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class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Genesis 34:3</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../genesis/34-2.htm" title="Genesis 34:2">◄</a> Genesis 34:3 <a href="../genesis/34-4.htm" title="Genesis 34:4">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/genesis/34.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/genesis/34.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/genesis/34.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/genesis/34.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/genesis/34.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/genesis/34.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/genesis/34.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/genesis/34.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/genesis/34.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a 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href="/commentaries/king-en/genesis/34.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/genesis/34.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/genesis/34.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/genesis/34.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/genesis/34.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/genesis/34.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/genesis/34.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/genesis/34.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/genesis/34.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/genesis/34.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/genesis/34.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/genesis/34.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/benson/genesis/34.htm">Benson Commentary</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/genesis/34-3.htm" title="And his soul joined to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke kindly to the damsel.">Genesis 34:3</a></span>. <span class="ital">He spake kindly unto the damsel — </span>Desiring not only to comfort her after the ignominy he had brought upon her, but to conciliate her mind, and get her consent to marry him, that he might thereby repair, as far as possible, the injury he had done her. So that, though his behaviour had been very sinful in the first action; yet in the sequel it was honest and noble, and such as may fill with confusion of face too many who, with the utmost baseness, act a very different part.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/genesis/34.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>34:1-19 Young persons, especially females, are never so safe and well off as under the care of pious parents. Their own ignorance, and the flattery and artifices of designing, wicked people, who are ever laying snares for them, expose them to great danger. They are their own enemies if they desire to go abroad, especially alone, among strangers to true religion. Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged children, like Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretence was, to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable among them; she went to see, yet that was not all, she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintance with the Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of Dinah's gadding. The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. How great a matter does a little fire kindle! We should carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/genesis/34.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land. The Jewish doctors of a later period fix the marriageable age of a female at twelve years and a day. It is probable that Dinah was in her thirteenth year when she went out to visit the daughters of the land. Six or seven years, therefore, must have been spent by Jacob between Sukkoth, where he abode some time, and the neighborhood of Shekerm, where he had purchased a piece of ground. If we suppose Dinah to have been born in the same year with Joseph, who was in his seventeenth year at the time of his being sold as a bondslave <a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/37-2.htm">Genesis 37:2</a>, the events of this chapter must have occurred in the interval between the completion of her twelfth and that of her sixteenth year. "Shekem." This name is hereditary in the family, and had taken hold in the locality before the time of Abraham. The Hivite was a descendant of Kenaan. We find this tribe now occupying the district where the Kenaanite was in possession at a former period <a href="/genesis/12-6.htm">Genesis 12:6</a>. "Spake to the heart of the damsel." After having robbed her of her honor, he promises to recognize her as his wife, provided he can gain the consent of her relatives. "Shekem spake unto his father Hamor." He is in earnest about this matter. "Jacob held his peace." He was a stranger in the land, and surrounded by a flourishing tribe, who were evidently unscrupulous in their conduct.<a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/genesis/34.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>CHAPTER 34<p>Ge 34:1-31. The Dishonor of Dinah.<p>1-4. Though freed from foreign troubles, Jacob met with a great domestic calamity in the fall of his only daughter. According to Josephus, she had been attending a festival; but it is highly probable that she had been often and freely mixing in the society of the place and that she, being a simple, inexperienced, and vain young woman, had been flattered by the attentions of the ruler's son. There must have been time and opportunities of acquaintance to produce the strong attachment that Shechem had for her.<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/genesis/34.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> Perceiving her to be exceedingly enraged and perplexed at this horrid violence, he endeavours to appease and sweeten her, and to get her consent to marry him. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/genesis/34.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob,.... His inclination was to her, she was always in his thoughts; it was not a mere lustful desire that was suddenly raised, and soon over, but a constant and continued affection he bore to her, as follows: <p>and he loved the damsel; sincerely and heartily: <p>and spake kindly unto the damsel; or "to the heart" (g) of her, such things as tended to comfort her, she being sad and sorrowful; or to soften her mind towards him, and take off the resentment of it to him, because of the injury he had done her, and to gain her good will and affection, and her consent to marry him; professing great love to her, promising her great things, what worldly grandeur and honour she would be advanced to, and how kindly he would behave towards her; which might take with her, and incline her to yield to his motion, which having obtained, he took the following method. <p>(g) "ad cor", Pagninus, Vatablus, Drusius, Schmidt; super cor, Montanus, Munster; "cordi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/genesis/34.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.</span></div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/genesis/34.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">3</span>. <span class="ital">his soul</span>] i.e. his affections. Heb. <span class="ital">nephesh</span>. Cf. <a href="/genesis/12-13.htm" title="Say, I pray you, you are my sister: that it may be well with me for your sake; and my soul shall live because of you.">Genesis 12:13</a>, <a href="/genesis/27-4.htm" title="And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless you before I die.">Genesis 27:4</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">kindly</span>, &c.] Heb. <span class="ital">to the heart of the damsel</span>. The same phrase, sometimes rendered “comfortably,” occurs in <a href="/genesis/50-21.htm" title="Now therefore fear you not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.">Genesis 50:21</a>; <a href="/2_samuel/19-7.htm" title="Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably to your servants: for I swear by the LORD, if you go not forth, there will not tarry one with you this night: and that will be worse to you than all the evil that befell you from your youth until now.">2 Samuel 19:7</a>; <a href="/isaiah/40-2.htm" title="Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.">Isaiah 40:2</a>; <a href="/hosea/2-14.htm" title="Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.">Hosea 2:14</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/genesis/34.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 3, 4.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">And his soul clave</span> (<span class="accented">vide infra</span> on ver. 8) <span class="cmt_word">unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob</span>, - it was in some degree an extenuation of the wickedness of Shechem that he did not cast off the victim of his violence and lust, but continued to regard her with affection - <span class="cmt_word">and he loved the damsel</span>, - on the use of <span class="accented">na'ar</span> for a youth of either sex <span class="accented">vide</span> <a href="/genesis/24-14.htm">Genesis 24:14</a> - <span class="cmt_word">and spake kindly unto the damsel</span> - literally, spoke <span class="accented">to the heart of the damsel</span>, <span class="greek">ἐλάλησε κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν τῆς παρθίνου</span> <span class="greek">αὐτῇ</span> (LXX.), <span class="accented">i.e.</span> addressed to her such words as were agreeable to her inclinations (cf. on the import of the phrase <a href="/genesis/1-21.htm">Genesis 1:21</a>; <a href="/judges/19-3.htm">Judges 19:3</a>; <a href="/isaiah/40-2.htm">Isaiah 40:2</a>; <a href="/hosea/2-14.htm">Hosea 2:14</a>), probably expressing his affection, and offering the reparation of honorable marriage, as may be legitimately inferred from what is next recorded of his behavior. <span class="cmt_word">And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife</span> - cf. the case of Samson (<a href="/judges/14-2.htm">Judges 14:2</a>). Genesis 34:3<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/genesis/34.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>Shechem "loved the girl, and spoke to her heart;" i.e., he sought to comfort her by the promise of a happy marriage, and asked his father to obtain her for him as a wife. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/genesis/34-3.htm">Genesis 34:3 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../genesis/34-2.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Genesis 34:2"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Genesis 34:2" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../genesis/34-4.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Genesis 34:4"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Genesis 34:4" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>