Rape In Bible Days: Simeon and Levi, Two of Twelve Sons Of Jacob

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

Jacob had one daughter that was listed in our Torah.  It was Dinah.According to biblical chronology, the patriarch Jacob lived from roughly 1836 to 1689 BCE, or alternatively 1652 to 1505 BCE depending on the exact calculation used for the Hebrew calendar. Modern historical scholarship views him as a legendary figure rather than a historically confirmed individual as most of them must not Jewish.     

                 A must to read about our Jewish feelings about G-d
              

     Leah                                  Rachel             Zilpah           Bilhah

                                         The Abduction: 

Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit the local women in the city of Shechem. She was abducted and raped by the local prince, also named Shechem.  Ref: Genesis, Bereishis 34:2ff; birth 30:2ff.  Shechem was the son of Hamor the Hivvite, prince of the region who took her away and raped her, then fell in love with her.  He then appealed to Dinah's emotions and asked his father if he could marry her.  SO....Shechem's father, Hamor, proposed peace and intermarriage between their two peoples. The brothers pretended to agree, but on the condition that all the men of the city be circumcised.  The Hivites were an ancient group of Canaanite people described in the Old Testament as one of the indigenous nations inhabiting the land of Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest. Their name is widely believed to derive from a Hebrew word meaning "villagers" or "tent-dwellers," implying they were primarily nomadic or rural.  But Hamor had a gate.......

Shechem even  had all the people who departed through the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the males----all those who depart through the gate of his city----were circumcised.  The city had to meet the standards of Jacob and marriage of his people to their people by being circumcized, they thought, though there is a lot more to being of their belief than that.

  Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his only daughter when his sons were with his cattle in the field;  and kept silent until their arrival at home.  He had been hoping to find tranquility in Eretz Yisrael, but now his family had to experience a moral outrage upon its own flesh and blood from its beginning.  His reaction was to not tolerate what others might consider commonplace.

The brothers of Dinah intended to rescue Dinah while the Shechemites were weak and ill, but Simeon and Levi, full brothers, acted on their own, and carried out a death sentence on all the males of Hamor.  On the 3rd day, when all were in pain, Simeon and Levi took their sword and they went to Hamor City and killed every Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.  

Then they plundered the city;  their flocks, their cattle, their donkeys, whatever was in the city and in the field, they took;  all their wealth, all their children and wives they took captive and they plundered, as well as everything in the house.  

Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have discomposed me, making me odious among the people of the land, among the Canaanite and among the Perizzite;  I am few in number and should they band together and attack me, I will be annihilated----I and my household. (It's admirable that he accepts the blame as the father of these boys, something rarely seen today.) The 2 boys then said, "Should we treat our sister like a harlot?  

Jacob had to make amends to G-d. He must have now inherited all the female family left of Hamor.   He was told to go to Beth-el and live now, make an altar there so he told all those living with him to get rid of all their clothing, get rid of any alien gods you have with you ,  and they did so, including rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them underneath the terebinth near Shechem.  No one chased after them as they were afraid of Jacob's tribe.  After that episode, Jacob's name was changed to Israel by G-d.  It was at Beth-el that G-d had spoken to him.   

By what right they did so halachically is discussed by the major commentators.  Whatever the interpretation of the legal statue of the attack on the city, the other nine brothers apparently refused to take part in the attack, and Jacob was sharply critical of Simeon and Levi.             

Genesis 49: The Blessing of Jacob’s Sons…

In his deathbed blessing recorded in ⁠Genesis 49 NIV, Jacob pronounces a harsh rebuke rather than a traditional blessing upon his second and third sons, Simeon and Levi. He condemns their violent massacre of the Shechemites and prophesies that their descendants will be scattered throughout Israel.   Jacob distances himself from their ruthless actions, famously declaring:

"Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly... Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel." — Genesis 49:5-7 NIV  Instead of cursing the men themselves, Jacob curses their unchecked rage and declares that their tribes will be stripped of the concentrated influence they would have had as dominant groups.

Notice, it was not Simeon and Levi that ever raped anyone but the story tells of them punishing those who possibly made it acceptable in their culture;    one of the reasons the Israelites did not want to marry outside their tribal people.   

Going forward from Jacob we have Judah***, Perez, Hezron, Ram and Caleb, Amminadab, Salma, Boaz, Obed, Jesse and King David!!!

Moses was the leader of the Exodus.  He was the son of Amram, a Levite, and Jochebed.  Jews follow the teaching of Moses.  To besmirch Moses as a bad guy is besmirching our religion and is highly anti-Semitic.  

Resource:

Tanach, (old Testament)  the Stone Edition