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'''Dinah''' was the daughter of [[Leah]], the wife of [[Jacob]]. She was born after her six brothers. Dinah may have had other sisters, but is the only female mentioned because of an event that occurred with her. [[Shechem]] a prince of the country saw Dinah and laid with her and defile her. He then sought to marry her. Her brothers, distraught that she had been defiled, told Shechem that he and his whole town must be [[circumcised]]. When Schechem and his father convinced the town to become circumcised and were waiting through the debilitating after effects, two sons of Jacob, [[Reuben]] and [[Levi]] took swords and killed all of the men of the town and took back their sister.
'''Dinah''' ([[Hebrew]] '''דִּינָה''', ''Dînāh'', "judged, vindicated"), (b.2254 AM or 1750 BC), was the daughter of [[Jacob]] and [[Leah]]. She suffered an outrageous violation that occasioned a display of great anger on the part of her brothers [[Simeon]] and [[Levi]].
The 34th chapter of the book of [[Genesis]] is devoted to this story.
== Date of birth ==
[[James Ussher]] gave no date for the birth of Dinah. In fact, [[The Annals of the World]] makes no mention of Dinah.
The typical marginal date for the rape of Dinah (see below) and the subsequent massacre in Shechem is 1732 BC, which would correspond to 2272 AM. Bishop William Lloyd added that date in his first edition of the Authorized Version ([[King James Version]]) of the [[Bible]] in 1701.<ref name=Jones>Jones, Floyd N. ''The Chronology of the Old Testament''. Green Forest, AR. Master Books, 2004, p. 6.</ref> [[Floyd Nolen Jones]], in ''[[The Chronology of the Old Testament]]'', finds no grounds to object to this date. But he uses this approximate date to support his arguments that:
# Jacob was 77 years old when he traveled to Padan-aram to search for a wife.
# Jacob began engendering children immediately after meeting [[Leah]] and [[Rachel]] and did not, as some chronologers have proposed, wait seven years before engendering children with Leah and fourteen years with Rachel.<ref name=Jones2>Jones, ''op. cit.'', pp. 48, 62, 63, 65, 66</ref>
Jones suggests that Dinah was eighteen years old when the Shechem incident occurred. Therefore she was born in 2254 AM.<ref name=Jones>Jones, ''op. cit.'', p. 278</ref> In any case, {{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=30|verses=21}} clearly states that Dinah was born after the birth of her brother [[Zebulun]].
== Rape and Revenge ==
In 1732 AM, [[Jacob]] and his vast household were camped outside the city of [[Shechem]]. Dinah, aged eighteen, went into the city to see its younger women. The local prince saw Dinah and took her by force. Afterward, the prince was in love with Dinah and asked his father, King Hamor, to negotiate a marriage between him and Dinah.
Hamor approached [[Jacob]] and suggested a treaty involving mutual intermarriage. Jacob's sons said that they would accept this, on condition that all the men of the city [[circumcision|circumcise]] themselves. King Hamor agreed to this.
That night [[Simeon]] and [[Levi]] carried out their actual plan: they attacked the city by night, when the men of the city were still sore from the circumcisions. They also took Dinah out of the prince's house and brought her back to camp. They also plundered the city and took many women captive.
The next morning, Jacob struck camp and left the region. He rebuked his sons sternly for an act that would risk retaliation and annihilation. Simeon and Levi, unrepentant and defiant, said that the only other choice they had would be to treat Dinah as if she were a harlot. ({{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=34}})
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==See Also==
* [[Israel]]
* [[Palestine]]
* [[Biblical calendar]]
{{nb Israel}}
[[Category: Biblical Women]]
[[Category: Biblical Women]]
[[Category:Jewish People]]
[[Category:Jewish People]]
[[Category:Book of Genesis Persons]]
[[Category:Book of Genesis Persons]]