Genesis 34:11-23
Heavenly Father
give us grace to speak peace to others today without deceit
give us wisdom to discern the difference between truth and deceit in others.
11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favour in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.
12 Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke,
because he had defiled Dinah their sister,
14 and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.
15 Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised,
16 then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us,
and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.”
18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.
19 The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter,
and he was honoured above all the house of his father.
20 Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying,
21 “These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it.
For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters.
22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people,
if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised.
23 Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours?
Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”