The story of Dinah in Genesis 34 is already one of the most violent chapters in the Torah. The Targum Jonathan, the ancient Aramaic translation, does not soften it. Instead, it sharpens the moral argument at the chapter's climax in a way the Hebrew text never does.
The basic narrative follows the biblical account closely: Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to observe the customs of the local women. Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite and prince of the land, seized her by force. He then claimed to love her and asked his father to negotiate a marriage. Jacob heard what happened but kept silent until his sons returned from the fields.
When the sons of Jacob arrived and learned the news, the Targum says they were "indignant and very violently moved." Simeon and Levi, Dinah's full brothers through Leah, devised a plan: they told Shechem's people that intermarriage was impossible unless every male in the city underwent circumcision. Shechem agreed eagerly. Hamor pitched it to the city elders as a business deal—"their flocks, their substance, and all their cattle, will they not be ours?" The men of the city consented.
On the third day, when the men of Shechem were weakened from their wounds, Simeon and Levi entered the unsuspecting city with swords drawn and killed every male, including Shechem and Hamor. They retrieved Dinah from Shechem's house. The remaining sons of Jacob looted everything—livestock, wealth, women, and children.
Jacob rebuked them: "You have made my name evil among the inhabitants of the land." He feared retaliation from the surrounding Canaanite and Perizzite populations. But here the Targum expands Simeon and Levi's response far beyond the terse biblical reply. In the Hebrew, they say only: "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?" The Targum gives them a full legal argument. They declared that it would not be fitting for it to be said in the congregations of Israel that the uncircumcised defiled a virgin and idol-worshippers debased Jacob's daughter. Instead, it should be said that the uncircumcised were slain on account of the virgin, and idol-worshippers destroyed on account of Jacob's daughter. They concluded: Shechem son of Hamor would not mock them, for he would have made Dinah like "a whorish woman and an outcast who has no avenger." The Targum transforms a brief retort into a declaration of collective honor, framing the massacre as the only alternative to permanent national shame.
And Dinah the daughter of Leah whom she bare to Jakob, went forth to see the manners of the daughters of the people of the land.
And Shekem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her, and took her by force, and lay with her and afflicted her.
And his soul delighted in Dinah the daughter of Jakob; and he loved the girl, and spake kindly to the heart of the girl.
And Shekem spake to Hamor his father, saying, Take for me this damsel to wife.
But Jakob had heard that he had polluted Dinah his daughter, And his sons were with the flocks in the field, and Jakob was silent until they came.
And Hamor the father of Shekem came forth to Jakob to speak with him.
And the sons of Jakob had come up from the field when they heard. And the men were indignant, and very violently moved, because Shekem had wrought dishonour in Israel in lying with the daughter of Jakob; for so it was not right to have been done.
And Hamor spake with them, saying, The soul of Shekem my son delighteth in your daughter: give her, I pray, to him to wife;
and conjoin yourselves by marriage with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you;
and dwell with us, and the land shall be before you, to dwell where you please and do business in it and possess it.
And Shekem said to her father and to her brethren, Let me find grace in your sight, and what you shall tell me I will give.
Multiply upon me greatly dowry and gift, and I will give as you shall tell me; only give me the damsel to wife.
But the sons of Jakob answered Shekem. and Hamor his father with subtilty, and so spake, because he had polluted Dinah their sister,
and said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, because that would be a disgrace to us.
But in this we will accede to you, if you will be as we are by circumcising every male.
And we will give our daughters to you, and will take your daughters to us, and dwell with you, and be one people.
But if you will not hearken to us to be circumcised, we will take our daughter by force and will go.
And their words were pleasing in the eyes of Hamor, and in the eyes of Shekem, the son of Hamor.
And the young man delayed not to do the thing; because he wished for the daughter of Jakob; and he was more honourable than all his father's house.
And Hamor and Shekem his son came to the gate of their city, and spake with the men of the gate of their city, saying,
These men are friendly with us; and they may dwell in the land and do business in it; and the land, behold, it is broad (in) limits before them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and give our daughters to them.
But in this only will the men accede to us, to dwell with us, and to be one people, by every male of us being circumcised as they are.
Their flocks, and their substance, and all their cattle, will they not be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.
And all they who came out of the gate of his city received from Hamor and from Shekem, his son; and they circumcised every male, all who came out of the gate of the city.
And it was on the third day, when they were weak from the pain of their circumcision, two of the sons of Jakob, Shimeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took each man his sword, and came upon the city, which was dwelling securely and killed every male.
And Hamor and Shekem his son they killed with the edge of the sword; and they took Dinah from the house of Shekem, and went forth.
And the rest of the sons of Jakob came to the spoil of the slain, and they sacked the city because they had polluted their sister in the midst of it.
Their flocks, and oxen, and asses, and whatever was in the city or in the field they spoiled;
and all their wealth and all their little ones they took and spoiled, and all that was in the houses.
And Jakob said to Shimeon and Levi, You have made my name to go forth as evil among the inhabitants of the land, among the Kenaanites and Phezerites. And I am a people of (small) number, and they will gather together against me, and destroy me and the men of my house.
And Shimeon and Levi answered, It would not have been fit to be said in the congregations of Israel that the uncircumcised polluted the virgin, and the worshippers of idols debased the daughter of Jakob: but it is fit that it should be said, The uncircumcised were slain on account of the virgin, and the worshippers of idols on account of the daughter of Jakob. Shekem bar Hamor will not (now) deride us with his words; for as a whorish woman and an outcast who hath no avenger would he have made our sister, if we had not done this thing.
