Did Shechem rape Dinah?

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Unlike English, in Biblical Hebrew, there was not an unambiguous word that meant to rape. There were some descriptions of the concept of rape in the OT.

ESV, Genesis 34:

1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.

These verbs suggested that the sexual intercourse was not consensual. He sexually assaulted Dinah in our modern criminal sense.

New International Version:

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her.

At Biblehub, 10 out of 35 translations used the word "raped".

But then:

3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”

The Bible does not describe how Dinah felt about it from her point of view.

Did Shechem rape Dinah?

Even if he loved her, the act was rape according to our modern standard of crime and justice.

As revenge,

25b two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away.

Dinah's brothers freed her.

Jacob thought it was an overkill:

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

Shechem violated Dinah sexually by force and detained her afterward. He loved her and wanted to marry her. He knew he did wrong. He broke the cultural norms about marriage. Dinah's brother considered it a serious offense. The text portrayed it as wrong. She had no say in the matter.

Did Shechem rape Dinah?

I'd say yes.

See also

• What does the Bible say about rape?