Genesis 34:8-12

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 34:8 tn Heb “Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter.” The verb means “to love” in the sense of being emotionally attached to or drawn to someone. This is a slightly different way of saying what was reported earlier (v. 3). However, there is no mention here of the offense. Even though Hamor is speaking to Dinah’s brothers, he refers to her as their daughter (see v. 17).
2. Genesis 34:9 tn Heb “form marriage alliances with us.”sn Intermarry with us. This includes the idea of becoming allied by marriage. The incident foreshadows the temptations Israel would eventually face when they entered the promised land (see Deut 7:3; Josh 23:12).
3. Genesis 34:9 tn Heb “Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.” In the translation the words “let…marry” and “as wives” are supplied for clarity.
4. Genesis 34:10 tn The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
5. Genesis 34:10 tn Heb “before you.”
6. Genesis 34:10 tn The verb seems to carry the basic meaning “travel about freely,” although the substantival participial form refers to a trader (see E. A. Speiser, “The Verb sḥr in Genesis and Early Hebrew Movements,” BASOR 164 [1961]: 23-28); cf. NIV, NRSV “trade in it.”
7. Genesis 34:11 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Dinah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8. Genesis 34:11 tn Heb “whatever you say.”
9. Genesis 34:11 tn Or “pay.”
10. Genesis 34:12 tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.
11. Genesis 34:12 tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.
12. Genesis 34:12 tn Heb “say.”