Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
They began the extermination by killing eighteen of the twenty young
men who had concealed themselves and were not circumcised, and two of
them fled and escaped to some lime pits that were in the city. Then
Simon and Levi slew all the city, not leaving a male over, and while
they were looking for spoils outside of the city, three hundred women
rose against them and threw stones and dust upon them, but Simon
single-handed slew them all, and returned to the city, where he joined
Levi. Then they took away from the people outside of the city their
sheep, their oxen, their cattle, and also the women and the little
children, and they led all these away, and took them to the city to
their father Jacob. The number of women whom they did not slay, but
only took captive, was eighty-five virgins, among them a young damsel
of great beauty by the name of Bunah, whom Simon took to wife. The
number of the males which they took captive and did not slay was
forty-seven, and all these men and women were servants to the sons of
Jacob, and to their children after them, until the day they left Egypt.
A WAR FRUSTRATED
When Simon and Levi had gone from the city, the two young men who had
concealed themselves in the lime pits, and were not slain amongst the
people of the city, rose up, and they found the city desolate, without
a man, only weeping women, and they cried out, saying, "Behold, this is
the evil which the sons of Jacob did who destroyed one of the Canaanite
cities, and were not afraid of all the land of Canaan."
They left the city and went to Tappuah, and told the inhabitants all
that the sons of Jacob had done to the city of Shechem. Jashub, the
king of Tappuah, sent to Shechem to see whether these young men told
the truth, for he did not believe them, saying, "How could two men
destroy a large city like Shechem?" The messengers of Jashub returned,
and they reported, "The city is destroyed, not a man is left there,
only weeping women, neither are there flocks and cattle there, for all
that was in the city was taken away by the sons of Jacob."
Jashub wondered thereat, for the like had not been heard from the days
of Nimrod, and not even from the remotest times, that two men should be
able to destroy so large a city, and he decided to go to war against
the Hebrews, and avenge the cause of the people of Shechem. His
counsellors said to him: "If two of them laid waste a whole city,
surely if thou goest against them, they all will rise up against us,
and destroy us. Therefore, send to the kings round about, that we all
together fight against the sons of Jacob, and prevail against them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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