Genesis 34:27 kjv

The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.

Genesis 34:27 nkjv

The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.

Genesis 34:27 niv

The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.

Genesis 34:27 esv

The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

Genesis 34:27 nlt

Meanwhile, the rest of Jacob's sons arrived. Finding the men slaughtered, they plundered the town because their sister had been defiled there.

Genesis 34 verses

Genesis 34 27 Meaning

Genesis 34:27 states that after Simeon and Levi slaughtered the men of Shechem, the other sons of Jacob entered the city to plunder it, driven by the reason that their sister Dinah had been defiled. This verse highlights the extended family's participation in the aftermath of the violence and clarifies their motive for taking spoils: the severe dishonor brought upon their household by Shechem's sexual transgression against Dinah. It underscores the profound violation perceived by the family and the extreme measures they took in response.

Genesis 34 27 Context

Chapter 34 of Genesis unfolds a dark episode in the early history of Jacob's family. It begins with Dinah, Jacob's only daughter mentioned, going out to observe the local women. Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite prince of the land, sees her, seizes her, and rapes her. Shechem then professes love for Dinah and requests her as his wife, with his father Hamor approaching Jacob and his sons for approval, proposing intermarriage and an alliance.

Jacob's sons, upon hearing of Dinah's defilement, are deeply enraged. Simeon and Levi, in particular, devise a deceitful plan: they tell Hamor and Shechem that they will agree to the alliance and marriage only if every male in Shechem's city is circumcised, claiming it is required for their people to intermarry. The men of Shechem agree and undergo circumcision. On the third day, when the Shechemite men are incapacitated by pain and fever, Simeon and Levi enter the city unchallenged and ruthlessly slaughter every male, including Hamor and Shechem. Immediately following this massacre, Genesis 34:27 describes the entry of the other sons of Jacob who proceed to plunder the now-defenseless city. The stated motivation for their actions is the profound dishonor inflicted upon their family through Dinah's rape, highlighting the intensity of their rage and sense of grievance. Jacob, though quiet at first, later expresses grave concern about the reputation and vulnerability of his household among the surrounding Canaanite peoples (Gen 34:30).

Historically, in the ancient Near East, honor and shame were powerful societal drivers. The violation of a family member, particularly a female, could profoundly dishonor the entire family, often necessitating a violent response to restore honor. However, the scale and deceptive nature of Jacob's sons' actions, involving mass slaughter and complete pillage, were extreme and disproportionate, going far beyond cultural norms for honorable retribution. This narrative highlights the ethical complexities within a patriarchal family acting outside divine instruction.

Genesis 34 27 Word analysis

• וּבְנֵי יַעֲקֹב (u'v'nei Ya'akov) - "And the sons of Jacob"

  • וּבְנֵי (u'v'nei): The conjunction 'and' (וּ) links this action directly to the previous events (the slaughter). 'Sons of' (בְּנֵי) is significant. It shows that the collective action described in this verse was not limited to Simeon and Levi, but involved the broader group of Jacob's male offspring. This implicates more family members in the violent, unjust aftermath.
  • יַעֲקֹב (Ya'akov): Jacob, the patriarch, whose name was later changed to Israel, establishing the nation's foundational family. This highlights that this tragedy occurred within the nascent covenant community.

• בָּאוּ עַל הַחֲלָלִים (ba'u al hachalalím) - "came upon the slain" / "came over the slain"

  • בָּאוּ (ba'u): "They came," indicating their active arrival at the scene after the initial bloodshed. They found the city already strewn with dead bodies.
  • עַל (al): "Upon" or "over." Denotes their presence immediately near or in proximity to the dead bodies.
  • הַחֲלָלִים (hachalalím): "The slain ones," "the dead bodies," specifically those who had been mortally wounded or killed by the sword. This underscores the brutal reality the other sons encountered—a massacre already accomplished—before they began their own phase of destruction.

• וַיָּבֹזוּ אֶת הָעִיר (vayyavózu et ha'ir) - "and they plundered the city"

  • וַיָּבֹזוּ (vayyavózu): "And they plundered," "looted," "despoiled." This strong verb describes the act of taking goods by force, indicating violent seizure of property and valuables. This goes beyond mere vengeance for Dinah, suggesting greed played a role once the opportunity arose. The following verses (34:28-29) clarify the extent of this plunder: livestock, all wealth, even women and children were taken captive. This action escalated the situation from retribution to full-scale devastation for personal gain.
  • אֶת הָעִיר (et ha'ir): "The city" (Shechem). Refers to the physical place and its inhabitants.

• אֲשֶׁר טִמְּאוּ אֲחוֹתָם (asher tim'u achotam) - "because they had defiled their sister"

  • אֲשֶׁר (asher): "Because," "that," "which." This word serves as the conjunction linking the action of plundering to its stated motivation, explicitly connecting the plunder to the initial grievance.
  • טִמְּאוּ (tim'u): "They defiled," "polluted," "made unclean." This verb carries significant weight, referring to an act that renders something morally or ritually impure. In a sexual context, it implies a grievous violation and spiritual pollution. It underlines the severe sense of desecration felt by the brothers. The collective 'they' (Shechem's people) in "they had defiled" implicates not just Shechem, but the entire city in the 'crime,' thereby justifying the collective punishment in the brothers' minds.
  • אֲחוֹתָם (achotam): "Their sister" (Dinah). Her status as their only sister underscores the protective instinct and profound violation felt by the brothers. The close family relationship amplifies the emotional impact of the defilement.

Words-group analysis:

• "The sons of Jacob came upon the slain": This phrase distinctly separates the subsequent plundering from the prior murderous act by Simeon and Levi. It clarifies that the other brothers arrived after the men of Shechem were already dead. Their arrival signifies their engagement in the latter, exploitative phase of the conflict rather than the initial, deceptive slaughter.
• "and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled": This segment connects the act of plundering directly to the "defilement" of Dinah. It attempts to provide a justification for their extreme actions. While Dinah's defilement was a serious offense, the wholesale destruction and enslavement of an entire populace, including women and children, went far beyond what would be considered a proportionate response or justice, highlighting the unchecked wrath and opportunistic greed that fueled their actions. The phrase presents the brothers' stated rationale, which falls short in light of the biblical emphasis on just and proportionate judgment.

Genesis 34 27 Bonus section

• The episode in Shechem, culminating in the actions described in Gen 34:27, fundamentally threatened Jacob's family by making them "odious" (Gen 34:30) to the surrounding peoples. This incident highlighted the fragility of their position as a minority group living in Canaan and prompted Jacob to relocate.
• The deceitful use of circumcision as a pretext for the massacre carries significant irony. Circumcision was the sacred sign of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 17), representing dedication to God. Here, it is profaned and used as a tool for horrific deception and violence, starkly contrasting its true spiritual significance. This suggests an early deviation from covenant principles within Jacob's own family.
• This account also demonstrates the potential for communal sin within a family or group. While Simeon and Levi instigated the primary bloodshed, the other brothers' participation in the plunder suggests a shared acceptance of the fruits of that violence, making them accomplices in the subsequent wrongs. Their shared justification of "defilement" provided a moral cloak for their avarice.

Genesis 34 27 Commentary

Genesis 34:27 provides a stark insight into the dark consequence of unchecked vengeance and the collective actions of Jacob's sons. While Simeon and Levi executed the gruesome slaughter in Genesis 34:25-26, this verse explicitly broadens the complicity to the other sons of Jacob, indicating they came after the carnage and participated in the systematic plunder of the city. Their motivation, stated clearly as "because their sister had been defiled," was born from deep familial honor and outrage over Dinah's sexual violation.

However, the response was extreme, not only in the slaughter of innocent men but in the extensive pillaging and enslavement of the survivors (further detailed in Gen 34:28-29). This went beyond any culturally accepted act of vengeance, highlighting that the pursuit of "honor" in this context quickly devolved into rapacious self-interest. The narrative is not endorsing their actions; rather, it portrays the tragic outcome of human wrath unchecked by divine wisdom or self-control. It prefigures Jacob's later curse on Simeon and Levi (Gen 49:5-7) for their fierce anger and cruelty, confirming that God's plan for Israel would not be built on such deceptive and ruthless violence. This event serves as a crucial point in the family's journey, showcasing how severe offenses can elicit profoundly sinful, disproportionate responses, jeopardizing even the chosen lineage's nascent standing in the world.