Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
On the next day, Shechem and his father rose up early in the morning,
and they assembled all the men of the city, and they called for the
sons of Jacob, and they circumcised Shechem, his father, his five
brothers, and all the males in the city, six hundred and forty-five men
and two hundred and seventy-six lads. Haddakum, the grandfather of
Shechem, and his six brothers would not be circumcised, and they were
greatly incensed against the people of the city for submitting to the
wishes of the sons of Jacob.
In the evening of the second day, Shechem and his father sent to have
eight little children whom their mothers had concealed brought to them
to be circumcised. Haddakum and his six brothers sprang at the
messengers, and sought to slay them, and sought to slay also Shechem,
Hamor, and Dinah. They chided Shechem and his father for doing a thing
that their fathers had never done, which would raise the ire of the
inhabitants of the land of Canaan against them, as well as the ire of
all the children of Ham, and that on account of a Hebrew woman.
Haddakum and his brothers finished by saying: "Behold, to-morrow we
will go and assemble our Canaanitish brethren, and we will come and
smite you and all in whom you trust, that there shall not be a remnant
left of you or them."
When Hamor and his son Shechem and all the people of the city heard
this, they were sore afraid, and they repented what they had done, and
Shechem and his father answered Haddakum and his brothers: "Because we
saw that the Hebrews would not accede to our wishes concerning their
daughter, we did this thing, but when we shall have obtained our
request from them, we will then do unto them that which is in your
hearts and in ours, as soon as we shall become strong."
Dinah, who heard their words, hastened and dispatched one of her
maidens whom her father had sent to take care of her in Shechem's
house, and informed Jacob and his sons of the conspiracy plotted
against them. When the sons of Jacob heard this, they were filled with
wrath, and Simon and Levi swore, and said, "As the Lord liveth, by
to-morrow there shall not be a remnant left In the whole city."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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