacob for stealing the birthright and had become a very wealthy man in his own right.

Jacob and Leah's daughter Dinah was so excited to be in a new land that she, "...went out to see the daughters of the land."  She had been raised with boys, and wanted to make friends with young women like herself.  But she had been so protected by her brothers, she had no idea of the dangers out there.  And when Shechem (a prince, the son of the Hivite ruler called Hamor) saw her, he took her, raped her and defiled her.  And fell madly in love with her.  "His soul clave to Dinah...and he loved the damsel and spoke kindly to her."

Shehcem told his father Hamor, "Get me this damsel to wife."  When Jacob heard what had happened, he took his sons--who were also furious--to confront Hamor, who said that there didn't need to be a dowery, but that he would give Jacob whatever he wanted if his son could wed Dinah.

Jacob's sons told him that Dinah couldn't marry an uncircumcised man from a nation of men who were uncircumcised.  But if they would all go "under the knife" then they would be acceptable.  Which all the men under Hamor did including his son Shechem.  "And on the third day, when all the men were sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi...killed all the males in the city."  The other 10 brothers "...spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister."

Jacob was worried at what they had done, and told Simeon and Levi that he was afraid of retribution.  They answered their father, "Should he have dealt with our sister as with a harlot?"  And they took Dinah out of Shechem's house and took her home with them.

I suggested the other day that you read the book, "The Red Tent" which is a story about Dinah.  I loved it.  It is factual-fiction.  But historically accurate.


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