Genesis 34 · a question people ask
Were Simeon and Levi right to do what they did?
Genesis 34 doesn't settle it. The text says Shechem "had defiled Dinah" (34:5, 13), and that "they had defiled their sister" (34:27), and that the brothers answered "with deceit" (34:13). Jacob rebukes Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me" (34:30), and the chapter ends on their reply, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?" (34:31). Genesis gives Jacob's final word on his deathbed: "Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence… Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel" (49:5-7).
The verses
“Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.”
“The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,”
“Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.”
“Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.” They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?””