a. Dinah’s error. In verse 1 we find Dinah who we haven’t talked about in some time. We saw her birth mentioned back in 30:21. She is a child of Leah and was born after all the six sons that Leah had with Jacob. She was only a small child when they left Haran, and so some time has passed since the meeting of Esau and our story for today. Though the text does not specifically tell us how old Dinah is we can deduce from her actions and the timeline of Jacob’s life that she is probably a young teenager. Moses simply states that she went out to see the women of the land. Apparently, Dinah leaves the tent city of her father Jacob outside the city of Shechem and goes, unaccompanied into the city. Even from ancient times, a young woman never ventured out alone in public. It wasn’t something that proper women did. It also left the young women vulnerable to many dangers including young men. There is a warning here. There is no excuse for what is about to happen in the story. My heart breaks like I am sure that your does as well, for women who are assaulted. However, in Dinah’s case, she finds herself in the situation because of her actions. If she stayed at home or would have gone out with her brothers or anyone, she would have been safe. b. The Sin of Shechem. As Dinah is in the city she caught the attention of Shechem. Shechem was the son of the local ruler, Hamor, and the city was named after him. So Shechem has power and prestige which are often a recipe for disaster. The Bible tells us that Shechem seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. Verse 5 says that he defiled her. It is clear that this act was against her will. But after Shechem did this his soul was drawn to Dinah and he began to love her and he spoke tenderly to her. He kept her in his house. And so, Shechem goes to his father and asks him to help set up a marriage contract with Jacob so that he might marry Dinah. At this time, and even in some parts of the world today, this would be a legitimate way to conduct yourself. However, we know that what he did was wrong. c. Jacob holds his peace. Word of what has happened makes its way to Jacob somehow, but we are told that since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he held his peace until they came. His inactivity here is surprising. If Jacob’s sons were there when the news hit, what would have Jacob done, I wonder? He held his peace because his sons weren’t there which implies he would have done something if they were. Of course, we will never know because Jacob does virtually nothing when he hears that Dinah is in the house of another man. But not too long after, something will have to be done as in verse 6, Hamor goes out to speak with Jacob about the marriage proposal.