¹ Jakob hub seine Augen auf und sah seinen Bruder Esau kommen mit vierhundert Mann. Und teilete seine Kinder zu Lea und zu Rahel und zu beiden Mägden.

² Und stellete die Mägde mit ihren Kindern vorne an und Lea mit ihren Kindern hernach und Rahel mit Joseph zuletzt.

³ Und er ging vor ihnen her und neigete sich siebenmal auf die Erde, bis er zu seinem Bruder kam.

⁴ Esau aber lief ihm entgegen und herzete ihn und fiel ihm um den Hals und küssete ihn; und sie weineten.

⁵ Und hub seine Augen auf und sah die Weiber mit den Kindern und sprach: Wer sind diese bei dir? Er antwortete: Es sind Kinder, die Gott deinem Knechte bescheret hat.

⁶ Und die Mägde traten herzu mit ihren Kindern und neigeten sich vor ihm.

⁷ Lea trat auch herzu mit ihren Kindern und neigeten sich vor ihm. Danach trat Joseph und Rahel herzu und neigeten sich auch vor ihm.

⁸ Und er sprach: Was willst du mit all dem Heer, dem ich begegnet bin? Er antwortete: Daß ich Gnade fände vor meinem HERRN.

⁹ Esau sprach: Ich habe genug, mein Bruder; behalt, was du hast.

¹⁰ Jakob antwortete: Ach nicht! Habe ich Gnade funden vor dir, so nimm mein Geschenk von meiner Hand; denn ich sah dein Angesicht, als sähe ich Gottes Angesicht; und laß dir's wohlgefallen von mir.

¹¹ Nimm doch den Segen von mir an, den ich dir zugebracht habe; denn Gott hat mir's bescheret, und ich habe alles genug. Also nötigte er ihn, daß er's nahm.

¹² Und er sprach: Laß uns fortziehen und reisen; ich will mit dir ziehen.

¹³ Er aber sprach zu ihm: Mein HERR, du erkennest, daß ich zarte Kinder bei mir habe, dazu Vieh und säugende Kühe; wenn sie einen Tag übertrieben würden, würde mir die ganze Herde sterben.

¹⁴ Mein HERR ziehe vor seinem Knechte hin. Ich will mählich hinnach treiben, danach das Vieh und die Kinder gehen können, bis daß ich komme zu meinem HERRN in Seir.

¹⁵ Esau sprach: So will ich doch bei dir lassen etliche vom Volk, das mit mir ist. Er antwortete: Was ist's vonnöten? Laß mich nur Gnade vor meinem HERRN finden.

¹⁶ Also zog des Tages Esau wiederum seines Weges gen Seir.

¹⁷ Und Jakob zog gen Suchoth und bauete ihm ein Haus und machte seinem Vieh Hütten; daher heißt die Stätte Suchoth.

¹⁸ Danach zog Jakob gegen Salem, zu der Stadt des Sichem, die im Lande Kanaan liegt (nachdem er aus Mesopotamien kommen war), und machte sein Lager vor der Stadt.

¹⁹ Und kaufte ein Stück Ackers von den Kindern Hemors, des Vaters Sichems, um hundert Groschen; daselbst richtete er seine Hütte auf.

²⁰ Und richtete daselbst einen Altar zu und rief an den Namen des starken Gottes Israel.

¹ Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

² Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

³ His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.

⁴ Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."

⁵ Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.

⁶ Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.

⁷ The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; a which thing ought not to be done.

⁸ Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

⁹ Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰ You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."

¹¹ Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor 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, and 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, to 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 honored 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 us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us 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 us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us."

²⁴ All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵ It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.

²⁶ They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.

²⁷ Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸ They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field,

²⁹ and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.

³⁰ Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."

³¹ They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"