Dinah is the daughter of Jacob and Leah, mentioned in Genesis 30:21 and prominently featured in Genesis 34. She is the only daughter of Jacob recorded by name, and her account centers around a tragic and violent event.
Genesis 34:1 states, “Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.” While she was visiting the women of Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, also named Shechem, “took her and lay with her and violated her” (Genesis 34:2). Despite the assault, Shechem then desired to marry Dinah and asked his father to arrange the marriage.
Jacob’s sons were enraged upon hearing of the violation. Though Shechem and Hamor proposed intermarriage and alliance, promising wealth and peace, the sons of Jacob responded deceitfully. They agreed to the union on the condition that all the males of Shechem be circumcised (Genesis 34:13–17).
On the third day after the circumcision, when the men were in pain, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s full brothers, took swords and killed all the male inhabitants of the city, including Shechem and Hamor, and rescued Dinah from Shechem’s house (Genesis 34:25–26). The other sons of Jacob plundered the city afterward.
Jacob rebuked Simeon and Levi for endangering the family by making them “obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land” (Genesis 34:30), though on his deathbed he would again condemn their anger and cruelty (Genesis 49:5–7).
Dinah’s account underscores the dangers of intermingling with the ungodly and the tragic consequences of sin and vengeance. While Dinah herself does not speak in the passage, her story illustrates both her victimization and the destructive nature of unrestrained wrath.