Dinah - Dinah in Rabbinic Literature

Dinah in Rabbinic Literature

The Midrash (later explications of the bible by the rabbis) provide many further investigations of the story of Dinah, answering questions such as her offspring from Shechem and possible links to later incidents and characters. One implicates Jacob in Dinah's misfortune: when the Patriarch went to meet Esau he locked Dinah in a box, for fear that Esau would wish to marry her, but God rebuked him in these words: "If thou hadst married off thy daughter in time she would not have been tempted to sin, and might, moreover, have exerted a beneficial influence upon her husband" (Gen. R. lxxx.). Dinah herself, widowed by her brothers' action, demanded that Simeon marry her and remove her shame. (According to Nachmanides, she only lived in his house and did not have sex with him.) Her brother Simeon promised to marry her; but she did not wish to leave Shechem, fearing that after her disgrace no one would take her to wife (Gen. R. l.c.); she was later married to Job however (Bava Batra 16b; Gen. R. l.c.). When she died, Simeon buried her in the land of Canaan. She is therefore referred to as "the Canaanitish woman" (Gen. 46:10). Shaul (ib.) was her son by Shechem (Gen. R. l.c.). According to Rabbinic Literature her child after her rape by Shechem was Asenath the wife of Joseph.

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