Jacob Part 20: The Oppression of Dinah

The Oppression of Dinah

We are coming to the center of the third act of the Yaaqov story.

It's not a happy story.

It's highly disturbing, and it's gonna repeat patterns that we have seen at the center of the other two acts.

Recall that in the first act, you had the story of the twins and deceptions as the outer frame, and in the middle was the beginning of a story of Yaaqov's father as a deceiver, and who pays for that deception in terms of being the one abused? It's a woman.

It's Yaaqov's mother, Rivqah.

In act two, you had Yaaqov going to exile, the dream of Heaven and Earth united.

You have here Yaaqov's return from exile with more dreams and pillars. And in the center was the story of deceptions, deceptions, deceptions. And who were the people who suffered most because of the deceptions of all these men? It was the wives Rachel and Leah.

So, at the center of this third act, is the story of the sons of Yaaqov replaying the deception of all their generations. Because of what? Because of the sexual abuse of Leah's seventh child, Dinah.

The center of the center of each of these sections are these stories about these women who suffer because of the men in the story.

This brings up the even more sensitive topic of this sexual abuse, and it's very unpleasant. And this story is forcing us to look at it as a part of the portrait of how humans operate, to give us wisdom for how to see and understand and live in our day. 

This section doesn't correspond with our chapters. It goes from 33:18 to 34:31.

It begins with Yaaqov coming to the city and buying a piece of land named Shechem.

And he builds an altar there, pitches a tent, Eden imagery, and he worships God. It's gonna conclude, and the next story will begin with God appearing to Yaaqov in that place saying, "Okay, go up to the next Eden spot and make an altar and worship me there." So that's like the frame around it. Inside of that is our story.

So there is this Canaanite father and son who are rulers of the Canaanite city of Shechem, and this guy named Shechem sees, desires, and rapes the daughter of Yaaqov.

Yaaqov does nothing.

And that opens the door for his sons to do something. And what they are is angry, and they make a plan for revenge.

In the center of this is this long conversation. It's this long, deceptive conversation. This is the snake moment, as it were, where Yaaqov's sons become the deceivers. And the conversation happens in three steps, all paralleling each other. And what, this is like the ultimate perversion of the blessing for the nations because the sons of Yaaqov say, "Hey, join our people.

Enter into a covenant with us by circumcision, and we will become one people." And their ultimate plan, of course, is to murder the nations instead of to reconcile with them. And then that's exactly what the sons of Yaaqov do. Especially highlighted are two sons: Simeon and Levi.

So that's the design of the story, and at every point there's key hyperlinks that kinda illuminate little puzzles in the story, but that's the shape.

Genesis 33:18–34:7 CJB

18 Having traveled from Paddan-Aram, Ya‘akov arrived safely at the city of Sh’khem, in Kena‘an, and set up camp near the city. 19 From the sons of Hamor Sh’khem’s father he bought for one hundred pieces of silver the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent. 20 There he put up an altar, which he called El-Elohei-Yisra’el [God, the God of Isra’el]. 1 One time Dinah the daughter of Le’ah, whom she had borne to Ya‘akov, went out to visit the local girls; 2 and Sh’khem the son of Hamor the Hivi, the local ruler, saw her, grabbed her, raped her and humiliated her. 3 But actually he was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Ya‘akov; he fell in love with the girl and tried to win her affection. 4 Sh’khem spoke with his father Hamor and said, “Get this girl for me; I want her to be my wife.” 5 When Ya‘akov heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter, his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Ya‘akov restrained himself until they came. 6 Hamor the father of Sh’khem went out to Ya‘akov to speak with him 7 just as Ya‘akov’s sons were coming in from the field. When they heard what had happened, the men were saddened and were very angry at the outrage this man had committed against Isra’el by raping Ya‘akov’s daughter, something that is simply not done.

"So Yaaqov, he came in peace," he comes in peace. It will not end in peace, but it begins in peace, "to the city of Shechem, in the land of Canaan. When he came back from Paddan Aram, and he camped facing the city.

And he acquired the portion of a field there, and he stretched out his tent, he made wide his tent in the field. And he got this field from the hand of Hamor, the father of Shechem for 100 qesitah." It's a very obscure money word.

This is the term qesitah (‎‏קְשׂׅיטָה‏‎) which occurs in three passages of the Old Testament. Thus Jacob bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, “for an hundred pieces of money” (Gen. xxxiii. 19); and the same word is used in the parallel passage in Joshua (xxiv. 32) where the children of Israel buried Joseph’s bones in Shechem in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought for an hundred pieces of money. Lastly, Job’s kinsfolk and acquaintances gave him every man a piece of money, and every one a ring of gold (xlii. 11). It has been always a matter of doubt what this piece of money really was. The Septuagint translates[271] qesitah in these three passages by ἑκατὸν ἀμνῶν, ἑκατὸν ἀμνάδων, and ἀμνάδα μίαν, thus in every case regarding it as a lamb. The most ancient interpreters all agree in this, whilst some of the later Rabbis regarded it as signifying a coin stamped with the form of a lamb: one of them says that he found such a coin in Africa[325].

Ridgeway, William. The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1892. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66160/66160-h/66160-h.htm.

I don't know if that was a good, nobody knows if this was a good deal or not.

But the whole thing is, he buys it fair and square. "And there in the field with his wide tent, he set up an altar, and he called this place El, Elohim of Israel."

do you remember when he's constantly been saying, "the God of my fathers, the God of my fathers"?

El, the Elohim of Yisrael. It's the first time he adopts God as his own God.

Can I think of other stories where one of this family has bought fair and square a piece of land with a nice field and stretched out his tent there? It's your favorite chapter of the book of Genesis.

It's called Genesis 23.

And when Sarah dies, Avraham's wife, Avraham rose and he went to the Hittites, and he said, "Oh, listen guys, you've seen me around the outskirts of town, I always camp out there.

And my wife died, and I need to buy a burial cave." And the sons of the Hittites say to Avraham, "Oh my lord, you are a mighty prince." Literally nasi', one who's lifted up. "You're a mighty exalted one among us, we'll just give you some property." And Abraham says, "Oh, no, that's, nope, that won't work. I need to pay for it." And so the whole chapter is this long, back and forth dialogue between Abraham and this guy named Dusty, Ephron. About how Ephron buys fair and square this field, which has a cave in it.

So it's called the cave of Machpelah. The word "cave" is built on the Hebrew root word "to be exposed." It's the root at the, it's the same letters at the root of the word "nakedness," exposure. So the word, when you see the word cave, it's cave, but it's something that protects you from being exposed. So it's called the me'arah. But it's spelled with the exact same letters and part of the root word of "naked." And then Machpelah means couple.

Double it, couple. The nakedness of the couple. 

So he buys, he buys the nakedness of the couple. That's the spot in this nice field. And then look, so here is the mighty prince buying a field called Nakedness of the Couple. And then as the story comes to a conclusion, it goes on to tell you, there were all these trees. The property was full of all these trees, all around the border of it. And then in the middle was the Nakedness of the Couple.

So and this is the first and only piece of Canaan that Avraham ever owns. So this becomes the down payment of the promise, that to your seed I will give this land, and through your seed I will bring blessing to the nations. 

That's Genesis 23. And so here in the end of Genesis 33, you have this little echo of Yaaqov replaying his own purchasing of a bit of, what is meant to become the new, the seedbed of the new Eden. And he buys it from Hamor, it's the word for "donkey" in Hebrew.

So it starts off great. Here's Yaaqov who also gets to buy, fair and square, a piece of Eden. And you're like, sweet, that's great. He makes Yahweh his God.

What could go wrong?

Logos Sermons Elon Moreh 3:39min video- https://sermons.logos.com/logos-media/378490-45437604--

"And Dinah went out, the daughter of Leah, whom she birthed for Yaaqov, to see the daughters of the land." The daughter of Yaaqov goes out to look upon the daughters of the land.

"And Shechem saw her, the son of Hamor the Hivite, and he was an exalted one." It's the same word. A ruler. He was an exalted ruler in the land. "And he took her, and he laid down with her, and he oppressed her." It's the same word used to describe what Avraham and Sarah do to Hagar.

It's the same word used to describe what Pharaoh will do when he enslaves the Israelites in Egypt later in the story. Abuse, takes advantage of.

And here's the really twisted thing about it, was after he did that, "Then his being, his nephesh, soul, clung to Dinah the daughter of Yaaqov. Then he loved her." "And he spoke to the heart of the woman.

And then Shechem went to Hamor, his father, saying, 'Get me this girl as a wife.'"

Notice the narrative is portraying in opposite order of how things properly go, in their cultural setting, which is, you see, and then you are attracted to, then you fall in love, then you ask your dad to help arrange the marriage, then you consummate the marriage. And do you see, it's all in exactly the opposite, the opposite order. And isn't it interesting that what we're told about Shechem right before he inverts the proper order of how you join a woman as your wife is that he's called a one who is high and lifted up in the land. So it's precisely his social status that's highlighted in the narrative that sets off the sequence of events.

Verse 5. "And Yaaqov, he heard that he, that is Shechem, had defiled Dinah, his daughter."

So just to pause real quick here. This is a part of the story, but also this phrase is repeated elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. It makes me uncomfortable, so I'll just name it, 'cause it probably makes you uncomfortable too. So in a patriarchal cultural setting where wives and daughters and animals are property, daughters are a money maker 'cause you can marry them off and the bride price and so on. And so, if another man has slept with your daughter outside of an arranged marriage, then he just devalued your property, she's worth less. That's what this language is communicating.

So it's okay if things in the Bible bother us like that. 

"His sons were with the herds in the field. And Yaaqov," what's his response?

"He is silent until they come.

So Hamor, the father of Shechem came out to Yaaqov to speak with him." It seems like it should have been the other way around, yeah?

"And the sons of Yaaqov came in from the field when they heard," which means that Yaaqov didn't tell them. Somehow they found out some other way.

Do you see the portrait here is portraying Yaaqov as like, he doesn't tell his sons, he doesn't go to Hamor.

Remember, Dinah is the daughter of Leah. And he apparently didn't have a lot of affection for her. And that is passed on here.

But her brothers, oh, "They were pained," they felt deep pain. "And there was hot anger." The brothers are hot with anger and deeply pained. "Because he had done a despicable act in Israel by laying down with the daughter of Yaaqov. Such a thing should never be done."

So the narrator tells you what he thinks. Despicable, these things should not be done.

So that's the opening scene.

So we've got Dinah going out to look upon the daughters of the land, a man in a high-powered position who inverts the proper order. And not just culturally proper order, like, the Eden ideal of a man leaving his father and mother, being joined to his wife. And this is exactly the same word as Genesis 2:24, being joined to or clinging to. So it's just, the whole thing is just this nightmare Eden, it's like anti-Eden sequence here. And then Yaaqov himself is this ultimate fail where he doesn't advocate for his daughter.

So I don't wanna unnecessarily linger over unpleasant things, but this story is yet again forcing us to stare at human nature, to stare at things that should not be done, but they are done,

There's a number of hyperlinks to earlier parts of the melody in the book of Genesis that we could talk about here. 

Can You Think of Any?

Genesis 6:1–2 LEB

1 And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, daughters were born to them. 2 Then the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose.

another victimization of women from Genesis 6, where you have this exalted one, like the sons of God who sees a woman and they take and they give, I mean, where they take of the woman- And that produces horrific things. But also like when Dinah goes out and she sees the daughters of the land, That also kind of has some Genesis 6 language

Genesis 6 begins, "And daughters were born to humanity, and the sons of Elohim looked upon the daughters of humanity that they were good and took them as wives."

In this case, Dinah goes out to look upon the daughters of the land, but it's an exalted one who sees her and then takes her as a wife. And so, in other words, the Canaanite ruler, Shechem, is being set on analogy to the rebel sons of Elohim in Genesis 6..

Genesis 34:1 CSB

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

Her name is Dinah.

God's response to the sons of Elohim is to say, "My spirit will no longer yadon with humanity." In other words, Dinah's name is itself spelled with the same letters of God's response to what the sons of Elohim have done.

So what the sons of Elohim do is, it's like the last straw that sets in motion the events of the flood.

And do you remember the brother's response?

Genesis 4:5 CSB

5 but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent.

They were hot with anger, like Cain, And they felt deep pain.

And that deep pain, yit'atsevu is exactly what God experiences. Yit'atsev, he was pained in his heart.

Genesis 9:11 CSB

11 I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And what the brothers are going to propose- Is circumcision, "mul," the circumcision of the flesh of every male.

What God sends is the flood, mabbul, to cut off all flesh.

So this is another very subtle way that the author is depicting the brothers on analogy with God.

But it's actually a contrast. So what God's responding to is the outcry of the innocent, which is exactly what the outrage of what just happened to Dinah is. And so for them, they use circumcision instead of being a way to create the family of the nations, they're gonna use it to get revenge on the nations.

Using what they think is this last measure, which is circumcision and violence. So it's this weird parody. We're parodying the melody here of Genesis 1 through 9, but their anger is legitimate, but the way that they respond unleashes curse and death instead of justice. 

Genesis 4:8 CSB

8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

when they go on killing the men, the verb used for the murder of the men of the town is the verb used of what Cain did to Abel. 

So these narratives we're reflecting on the tragic events of Genesis 1 through 9, but it's even more distorted, distorted here.

Let's also sit with this uncomfortable portrait about the unequal gender dynamics, the portrait of sexual abuse that's the most intense of any of the three.

And maybe just to either repeat or develop some of our reflections from earlier, the fact that this is in the Bible, and the fact that the narrator even steps in here to say, this is a thing that, it's not, ought not to be done. But even so, just the fact that it's present in the Bible. I know for myself, and having taken other groups through this, this is just a really uncomfortable passage. And it's hard not to feel angry at the Bible when these kinds of stories are told. 

I grew up in a traditon, which I think is probably true for a lot of traditions, where we don't touch this. And yet there are people within your group who, this is a real issue. And it could be a barrier in some ways. And so leading that depth of understanding, and it's just a lot more, and we have a tendency to not pay attention to it.

To avoid these parts of the Bible.

but then also this is a story that's so clearly forcing us to deal with these issues. And so when we avoid these parts of the Bible, it's like we're avoiding the chance to, as an individual or a community, to stare these realities in the face.

I can relate to that idea of being, like, God, how can you let this happen?

Like Jacob in this story it's like, why are you silent? Why are you not going out and confronting this? Why are you not doing something?

I think Jacob plays that role, at least right here in this moment.

Jacob does all that conniving stuff before this, but when it comes to your daughter getting raped, you don't do anything.

I understand where the brothers are coming from. And they're like, yo, something happened to my sister. And this isn't the first time it happens in the Scriptures, David repeats the same thing. It's like, bro, you gotta do something. 

When these moments are on display in a biblical story, and this entire narrative that we call Genesis 34 will not mention God.

It's just humans doing their thing.

So this is a part of the dynamic of biblical stories is there will be these really, really disturbing stories. And it's like where is, God won't be mentioned. It's just human nature on display.

The Exodus story is one of them where the persecutions, enslavement of Pharaoh keeps intensifying, and the Israelites keep being fruitful and multiplying. And then it's only at the very end that you hear, and God heard their groaning. And he knew their pain, and he remembered his covenant. After generations. 

the biblical story stares in the face of these experiences of God's apparent absence and silence. 

And then you get to the psalms, and the poets give God an earful. I mean, they let God know how they feel. And this is a dynamic about the portrait of God in the Bible that it seems in my experience, and most of the Christian Protestant traditions I've been a part of, this isn't like, I don't know, it was just not how I was taught to think about God. 

But it's as if the narratives are themselves portraying the feeling of the absence of God by the absence of God. And then by another part of the same scriptural collection, venting a lot of emotion and frustration with God about that apparent absence. 

But then there's other stories like Joseph being sold into slavery, and he's just going down, down, down, down, down. And then at the end of his story he can say, somehow God was in the middle of all of that mess. Not willing it, that was the will of humans, but transforming it into tov when humans did Ra. 

And what's tricky or frustrating is we don't have that redemptive arc to this episode.

We just have the mess.

it's a wrestling match with God, but the Bible is trying to get us into that mindset by portraying the absence of God.

In other words, our problem isn't with the Bible. the Bible is creating the problem for us because the whole point is, it's a reflection guiding us and shaping us through our everyday experiences, the feeling the absence of God. And to me that's so remarkable that God's word will take us on a journey to experience the absence of God in these stories that so mirrors our life experience. 

Helps us to see how we are as a people without his presence. It just magnifies that.it actually kinda helps you to have a faith and a confidence and a trust in God. I don't know, it seems to work kind of backwards. But when I can read and see what happens when I don't see God in the mix here. It's like, wow! God really needs to be in the mix.

A tragic story, a tragedy is literature, art, that forces us all to stare at the reality of human condition in all of its ugliness and discomfort. And there's value in tragic stories. They're formative in a deep way, they're just extremely unpleasant.

And it's hard, we don't expect to find that in the Bible. Or maybe we do, I don't know what we expect, we all come from different backgrounds, but here is one. And the discomfort we're feeling is because that's the whole point.

But this is fit within a much larger story about the God who has compassion on Leah. And the God who delivers Hagar in the wilderness. About the God who delivers and liberates the slave and the orphan, so he can set them up on the prince of nobles. And that's the bigger context for the story, but man, I wish God wouldn't wait so long sometimes.

And that's okay to feel that way too.

And like how come the Bible doesn't ... Why is it not rejecting this like, the way that I want it to?

And I think the key thing is that last thing you said, "the way that I want it to." Because the point of, the narrative is clearly offering a judgment on this behavior. when one approaches the laws of the Torah, and just in an earlier session we saw this woman about captives, captive women of war, but it describes the taking of that woman with the language of the taking of the forbidden fruit of the tree. And so like the Hebrew Bible is offering a condemnation, and it is working along a trajectory that Jesus takes to the next level.

But the timing. I wish God would've said 3,500 years ago what, at least what some followers of Jesus can hear the Spirit saying clearly right now. And what's frustrating is that God's sense of timing seems to be really, really, really different than ours. 

But I want us to notice that it's the Bible that's actually forcing us to have these conversations. It's not like ignoring it, it's forcing it. And maybe that, it's about what I expect the Bible to do.

What I want God To do

There's no tying a bow on this kind of conversation.

The narrative certainly doesn't. But let's take a moment, let's ponder these things.

It's going to get worse before it gets better, and I suppose that's how life is sometimes. So for the moment, let's pause before we move on in the story.

Jacob’s Silence

Bibliography

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BibleProject. “Jacob.” BibleProject Classroom. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob.

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Kuruvilla, Abraham. Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014.

Lester, G. Brooke. “What Does it Mean that Leah was ‘Tender-Eyed’?” Logos Blog. August 28, 2023. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://www.logos.com/grow/tender-eyed-leah-meaning/.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2005.

Noegel, Scott B. “Sex, Sticks, and Tricksters in Genesis 30:31-43: A New Look at an Old Crux.” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 25 (1997): 7–17.

Parsons, John J. “Leah’s Eyes: Seeing the Unseen.” Hebrew for Christians. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/Summaries/Vayetzei/Leah_s_Eyes/leah_s_eyes.html.

Ridgeway, William. The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1892. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66160/66160-h/66160-h.htm.