וַיַּ֨רְא אֹתָ֜הּ שְׁכֶ֧ם בֶּן־חֲמ֛וֹר הַֽחִוִּ֖י נְשִׂ֣יא הָאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּקַּ֥ח אֹתָ֛הּ וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥ב אֹתָ֖הּ וַיְעַנֶּֽהָ׃
Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her and disgraced* her.
*Lit. “violated.”
(The above rendering—and footnote—come from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew text.)
The text does not indicate whether or not Dinah consented to this sexual liaison. That is not an oversight: by the norms of the ancient world, she was disgraced either way. I.e., consent was beside the point.
- As Carol Meyers writes (pers. comm. 6/5/07): The word [the verb in question] … deals with social status.… Sleeping with a young unmarried woman was an affront to her and also her family. See L. M. Bechtel, “What If Dinah Was Not Raped? (Genesis 34),” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 62 (1994): 19–36.
- Similarly, Tikva Frymer-Kensky argues that no daughter under her father’s authority had the option to assent to sexual relations. Any such relations—whether they consisted of what we would call rape or not—disgraced both her and her family, lowering their standing in the community. Frymer-Kensky concludes that “the basic meaning [of the verb] is to treat someone improperly in a way that degrades or disgraces them by disregarding the proper treatment due people in each status” (“Virginity in the Bible,” in Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East [1998]: 79–96; here 87).
- Some scholars (e.g., S. David Sperling, pers. comm.) and translators do infer that the brothers’ extreme, violent reaction implies that Dinah had been forced. Yet that construal does not fit Simeon and Levi’s stated purpose for their violence (“Should our sister be treated like a whore?”; v. 31). That is, a whore consents to sex—implying that force was not at issue in this case. For them, the apparent issue was Shechem’s disregard for their sister, rather than a rape per se.
The NJPS rendering “…by force” overinterprets the Hebrew, implying that Dinah did not consent—which is not the issue. The revised rendering offers a view more in accord with the likely construal of the text’s ancient audience.