Dinah Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Jacob

• Dinah is the seventh child and only daughter of Jacob and Leah.
• There is a one line birth announcement in Genesis 30:21.
• Some speculate that Dinah and Zebulun are twins.
• No explanation is given for her name.
• After her birth announcement, she is not mentioned until Genesis 34.
• After meeting with Esau, Jacob goes to Succoth and arrives at the city of Shechem.
• After they have been there for a while, “Dinah…went out to visit the women of the land.”
• When Dinah “went out,” she went out to be “seen.”
• “Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, sees her.”
• Shechem “sees her, takes her, and rapes her.”
• Feminists say this is a classic rape story.
• However, a lot depends on how the words are translated.
• There is no word in Hebrew for rape.
• Within the space of two verses, there are a total of seven verbs that have Shechem as the subject and Dinah as the object.
• He sees her; he takes her, lies with her, and does something to her that is represented by the letters ‘nh in the Piel form in Hebrew.
• But in the next verse he “bonds to her with his whole being, loves her, and speaks kindly to her heart.”
• The word for “bonded” is really “cleave.” It is what God directs for the love between a husband and a wife in Genesis 2:24.
• It also says that Shechem “loves” Dinah, using the same word that Isaac feels for Rebekah after they are married; the same word that Jacob feels for Rachel (but not Leah); the same word that Jacob feels for Joseph and Benjamin.
• Likewise, the idiom, “speaks to her heart” is used in unequal relationships where the one in a superior position lovingly reassures her that their insecure situation will be rectified. It is to make a commitment to her.
• Some scholars suggest the order of the verbs show intensification; they get stronger and stronger. Written in this way, they convey Shechem’s change of heart and Dinah’s very positive response.
• Indeed, Dinah stays with Shechem pending the outcome of the negotiations.
• Yet, this doesn’t sanction Shechem’s actions.
• The love and commitment is supposed to come before he “takes her and lies with her.”
• For that, Dinah needs the approval of her father.
• Indeed, Shechem wastes no time in trying to make amends with Dinah’s family. He demands to his father, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
• His love for her impels him to make it right.
• Unfortunately, Dinah’s brothers intervene and wipe out the whole town.
• Though this is the end of Dinah’s story, legends have evolved.
• One is that she is the wife of Job.
• Another is that she is sent to Egypt where Potiphera adopts her. That makes her the mother of Asenath, the wife of Joseph, which maintains the purity of Joseph’s heritage.
• The fact is, however, throughout this entire story, the bibilical author never records a word of Dinah’s thoughts about her situation.