Genesis 34 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible, and we approach it gently. Jacob had settled near the city of Shechem instead of returning to Bethel as he had vowed. Dinah, the daughter of Leah, “went out to see the daughters of the land.” Shechem, the prince of the land, “saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her.” Scripture calls what happened to her a defilement and a wrong. It was not her fault.
Afterward Shechem said he loved her and asked to marry her. His father Hamor came to bargain with Jacob. Jacob's sons were in the field with the livestock, and Scripture says, “Jacob held his peace until they came.” A daughter had been deeply wronged, and her father said nothing. Dinah herself never speaks in this chapter. Too often the people who are hurt the most are the ones whose voices are not heard.
Dinah's brothers were grieved and very angry, and rightly so. But they answered wrong with wrong. They spoke deceitfully, requiring every man of the city to be circumcised. On the third day, while the men were in pain, Simeon and Levi took their swords, killed all the males, and brought Dinah out of Shechem's house. The other sons plundered the city. Justice became revenge.
Jacob finally spoke — but about his reputation: “You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land.” His sons answered, “Should he treat our sister like a harlot?” The chapter ends with that question hanging in the air. No one in this story handled Dinah's pain the way God would. Years later on his deathbed, Jacob said of Simeon and Levi, “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce.”
Where is God in such a story? Genesis 35 begins right after: “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there.’” Jacob told his household to put away their foreign gods and purify themselves. God called the family back to worship. The Bible does not hide the pain of the wounded; it records it. And the Lord who saw Hagar and Leah is near to every daughter who has been wronged. “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart.”