Bible Strands
Genesis 34:25
Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi act against the men of Shechem three days after the entire male population undergoes circumcision.
The words — בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי (ba/yom ha/she.li.shi) literally means “on the third day,” marking the precise interval after the procedure.
The thread — The account follows Genesis 34:24, where the city’s males are circumcised, and anticipates Genesis 49:5, which later characterizes Simeon and Levi’s swords as instruments of violence.
Why it lands — It records a calculated strike during a period of physical vulnerability, demanding recognition of the brothers’ methodical retaliation rather than moral justification.
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 it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
Cross-references
- Genesis 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.
- Genesis 29:33 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon.
- Numbers 31:7 Then they waged war against Midian, as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.
- Numbers 31:17 So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,
- Joshua 5:6 For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Joshua 5:8 And after all the nation had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they were healed.
- 2 Chronicles 32:25 But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
- Proverbs 4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
- Proverbs 6:34 For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.