Bible Strands
Genesis 34:1
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator addresses the reader at the moment Dinah, previously identified as Leah’s child in Genesis 30:21, steps outside her family’s boundaries. This action immediately precedes the violent encounter with Shechem detailed in Genesis 34:2.
The words — The text centers on וַ/תֵּצֵ֤א (va./te.Tze'), literally "and she went out," and לִ/רְא֖וֹת (li/r.'ot), literally "to look" or "to see." These verbs frame Dinah’s movement as an active departure rather than a passive occurrence.
The thread — The passage links to Genesis 30:21 for Dinah’s origin and Genesis 34:2 for the immediate consequence of her departure. It also echoes the biblical pattern of boundary-crossing seen in Jeremiah 2:36’s warning against impulsive shifts and Genesis 26:34’s account of foreign alliances.
Why it lands — The verse records a factual movement that initiates a chain of events, requiring the reader to track how ordinary actions intersect with covenant violation. It demands attention to the narrative structure where a simple departure directly triggers communal crisis.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Cross-references
- Genesis 30:21 After that, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
- Jeremiah 2:36 How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
- Genesis 26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
- Genesis 27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”
- Genesis 28:6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”
- Genesis 30:13 Leah said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
- Genesis 46:15 These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.
- 1 Timothy 5:13 At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention.
- Titus 2:5 to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.