Read Online The Harlot by The Side of The Road: Forbidden Tales of The Bible by Jonathan Kirsch - Free Book Online Page A

but Jacob was uncomfortably aware that he remained a stranger in the land of Canaan.
    “Where is Dinah now?” Jacob demanded. “Tell me exactly what happened. And the rest of you—quiet!”
    “We went to the well inside the town wall,” volunteered the young woman. “We went to see the women from the countryside who come to fill their water jars.”
    “Yes,” Jacob urged her on.
    “On the way, we passed some men sitting under an olive tree outside a big house,” the girl continued. “They shouted and laughed and mocked us. All of them except one who just stared and said nothing. That one waited, and when we came back, he walked up to Dinah and spoke very rudely to her.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “ ‘You’re a very pretty one,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a pretty one as you,’” answered the handmaiden, deepening her voice to mock the man whom she described. “ ‘I didn’t know there was one as pretty as you in the camp of the Israelites.’”
    “And then?”
    “He put his arm around her shoulders and walked with her toward agrove of trees on the other side of the road,” she continued. “All the while saying: ‘You’re a very pretty one.’ When they reached the trees, Dinah stumbled and fell down, and he fell, too—right on top of her! They were still for awhile, and then I could see that he was pulling at her robe—–”
    And his soul did cleave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke comfortingly unto the damsel
.
    — GENESIS 34:3    
     
    The young woman paused. For a moment, she seemed bewildered, as if fearing to say aloud what she had seen.
    “Go on,” Jacob demanded.
    “And then he dishonored her.”
    The young woman stopped again. Should she tell
everything
she’d seen? Should she describe how, afterwards, the young man gently put his arm around Dinah and slowly walked with her? Should she mention how the young man was whispering into Dinah’s ear all the while, as if he were comforting her? The handmaiden paused again, staring at the ground in embarrassment.
    “Go on!” Jacob commanded once more. The handmaiden looked up, caught his fierce gaze, and spoke plainly to the old man.
    “The young man took Dinah, and he forced himself upon her, and he lay with her,” said the young woman. “And then he led her to the big house by the side of the road, and when she went inside, we ran back here to tell you what had happened.”
    “And do you know the man who did this?” Jacob asked. “Do you know his name?”
    “We have seen him before on the way to the well, him and his friends.” She paused. “The women at the well say his name is Shechem, and he is the prince’s son.”
    The next day, a curious sight could be seen from Jacob’s doorway: Hamor, the prince of the land in which Jacob dwelled, was making his way along the road toward the compound where Jacob and his sons hadbuilt their houses and pitched their tents. Hamor was accompanied by an agitated young man in the clothes of a nobleman and a guard of watchful soldiers who wore short swords at their side and carried spears in their hands. But Jacob was reassured by the expression on Hamor’s face: the old man seemed friendly enough and perhaps just a bit ill at ease to be approaching Jacob on his own parcel of land.
    And Shechem spoke unto his father Hamor, saying: “Get me this damsel to wife.” Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field; and Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field where they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought a vile deed in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; which thing ought not to be done. And Hamor spoke with them, saying: “The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter. I pray you give her unto him to wife.”
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