Dinah and Shechem, the Return to Bethel and the Death of Rachel
Shechem violates Dinah and Simeon and Levi destroy the city; soon after, Rachel dies on the road to Ephrath giving birth to Benjamin.
Jacob's family camps by the city of Shechem and buys a plot of land. Dinah, Leah's daughter, "went out to see the daughters of the land," and Shechem, son of the city's prince, seizes her. He then asks to marry her and his father proposes an alliance. Jacob's sons answer "with guile": let every male of the city be circumcised. On the third day, at the height of the pain, Simeon and Levi—Dinah's full brothers—enter the city and kill every male, taking Dinah from Shechem's house. Jacob rebukes them sharply, and they answer with a question the Torah leaves unanswered: "Shall our sister be treated as a harlot?" He will remember this half a century later when blessing his sons. Afterwards God tells Jacob to go up to Bethel and fulfil his vow. Then, on the road to Ephrath, Rachel dies in childbirth, naming her son Ben-Oni, "son of my sorrow," while Jacob calls him Benjamin. He buries her by the roadside rather than in Machpelah—and that will prove to be prophecy.
How we know
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 34–35 — Dinah and Shechem, the vengeance of Shimon and Levi, Beit El, and Rachel’s death on the road to Efrat
- Yirmiyahu 31:14–16 — “Rachel weeps for her children… and the children shall return to their own border”
Rishonim
- Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 9:14 — the justification of the killing: the townsmen saw the crime and did not judge it
- Ramban on Bereishit 34:13 — Ramban’s objection: a city is not destroyed for a court’s inaction
- Rashi on Bereishit 48:7 — why Rachel was buried by the road — so that she might weep for those going into exile
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Jacob · Leah · Rachel · Levi · Benjamin · Shechem · Beit El · Shimon · Dina