DINAH (di'nah),(Heb. 71, dee-naw', judgment perh. judged), daughter of Jacob by Leah (Gen. xxx:21), and therefore lull sister of Simeon and Levi.
While Jacob's camp was in the neighborhood of Shechem, Dinah was seduced by Shechem, the son of Hamar, the Hivite chief or head-man of the town. Partly from dread of the consequences of his misconduct, and partly, it would seem, out of love for the damsel, he solicited a marriage with her, leaving the 'marriage price' (see MAR RIAGE) to be fixed by her family. To this Dinah's brothers would only consent on the further condi tion that all the inhabitants of the place should be circumcised. Even this was yielded ; and Simeon and Levi took a most barbarous advantage of the compliance by falling upon the town on the third day, when the people were disabled by the effects of the operation, and slew them all (Gen. xxxiv).
For this act of truly Oriental vindictiveness no excuse can be offered, and Jacob himself re peatedly alludes to it with abhorrence and regret (Gen. xxxiv :3o; xlix :5-7). To understand the act at all, however, it is necessary to remember, that any stain upon the honor of a sister, and especially of an only sister, is even at this day considered as an insupportable disgrace and inex piable offense among all the nomade tribes of Western Asia. If the woman be single, her broth ers more than her father,and if she be marriedher brothers more than her husband, are aggrieved, and are considered bound to avenge the wrong. Hence the active vengeance of Dinah's full broth ers, and the comparative passiveness of her father in these transactions. Of Dinah's subsequent lot nothing is known.