Dina (bible)

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Dina ( Hebrew : דִּינָה, modern Hebrew pronunciation: Dina, Tiberian vocalization: Dînāh; German: “justified”, “judged”) was a daughter of Jacob and Lea , who is mentioned by name in the Torah of the Tanach and in the Old Testament of the Bible . She was born in Haran like 11 of her 12 (half) brothers .

The story in the Bible

Dina's birth by her mother Leah is mentioned in Gen. 30.21 : “Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter, to whom she gave the name Dina.” According to Gen. 46.7  EU , Dina is not the only daughter of Jacob. In the biblical story in the book Gen 34  ESV , she kept going away to spend time with the young women of the country. She likes Shechem , the son of Hivite Hamor , a rich prince from Canaan , so much that he kidnaps and rapes her . Out of love, he asks his father to be allowed to marry Dina. The latter in turn discusses his son's request with Jacob's sons, who only consent on the insidious assumption that all men from Shechem's tribe are circumcised. Only through circumcision , God's covenant with Abraham , would a marriage be possible. Hamor and Shechem consent; the men of the city of the same name, Shechem, are circumcised.

Three days later, when all the men in Shechem were weakened by the physical intervention of wound fever, two of Dinas' full brothers, Simeon and Levi , attacked the city, killing all of the male residents and freeing Dina from Shechem's house. After that, Jacob's other sons plundered the city and the surrounding area. They captured sheep - and cattle, and donkeys and took captive the women and children. The city itself is also largely destroyed. The shame that was done to Dina is to be erased. Her father Jacob was appalled at his sons and their vengeance on the whole city of Shechem, because he feared retaliatory attacks by the Canaanites and Perizzites . As a result of these events, Jacob and his entourage moved to Bethel ( Gen 35.6  EU )

According to Gen 46.7 15  EU , Dina apparently came to Egypt several years later with the other housemates of Jacob at Joseph's invitation.

One reason is that Dinas further history is not presented in the Bible is likely to be that because of the prevailing patriarchal families, clans, tribes and nations are named after their ancestor cultural norms that time, never for the mother (see. Origin legends ) .

Dina in Jewish-Hellenistic literature

In the book of anniversaries , Dina is Zebulon's twin sister (Jub 28:23) and the only daughter of Jacob (Jub 33:22). Kidnapping and rape happen when they are twelve years old (Jub 30,2). She dies shortly after Joseph was sold to Egypt (Jub 34:15).

In Job's will (TestHiob 1,6) and in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (LibAnt 8,7-8) Dina is considered Job's wife . She becomes the mother of fourteen sons and six daughters (LibAnt 8: 8.11).

reception

In Thomas Mann's novel Joseph and his brothers , a separate chapter is dedicated to her in the first volume, The Stories of Jacob (1933).

Anita Diamant gives shape and voice to Dina in her novel The Red Tent of Women ( The Red Tent , 1997).

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