Study Desk

And he lift vp his eyes, and sawe the women, and the children, and saide, Who are these with thee? And he answered, They are ye childre whome God of his grace hath giuen thy seruant.

Then came the maides neere, they, and their children, and bowed themselues.

Then he answered him, My lord knoweth, that the children are tender, & the ewes & kine with yong vnder mine hande: and if they should ouerdriue them one day, all the flocke would die.

(Nowe Iaakob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter, and his sonnes were with his cattell in the fielde: therefore Iaakob helde his peace, vntill they were come.)

And whe the sonnes of Iaakob were come out of the fielde and heard it, it grieued the men, & they were very angry, because he had wrought villenie in Israel, in yt he had lyen with Iaakobs daughter: which thing ought not to be done.

And they said vnto them, We can not do this thing, to giue our sister to an vncircumcised man: for that were a reproofe vnto vs.

These men are peaceable with vs: and that they may dwell in the land, and doe their affaires therin (for behold, the land hath roume ynough for them) let vs take their daughters to wiues, and giue them our daughters.

Onely herein will the men consent vnto vs for to dwell with vs, and to be one people, if all the men children among vs be circumcised as they are circumcised.

Shall not their flockes and their substance and all their cattell be ours? onely let vs consent herein vnto them, and they will dwell with vs.

And on the thirde day (when they were sore) two of the sonnes of Iaakob, Simeon and Leui, Dinahs brethren tooke either of them his sworde and went into the citie boldly, and slue euery male.

They slewe also Hamor and Shechem his sonne wt the edge of the sword, & tooke Dinah out of Shechems house, and went their way.

Againe the other sonnes of Iaakob came vpon the dead, and spoyled the citie, because they had defiled their sister.

They tooke their sheepe & their beeues, and their asses, and whatsoeuer was in the citie, and in the fieldes.

Also they caryed away captiue & spoyled all their goods, and all their children and their wiues, and all that was in the houses.

Then Iaakob said to Simeon and Leui, Ye haue troubled me, and made me stinke among the inhabitats of the land, aswell the Canaanites, as the Perizzites, and and I being few in nomber, they shall gather theselues together against me, & slay me, and so shall I, and my house be destroied.

And they answered, Shoulde hee abuse our sister as a whore?

And they gaue vnto Iaakob all the strange gods, which were in their hands, and all their earings which were in their eares, and Iaakob hidde them vnder an oke, which was by Shechem.

Then they went on their iourney, and the feare of God was vpon the cities that were roud about them: so that they did not followe after the sonnes of Iaakob.

Then they departed from Beth-el, and when there was about halfe a daies iourney of ground to come to Ephrath, Rahel trauailed, and in trauailing she was in perill.

For their riches were so great, that they could not dwell together, and the lande, wherein they were strangers, coulde not receiue them because of their flockes.