Contradictions in the story of the rape of Dinah, the daughter of our master Jacob, in the Book of Genesis
Contradictions in the story of the rape of Dinah, the daughter of our master Jacob, in the Book of Genesis
Introduction:
This story came in Chapter 34 of the Book of Genesis, and we find it as if it was inserted into the text and the sequence of events
. Rabbi Dr. David Frankel noticed several contradictions in that story and wrote an article about it on the website The Torah at this link:
- 1- Was Dina actually raped or did this incident not happen?
We read from the Book of Genesis:
34:1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
34:2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the land, saw her, and took her, and lay with her, and afflicted
her. 34:3 And his soul was attached to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl, and was gentle with the girl.
34:4 Then Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Take me this young woman to wife.
Then we read:
34:8 And Hamor spoke to them, saying, Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter; give her to him to wife.
34:9 And make marriages with us; you shall give us your daughters, and you shall take our daughters for yourselves.
34:10 And you shall dwell with us , and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade in it, and possess it.
34:11 Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes; for what you say to me is 34:12 They have offered me a very large dowry and gift, and I will give as you say to me, and give me the girl to wife. Then we read: 34:13 Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit and spoke, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 34:14 And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to an uncircumcised man; for it is a disgrace to us. 34:15 Nevertheless this we will agree with you, if you will be like us, by circumcising every male among you. 34:16 We will give you our daughters, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will be one people. 34:17 But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go. 34:18 And their words pleased Hamor, and in the eyes of Shechem Hamor’s son . 34:19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he had great pleasure in Jacob’s daughter, and he was most honored of all his father’s house. Then we read: 34:25 And it came to pass on the third day. For they were grieved that the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, had taken every man his sword, and had come boldly against the city, and had slain all the males. 34:26 And they slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of the house of Shechem, and departed.
- A- If Shechem raped Dina, how could he and his father be willing to pay any amount and do anything in order for him to marry her, and never refer to the rape or regret it?
According to the verse (Genesis 34:2) , Shechem is supposed to have raped Dinah, but strangely enough, despite that, we see in the verses (Genesis 34:10-1-11-12) that Shechem’s father is willing to give Dinah’s people anything in exchange for them marrying Dinah to his son, even if they give them land or anything they ask for. Shechem did not delay in doing anything they wanted because of his passion for Dinah, he wanted her (Genesis 34:19).
That is, we saw in the story of Amnon, the son of King David, raping his sister Tamar in the Book of Second Samuel that despite his love for her, after raping her, he rejected her and no longer wanted her.
We read in the Book of Second Samuel:
13:1 And it came to pass after this that Absalom, the son of David, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar, and Amnon, the son of David, loved her.
13:2 And Amnon was afflicted with sickness because of his sister Tamar , because she was a virgin and hard of child. 13:3 Now Amnon
had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. Jonadab was a very wise man.
13:4 And he said to him, "Why, O king's son, are you so weak from morning to morning? Will you not tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister?"
Amnon loved Tamar, but what happened after he raped her?
We read from the Book of 2 Samuel:
13:10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the chamber, that I may eat at your hand." So Tamar took the cakes that she had made, and brought them to Amnon her brother into the chamber.
13:11 And she brought them to him to eat. But he held her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister.
" 13:12 But she said to him, "No, my brother, do not afflict me; for it is not done so in Israel; do not do this wickedness.
13:13 But where shall I go with my disgrace? And you shall be like one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you."
13:14 But he would not listen to her voice, but overpowered her and subdued her and lay with her.
13:15 Then Amnon hated her with a very intense hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was stronger than the love with which he loved her. And Amnon said to her, “Arise, go!
” 13:16 But she said to him, “No, this evil in sending me away is greater than the other which you did to me.” But he would not listen to her.
13:17 But he called his servant who served him and said, “Put this woman out from me, and shut the door behind her.”
But the strange thing in the story of the rape of Dinah is that Shechem and his father were prepared to do anything for the sake of pleasing her family and their agreement that he should marry her and that his soul was attached to her.
It is also strange that we do not find in the conversation of Shechem and his father with our master Jacob, peace be upon him, any indication of their regret for the incident of the rape, as if it had never happened at all.
- B- If Dina was in the house of Shechem, how could his father ask her father Jacob and her sisters to give them Dina??!!!:-
A clear contradiction in the texts, as we find in the number (Genesis 34:8) that Shechem’s father asks our master Jacob to give him his daughter Dinah for his son Shechem, which means that Dinah is in the house of our master Jacob,
but suddenly we find in the number (Genesis 34:26) that Dinah is in the house of Shechem and that her brothers take her from the house, so
we read from the Book of Genesis: -
34:26 And they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of the house of Shechem, and departed.
The strange thing is that the texts before that did not tell us that Dinah was in the house of Shechem, but it was clear that she was in her father’s house because Hamor went to her father and asked that they give her to his son, meaning that she was with her father, so
we read from the Book of Genesis: -
34:8 And Hamor spoke with them, saying, “Shechem my son, his heart is set on your daughter; give her to him to wife.
” So when was Dinah in the house of Shechem??!!!!
It is very clear that the incident of rape was inserted into the story for a purpose that God willing we will know in the following points.
It is clear that the story was simply that Shechem saw Dinah and was impressed by her, so he asked his father to ask her for him from her father.
The story was as follows:
34:1 And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
34:2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the land, saw her.
34:4 And Shechem spoke to Hamor his father, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
34:6 So Hamor, Shechem’s father, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
34:8 And Hamor spoke to them, saying, “Shechem my son’s soul desires your daughter; give her to him as a wife.
34:9 And marry with us, and you will give us your daughters, and you will take our daughters for yourselves.
34:10 And you will dwell with us, and the land will be before you; dwell and trade in it and possess it.
” 34:11 Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in the land.” 34:12 Offer me a very large dowry and gift, and I will give as you say to me, and give me the young woman to wife .
- C-
Where are the daughters of Israel who will marry from the Shechem clan?
It is supposed that during the events of that story there was only one
daughter for our master Jacob, peace be upon him, and she was Dinah, and there
were no other daughters in the family, but it is strange that we find these
texts.
We read from the Book of Genesis: -
34:13 Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with
deceit and spoke, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
34:14 And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to
an uncircumcised man; for it is a disgrace to us.
34:15 Nevertheless this we will agree with you, if you become like us, by
circumcising every male among you.
34:16 We will give you our daughters, and we will take your
daughters for us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
Then we read: -
34:20 Then Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and
spoke to the men of their city, saying,
34:21 These people are peaceable with us; let them dwell in the land and
trade in it, and behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take
their daughters to be wives, and give them our daughters.
Where are the daughters of Israel here??!!!!
There is only one daughter.
These texts speak as if the Children of Israel had become a large tribe with
many clans and not just a small family.
This may be the real purpose of the story
. The story may not have originally spoken about the time of our master
Jacob, peace be upon him, nor about his direct daughter, but rather it speaks
about the tribe and what happened to it in a later period.
- 2-
Was the name of the daughter of our master Jacob, peace be upon him,
Dinah, and was the story in Chapter 34 correct?
We find a clear insertion of the name Dinah into the
story in Chapter 34 of Genesis.
- A-
According to the Book of Genesis, it is assumed that our master Jacob,
peace be upon him, had only one daughter named Dinah from his wife Leah,
and we know that from Chapter 30, so why is the information repeated in
Chapter 34 as if it did not exist?
We read from Genesis:
30:20 Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; now let my husband
dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. So she named him Zebulun.
30:21 And she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
But strangely enough, we find at the beginning of the story in chapter 34 that
he explains the same information to us as if it had not existed before.
We read from Genesis:
34:1 Then Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went
out to see the daughters of the land.
Why does he explain to us in this verse the same information that we actually
knew in the previous lines??!!!
If it had been in another book, this repetition could have been accepted, but
in the same book with only a few lines between them, this is the strange thing
and there is only one meaning for it, which is that the story in chapter 34 was
added at a later period and did not exist in Genesis, so it was separate.
It is clear that it was a rumor.
- B- It is strange that we find the repetition of the name Dinah and with it the phrase (Jacob’s daughter) or the phrase their sister in Chapter 34, as if this name did not exist before that and only the phrase (Jacob’s daughter or their sister) existed:
It is also clear that this story that was inserted developed over time.
At first it was only (Jacob’s daughter) without a name, then the name was added later,
meaning that when we know that our master Jacob had one daughter, then we later learned that her name was Dinah, this is enough once in the narration of the story, then after that it will be enough to refer to the name only without the phrase (his daughter), like the names of the rest of the sons. However, repeating this matter in the same narration of the story means that this name did not exist and someone at a later time inserted the name into the text.
We read from the Book of Genesis: -
34:1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Then we read: -
34:3 And his soul clung to Dinah the daughter of Jacob , and he loved the girl and was gentle with the girl.
Then we read: -
34:5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. But his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they came.
Then we read: -
34:13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully and They spoke because he had defiled their sister Dinah
. We know from the verse (Genesis 34:1) that Dinah is the daughter of Jacob. Why is the same information repeated all these times in the story??!!!!
Why doesn’t he just tell us Dinah’s name??!!!!
The reason is simply that the first form of the story had only the phrase (Jacob’s daughter) without the name. Then after that the verses that talk about the rape story were added. Then the story developed again and the name was added,
so the previous text was like this: - 34:1 And Jacob’s daughter
went out to see the daughters of the land. Then: - 34:3 And his soul clung to Jacob’s daughter , and he loved the girl and was gentle with the girl. Then: - 34:5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter. But his sons were with his livestock in the field. So Jacob held his peace until they came. Then: - 34:13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully and spoke, because he had defiled their sister.
- 3-
If Dinah’s brothers spoke cunningly to Hamor and his son Shechem, why did
they not all participate in killing the men of the city?
We read from the Book of Genesis:
34:13 Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit and spoke, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
34:14 And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to an uncircumcised man; for it is a disgrace to us.
According to the two verses, it is assumed that all the sons of our master Jacob, peace be upon him, were planning to kill Shechem and his father and the men of the city because they all spoke to them deceitfully in order to make them circumcise.
But strangely, we find in other verses that only two of them carried out the killing, namely Simeon and Levi only, and the rest of the brothers did not intervene until after the men of the city were killed, and the rest committed the theft.
That is, the ones who deceived were only Simeon and Levi and not the rest of the brothers. It is clear that their not participating in killing the men of the city means that they did not know what Simeon and Levi were intending.
We read from the Book of Genesis:
34:25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took each one of them.
34:26 And they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from the house of Shechem, and left. 34:27
Then the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister.
That is, the rest of the brothers did not participate in the killing incident and they did not have prior knowledge of what had happened.
What confirms this is the anger of our master Jacob towards Simeon and Levi only.
We read from the Book of Genesis: -
34:30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me by making me abhorrent to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I am but a few men; and they will gather against me and strike me, and I and my house will perish.
This is strange and contradicts what is stated in (Genesis 34:13) , where all the brothers were plotting
. Rabbi David Frankel says that for this reason the translators of the Septuagint translation of the Bible tried to solve this problem by changing the text in the verse (Genesis 34:14) by adding the names of Simeon and Levi,
so the text in the translation became The Septuagint is as follows:
34:13 Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
34:14 Then Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to an uncircumcised man; for it is a disgrace to us.”
Rabbi David Frankel says that what happened in the Septuagint translation may have been an attempt to solve the problem, or it may have been a stage to insert Simeon and Levi into the story, in which their names were clearly not present
. In general, I believe that the second possibility is more likely, because adding Simeon and Levi in the verse (Genesis 34:14) did not solve the problem that the verse (34:13) had all the brothers speaking deceitfully, meaning that they were aware of what was happening.
Rabbi David says that the reason for all of this is what was mentioned in Chapter 49 of the Book of Genesis, specifically Jacob’s cursing of Simeon and Levi.
We read from the Book of Genesis:
49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers, the tools of their swords are iniquity.
49:6 Let not my soul enter into their council; let not my honour be united with their assembly; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox.
49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
It is clear that the original story of this curse had been lost to the children of Israel and it was not intended for Simeon and Levi as individuals but rather for the tribes, but the writer of Genesis did not find a solution to this problem and wanted to find a reason to explain this curse,
so he added their names to the story of Dinah in chapter 34 and made Dinah be raped to justify what the two brothers did and thus made the story of Dinah agree with this curse,
but there remained a problem that proves the distortion of this book and its recording according to whims, which is where is the story that they hamstrung the bull mentioned in (Genesis 49:6)
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