Study Desk

He raised his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, "Who are these with you?" So he said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

Then the slave women came forward with their children, and they bowed down.

And Leah likewise came forward with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came forward with Rachel, and they bowed down.

"Please accept my gift which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have plenty." So he urged him, and he accepted it.

Then Esau said, "Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me." But he said, "What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her and raped her.

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob said nothing until they came in.

Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard about it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage.

"And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.

"So you will live with us, and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it."

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people.

The young man did not delay to do this, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father.

"Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised.

"Will their livestock and their property and all their animals not be ours? Let's just consent to them, and they will live with us."

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem's house, and left.

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Remove the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments;

and let's arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me on the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone."