¹ And Dinah, daughter of Leah, whom she hath borne to Jacob, goeth out to look on the daughters of the land,

² and Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, a prince of the land, seeth her, and taketh her, and lieth with her, and humbleth her;

³ and his soul cleaveth to Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and he loveth the young person, and speaketh unto the heart of the young person.

⁴ And Shechem speaketh unto Hamor his father, saying, `Take for me this damsel for a wife.'

⁵ And Jacob hath heard that he hath defiled Dinah his daughter, and his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob kept silent till their coming.

⁶ And Hamor, father of Shechem, goeth out unto Jacob to speak with him;

⁷ and the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard, and the men grieve themselves, and it [is] very displeasing to them, for folly he hath done against Israel, to lie with the daughter of Jacob -- and so it is not done.

⁸ And Hamor speaketh with them, saying, `Shechem, my son, his soul hath cleaved to your daughter; give her, I pray you, to him for a wife,

⁹ and join ye in marriage with us; your daughters ye give to us, and our daughters ye take to yourselves,

¹⁰ and with us ye dwell, and the land is before you; dwell ye and trade [in] it, and have possessions in it.'

¹¹ And Shechem saith unto her father, and unto her brethren, `Let me find grace in your eyes, and that which ye say unto me, I give;

¹² multiply on me exceedingly dowry and gift, and I give as ye say unto me, and give to me the young person for a wife.'

¹³ And the sons of Jacob answer Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and they speak (because he defiled Dinah their sister),

¹⁴ and say unto them, `We are not able to do this thing, to give our sister to one who hath a foreskin: for it [is] a reproach to us.

¹⁵ `Only for this we consent to you; if ye be as we, to have every male of you circumcised,

¹⁶ then we have given our daughters to you, and your daughters we take to ourselves, and we have dwelt with you, and have become one people;

¹⁷ and if ye hearken not unto us to be circumcised, then we have taken our daughter, and have gone.'

¹⁸ And their words are good in the eyes of Hamor, and in the eyes of Shechem, Hamor's son;

¹⁹ and the young man delayed not to do the thing, for he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he is honourable above all the house of his father.

²⁰ And Hamor cometh -- Shechem his son also -- unto the gate of their city, and they speak unto the men of their city, saying,

²¹ `These men are peaceable with us; then let them dwell in the land, and trade [in] it; and the land, lo, [is] wide before them; their daughters let us take to ourselves for wives, and our daughters give to them.

²² `Only for this do the men consent to us, to dwell with us, to become one people, in every male of us being circumcised, as they are circumcised;

²³ their cattle, and their substance, and all their beasts -- are they not ours? only let us consent to them, and they dwell with us.'

²⁴ And unto Hamor, and unto Shechem his son, hearken do all those going out of the gate of his city, and every male is circumcised, all those going out of the gate of his city.

²⁵ And it cometh to pass, on the third day, in their being pained, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, take each his sword, and come in against the city confidently, and slay every male;

²⁶ and Hamor, and Shechem his son, they have slain by the mouth of the sword, and they take Dinah out of Shechem's house, and go out.

²⁷ Jacob's sons have come in upon the wounded, and they spoil the city, because they had defiled their sister;

²⁸ their flock and their herd, and their asses, and that which [is] in the city, and that which [is] in the field, have they taken;

²⁹ and all their wealth, and all their infants, and their wives they have taken captive, and they spoil also all that [is] in the house.

³⁰ And Jacob saith unto Simeon and unto Levi, `Ye have troubled me, by causing me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanite, and among the Perizzite: and I [am] few in number, and they have been gathered against me, and have smitten me, and I have been destroyed, I and my house.'

³¹ And they say, `As a harlot doth he make our sister?'

¹ Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt.

² Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,

³ and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land".

⁴ The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, "My father's God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

⁵ Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God.

⁶ He said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her."

⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent.

⁸ Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them.

⁹ Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰ Jethro said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the thing in which they dealt arrogantly against them."

¹² Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all of the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

¹³ It happened on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.

¹⁴ When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, "What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?"

¹⁵ Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

¹⁶ When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws."

¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

¹⁸ You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.

¹⁹ Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.

²⁰ You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.

²¹ Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²² Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.

²³ If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all of these people also will go to their place in peace."

²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.

²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²⁶ They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

²⁷ Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.