Jacob Rebukes Simeon and Levi for the Massacre Shechem, but Post-Biblical Interpreters Disagreed

On his deathbed, Jacob has his sons gather around as he offers each a prophetic insight into what will happen with their descendants in the future:

^{בראשית מט:א} וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים.

^{Gen 49:1} And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.^[1]

Simeon and Levi receive a joint negative message, based on their characters and their past actions:

^{בראשית מט:ה} שִׁמְעוֹן וְלֵוִי אַחִים כְּלֵי חָמָס מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶם. ^מט:ו בְּסֹדָם אַל תָּבֹא נַפְשִׁי בִּקְהָלָם אַל תֵּחַד כְּבֹדִי כִּי בְאַפָּם הָרְגוּ אִישׁ וּבִרְצֹנָם עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר. ^מט:ז אָרוּר אַפָּם כִּי עָז וְעֶבְרָתָם כִּי קָשָׁתָה אֲחַלְּקֵם בְּיַעֲקֹב וַאֲפִיצֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Gen 49:5} Simeon and Levi are a pair; their weapons are tools of lawlessness. ^49:6 Let not my person be included in their council; let not my being be counted in their assembly. For when angry they slay men, and when pleased they maim oxen. ^49:7 Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless. I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel.^[2]

Jacob dissociates himself from these two sons on account of their violence, but what specifically is he accusing them of? The text implies that they have committed wanton murder and destruction, and the story we have in the Torah in which Simeon and Levi commit violence is in the story of Dinah.^[3] A closer look at the story shows that, in fact, every character in it is portrayed negatively.

Jacob Clashes with His Sons Over Their Handling of Shechem

Soon after Jacob purchases some land outside Shechem and settles there, his daughter Dinah goes out into the city:

^{בראשית לד:א} וַתֵּצֵא דִינָה בַּת לֵאָה אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה לְיַעֲקֹב לִרְאוֹת בִּבְנוֹת הָאָרֶץ.

^{Gen 34:1} Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

In the Bible, the depiction of a girl going out implies some level of censure.^[4] The midrash connects this with Leah’s going out to inform Jacob that he is hers for the night:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פ} לפי שכת' ותצא לאה לקראתו (בראשית ל:טז) יצאת מקושטת לקראתו כזונה לפיכך כת' "ותצא דינה בת לאה".

^{Gen Rab §80} …For it is written (Gen 30:16), “And Leah went out to meet him.” She went out bedecked with jewels like a harlot, therefore it is written (Gen 34:1), “Dinah the daughter of Leah went out.”

After going out, the prince of Shechem—named Shechem—notices her, takes her by force,^[5] and keeps her in his home afterwards, having fallen in love with her and desiring to marry her. Shechem implores his father, Hamor, to take her legally, referring to her not by name but belittlingly as “this girl.”^[6]

Hamor tells Jacob and his sons that he is willing to share his land with strangers to help his son, though his speech to his fellow citizens shows that he also sees a material advantage in the alliance. The Torah emphasizes the severity of Shechem’s act by repeating the word טׅמֵּא “defiled” several times (vv. 5, 13, 27). Yet, Dinah’s thoughts or feelings about what happened to her are never mentioned in the text.

The sons of Jacob are grieved and angry when they hear about the נְבׇלׇה “outrage”— a term usually linked to sexual crimes^[7]—that happened to their sister. Speaking deceptively, they tell Hamor that all the men of Shechem must circumcise themselves. Three days later, while the men are weak, Simeon and Levi slaughter all the male inhabitants of the city, while the brothers plunder the town, taking not only the animals but the women and children as well.

Jacob is silent when he learns what happened, and remains passive throughout the story, neither freeing his daughter nor keeping his sons in check. Only at the end of the story, once the town is utterly destroyed and the booty taken, does he have a sharp argument with Simeon and Levi.

^{בראשית לד:ל} וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב אֶל שִׁמְעוֹן וְאֶל לֵוִי עֲכַרְתֶּם אֹתִי לְהַבְאִישֵׁנִי בְּיֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ בַּכְּנַעֲנִי וּבַפְּרִזִּי וַאֲנִי מְתֵי מִסְפָּר וְנֶאֶסְפוּ עָלַי וְהִכּוּנִי וְנִשְׁמַדְתִּי אֲנִי וּבֵיתִי.

^{Gen 34:30} Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my men are few in number, so that if they unite against me and attack me, I and my house will be destroyed.”

Jacob’s complaint is not about ethics or morality. His only concern is the safety of his own clan, namely the possibility of retaliation. Moreover, Simeon and Levi do not accept his critique:

^{בראשית לד:לא} וַיֹּאמְרוּ הַכְזוֹנָה יַעֲשֶׂה אֶת אֲחוֹתֵנוּ.

^{Gen 34:31} But they answered, “Should our sister be treated like a harlot?”

Simeon and Levi’s challenge has a double meaning, referring to Shechem but also to Jacob, who was willing to allow Shechem to keep Dinah in exchange for an (admittedly) excessively high brideprice.^[8] The story has no heroes, no admirable acts of courage or ethics, and no mention of God.

Interpretations of the Curse

While both the story of Dinah and Jacob’s poetic curse feature Simeon and Levi as violent, the specific claim in the curse—כִּי בְאַפָּם הָרְגוּ אִישׁ וּבִרְצֹנָם עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר literally “for in their anger they slayed a man, and they willfully maimed an ox”—is not clearly connected to the Dinah story. The latter phrase is especially troublesome, since nothing is said about killing animals in the story.

The last word of Gen 49:6, שׁור may be vocalized in two ways: שׁוֹר shôr, “ox, “or שׁוּר shûr, “wall.” MT reads שׁוֹר shôr (ox), while many of the ancient translators (Onkelos, Neofiti, Pseudo-Jonathan, Peshitta, Aquila, and Symmachus) read the Hebrew word as שׁוּר shûr (wall), referring to an act of tearing down city walls, although this does not appear in the story either. This is also suggested by some commentators (Ibn Ezra, Hizkuni, Ramban), trying to say that the two words שׁוּר shûr and שׁוֹר shôr are interchangeable.

Similarly, the enigmatic phrase about killing “a man”—the Hebrew is in singular (even if the meaning may be collective)—seems to be only loosely fit the story. This singular may have inspired the retelling in the Testament of Levi (late 2^nd cent. B.C.E.) that depicts each of the two brothers killing one person first, in this case, Shechem and then Hamor respectively:

^{T. Levi 6:4-5} And I killed Shechem first, and Simeon [killed] Hamor. And after that the brothers came and smote the city with edge of the sword…”

The curse also left commentators troubled for another reason: is it clear that Jacob was in the right and Simeon and Levi in the wrong?

While it is clear to Jacob that they acted wrongly, the biblical story itself ends with the brothers’ response, and many ancient readers sided with them.

Jubilees—God Wanted Simeon and Levi to Kill Them

The Book of Jubilees (2^nd cent. B.C.E.), which recounts history from the beginning until the exodus from Egypt and the mandate to observe the Sabbath, justifies killing all the Shechemite males by presenting them collectively as complicit in some way with Dinah’s defilement:

^{Jubilees 30:3} …Jacob and his sons were angry with the Shechemites because they had defiled their sister Dinah. They spoke deceptively with them, acted in a crafty way toward them, and deceived them.

^30:4 Simeon and Levi entered Shechem unexpectedly and effected a punishment on all the Shechemites: they killed every man whom they found in it. They left absolutely no one in it. They killed everyone in a painful way because they had violated their sister Dinah.

To strengthen the point, Jubilees continues by stating that Simeon and Levi were merely acting out the divine plan, and that this slaughter was exactly what was coming to the Shechemites:

^30:5 Nothing like this is to be done anymore from now on—to defile an Israelite woman. For the punishment had been decreed against them in heaven that they were to annihilate all the Shechemites with the sword, since they had done something shameful in Israel. ^30:6 The Lord handed them over to Jacob’s sons for them to uproot them with the sword and to effect punishment against them and so that there should not again be something this within Israel—defiling an Israelite virgin.^[9]

As if this weren’t clear enough, Jubilees comes back to the point after a set of laws forbidding intermarriage, when the angel dictating the book says to Moses:

^{Jub 30:17} For this reason, I have ordered you: “Proclaim this testimony to Israel: ‘See how it turned out for the Shechemites and their children—how they were handed over to Jacob’s two sons. They killed them in a painful way. It was a just act for them and was recorded as a just act for them.’”

The passage then moves to choosing theLevites for the priesthood, since Levi demonstrated his strong connection to justice.^[10] Then the chapter returns to defend of the brothers for a third time:

^{Jub 30:23} On the day that Jacob’s sons killed (the people of) Shechem, a written notice was entered in heaven (to the effect) that they had carried out what was right, justice, and revenge against the sinners. It was recorded a blessing.

Jubilees implies that Jacob is on the same side as the brothers here.^[11] Given that the Torah ends with Jacob’s condemnation, why does Jubilees shift entirely to the side of Simeon and Levi? The answer is apparently connected to intermarriage.^[12]

A Story Against Intermarriage

Genesis nowhere prohibits intermarriage but nonetheless, the patriarchs practiced endogamy, marriages within the family. Abraham claims that his wife Sarah is his half-sister (Gen 20:12); Isaac marries his cousin Rebecca; and Jacob marries two sisters, Leah and Rachel who were also his cousins.

Esau first marries two Hittite women, outside the clan, which is a source of bitterness for his father and mother (Gen 26:35). Later to appease his parents, particularly his father (28:8), he goes to his uncle Ishmael and marries his daughter Mahalath. Indeed, the Torah also never prohibits intermarriage straight out, though Exodus^[13] already has a law prohibiting intermarriage with Canaanites, a prohibition that also appears twice in Deuteronomy (7:1–6; 23:4).

After the return from exile, the subject of intermarriage writ large became a major concern. The book of Ezra describes in detail the intermarriages of officers, priest, and Levites (9:2). When Ezra learns of this, he tears his clothing as a sign of mourning. The book of Nehemiah also deals with the subject of intermarriage (Neh 13:23–24), and Nehamiah reacts violently against the men who married foreign wives:

^{נחמיה יג:כה} וָאָרִיב עִמָּם וָאֲקַלְלֵם וָאַכֶּה מֵהֶם אֲנָשִׁים וָאֶמְרְטֵם וָאַשְׁבִּיעֵם בֵּאלֹהִים אִם תִּתְּנוּ בְנֹתֵיכֶם לִבְנֵיהֶם וְאִם תִּשְׂאוּ מִבְּנֹתֵיהֶם לִבְנֵיכֶם וְלָכֶם.

^{Neh 13:25} And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.”

This condemnation of intermarriages is also found in post biblical texts, among them the book of Jubilees. Chapter 30 contains the story of Dinah, which started with the rape of Dinah and ends with the brother’s revenge. The goal is to condemn intermarriages with foreigners:

^{Jub 30:11} Now you, Moses, order the Israelites and testify to them that they are not to give any of their daughters to foreigners and that they are not to marry any foreign women, because it is despicable before the Lord. ^30:12 For this reason, I have written for you in the words of the law everything the Shechemites did to Dinah… ^30:14 Israel will not become clean from this impurity while it has one of the foreign women or if anyone has given one of his daughters to any foreign man.

The book of Jubilees is so harsh in its condemnation of intermarriages that it mentions the death penalty as punishment:

^{Jub 30:7} If there a man in Israel who wishes to give his daughter or sister to any foreigner he is to die. He is to be stoned because he done something sinful and shameful within Isreal.

Simeon and Levi killing the Shechemites prevented unwanted marriage of their sister Dinah with Shechem. Partly this follows the biblical trajectory, but also, intermarriage was a much more seriously problem in a world in which Judea was part of larger empires, and Judeans lived all scattered in the Diaspora.

Justifying Simeon and Levi in the Second Temple Period

The book of Jubilees is only the first of several Second Temple period sources that take the side of the brothers.

Judith—The Heroic Simeonite

In the book of Judith (2^nd cent. B.C.E.),^[14] the protagonist, Judith, is from the tribe of Simeon (8:1), and lives in Bethulia, part of Simeon’s territory (Josh. 19:4). The story describes how the Assyrian general Holofernes is threatening the Israelites, and Judith takes it upon herself to seduce him and kill him. Before her arrival to the enemy camp, she prays to God, mentioning Dinah’s story. Like Jubilees, to justify the destruction of the city of Shechem, Judith ascribes the sin to all the townspeople:

^{Judith 9:2-3} O Lord God of my ancestor Simeon, to whom you gave a sword to take revenge on those strangers who had torn off a virgin’s clothing to defile her, and exposed her things to put her to shame, and polluted her womb to disgrace her …so you gave up their rulers to be killed, and their bed, which was ashamed of the deceits they had practiced, was stained with blood, and you struck down slaves along with princes, and princes on their thrones. (NRSV-CE)

While Judith ostensibly mentions Dinah for fear of her suffering the same fate, she does not identify with Dinah—doesn’t even mention her name!—but with Simeon. Like Simeon, who fought for his sister’s honor, Judith fights for her own honor and the honor of her city.

Unlike Jubilees, which emphasizes Levi’s role with the passage about their being chosen as priests, here, Levi is not mentioned by name. Instead, Judith creates a link between Simeon, heroism, and herself. In contrast to the biblical story where God is not mentioned at all, in Judith’s telling, it is God who gives Simeon a sword to take revenge (Judith 9:2),^[15] and Judith is asking God to give her, Simeon’s descendant, the strength to destroy her enemies just as it was granted to her ancestor.

Philo—Simeon and Levi Represent Sound Sense

Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.E.– ca. 50 C.E.) reads Genesis 34 allegorically, his usual approach,^[16] and clearly sees Simeon and Levi in a positive light. In his De Migratione Abrahami (On the Migration of Abraham),^[17] Philo begins by saying that Shechem the city represents toil.^[18] He notes that the tree nearby Shechem (Elon Morah, Gen 12:6) represents education, and notes that this contrasts with Shechem the person, who is the opposite of justice. In the allegory, this foe of good sense ravishes judgment, represented by Dinah:

^{Philo, Migration of Abraham §223} It is a vital matter that he who would be perfect should ply this toil, to the end that the soul’s court of justice, called “Dinah,” which means “judgement,” may not be ravished by him who sinks under the opposite kind of toil, which is the insidious foe of sound sense.

^§224 For the man who bears the name of this place, Shechem, being son of Hamor, that is of an irrational being—for “Hamor” means “ass”—practicing folly and nursed in shamelessness and effrontery, essayed—foul wretch that he was—to corrupt and defile the judgement faculties" of the understanding....

Philo then explains how Simeon and Levi represent sound sense, which overcomes the fatuousness represented by toil (Shechem) the son of a jackass (Hamor):

^{Philo, Migration of Abraham §224}...But the hearers and pupils of sound sense, Simeon and Levi, were too quick for him. They made secure their own quarters and went forth against them in safety, and overthrew them when still occupied in the pleasure-loving, passion-loving, toil of the uncircumcised.

In On the Change of Names (§200), Simeon and Levi are: “the champions who stand ready to repel such profane and impure ways of thinking.”^[19]

Biblical Antiquities — A Deserving Punishment

The Biblical Antiquities (Pseudo-Philo), which dates around 100 C.E.,^[20] offers a brief description of the story, which presents Simeon and Levi’s act in a matter-of-fact tone:

^{Biblical Antiquities 8:7} Jacob dwelled in the land of Canaan. Shechem the son of Hamor the Hurrite took Dinah his daughter and raped her. The sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, went in and killed their whole city by the sword; and they took their sister Dinah and went out from there.^[21]

Their action is neither praised nor condemned, but the summary gives the impression that the killing was a natural or reasonable consequence of Shechem’s rape of Dinah.

Joseph and Aseneth—God Provided the Swords

In Joseph and Aseneth (1^st cent. C.E.), a Hellenistic Jewish work written in Greek,^[22] Aseneth is a virgin, who rejects numerous worthy suitors, but falls in love with Joseph, the vizier of Egypt. Joseph, however, rejects her because she is an idol worshipper, so she renounces her idolatry, confesses her sins, embraces Joseph’s God, they get married.

But Pharaoh’s son, to whom she had been promised, asks Joseph’s brothers to join with him against Joseph, and promises then riches:

^{Joseph and Asenath 23:14} And Simeon and Levi drew their swords from their sheaths and said, “Look, have you seen these swords? With these two swords, the LORD God avenged the insult of the Shechemites (by) which they insulted the sons of Israel, because of our sister Dinah whom Shechem the son of Hamor defiled.”

^23:15 And the son of Pharaoh saw their swords drawn, and he was very afraid and trembled in his entire body because their swords were flashing like a flame of fire, and the eyes of Pharaoh’s son became dim, and he fell on his face upon the ground under their feet.

^23:16 And Levi stretched out his right hand and grasped him and said to him, “Arise and do not be afraid. Only be wary of speaking any longer a malicious word about our brother Joseph.” ^23:17 And Simeon and Levi went away from the presence of Pharaoh’s son.^[23]

The story does not explain from where the swords came, but it states clearly that these swords were used to effect God’s punishment of the Shechemites, as we saw in Judith. Yet again, the actions of the brothers in the Dinah story are justified.

So Who Is Right?

As noted above, the subject of intermarriage was a major concern after the return from the exile and beyond. It is thus not surprising that Simeon and Levi’s act was praised here and in the other Second Temple sources. Even though Jacob blames Simeon and Levi for acting irresponsibly, and goes so far as to curse them on his deathbed for their hotheadedness, readers from the Second Temple period disagreed. To them, Simeon and Levi acted heroically, and even in line with God’s own will.