DINAH

DINAH
(Di´nah) [Judged [that is, acquitted; vindicated]].
Daughter of Jacob by Leah. Dinah may have been about six years of age when Jacob returned to Canaan and settled at Succoth, she having been born at Haran when her father was residing there.—Ge 30:21, 22, 25; 31:41.
At the time Jacob and his family were tenting outside the city of Shechem, young Dinah unwisely made it a practice to visit the Canaanite girls there. On one of these visits she was violated by Shechem the son of the Hivite chieftain Hamor. Shechem fell in love with her, and Dinah remained in his home until avenged by her full brothers Simeon and Levi. (Ge 34:1-31) Some contend that Dinah must have been just a child when she was violated. However, it must be borne in mind that before coming to Shechem, Jacob built a house and booths at Succoth, indicating that he resided there for some time. (Ge 33:17) At Shechem he bought a tract of land and apparently became established there for a while. All of this, together with the fact that Shechem fell in love with Dinah, the “young woman,” would argue that Dinah, though still young, was not a mere child at the time of her association with Shechem.—Ge 33:18, 19; 34:12.
Years later, Dinah, with the rest of Jacob’s household, came into Egypt at the invitation of Joseph.—Ge 46:7, 15.

Dinah Gets into Trouble
DO YOU see who Di´nah is going to visit? She is going to see some of the girls who live in the land of Ca´naan. Would her father Jacob be happy about this? To help answer this question, try to remember what Abraham and Isaac thought about the women in Ca´naan.
Did Abraham want his son Isaac to marry a girl from Ca´naan? No, he did not. Did Isaac and Re·bek´ah want their son Jacob to marry a Ca´naan·ite girl? No, they did not. Do you know why?
It was because these people in Ca´naan worshiped false gods. They were not good people to have as husbands and wives, and they weren’t good people to have as close friends. So we can be sure that Jacob would not be pleased that his daughter was making friends with these Ca´naan·ite girls.
Sure enough, Di´nah got into trouble. Can you see that Ca´naan·ite man in the picture who is looking at Di´nah? His name is She´chem. One day when Di´nah came on a visit, She´chem took Di´nah and forced her to lie down with him. This was wrong, because only married men and women are supposed to lie down together. This bad thing that She´chem did to Di´nah led to a lot more trouble.
When Di´nah’s brothers heard about what had happened, they were very angry. Two of them, Sim´e·on and Le´vi, were so angry that they took swords and went into the city and caught the men by surprise. They and their brothers killed She´chem and all the other men. Jacob was angry because his sons did this bad thing.
How did all this trouble get started? It was because Di´nah made friends with people who did not obey God’s laws. We will not want to make such friends, will we?
Genesis 34:1-31.

11 As we study the Bible, we can learn reasons why this is good counsel for evil days. For example, there is the case of Dinah recorded at Genesis chapter 34. Very unwisely this daughter of Jacob set out to have association with those who were not worshipers of Jehovah God or keepers of God’s law. This led to her being sexually assaulted by a young man named Shechem. Thus evil was done to Dinah. Her father Jacob did not show the spirit of retaliation, but his sons became very angry and made a plan to take vengeance on the people of Shechem. Simeon and Levi killed all the men of the city where their sister Dinah had been violated and were joined by their brothers in plundering the city. Simeon and Levi in particular brought bloodguilt upon themselves, which displeased their father. Later, when Jacob was dying and the time came for him to give his sons blessings, Jacob said this about them: “Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of violence are their slaughter weapons. Into their intimate group do not come, O my soul. With their congregation do not become united, O my disposition, because in their anger they killed men, and in their arbitrariness they hamstrung bulls. Cursed be their anger, because it is cruel, and their fury, because it acts harshly. Let me give them a portion in Jacob, but let me scatter them in Israel.” (Gen. 49:5-7) In the case of Simeon and Levi, returning evil for evil was a sin that brought no good.

However, not all the members of Jacob’s family showed zeal for true worship. Dinah, his daughter, sought out companions among the Canaanite girls of Shechem. Dinah, who was then still young, left the safety of her family’s tents and began to visit the nearby city, making friends there.
How would the young men of the city view this young virgin who regularly visited their city—apparently unaccompanied? A chieftain’s son “got to see her and then took her and lay down with her and violated her.” Why did Dinah court danger by associating with the immoral Canaanites? Was it because she felt she needed the company of girls her own age? Was she as headstrong and independent as some of her brothers? Read the Genesis account, and try to comprehend the distress and shame that Jacob and Leah must have felt because of the tragic consequences of their daughter’s visits to Shechem.—Genesis 34:1-31; 49:5-7