Genesis 34:13
וַיַּעֲנוּ בְנֵֽי־יַעֲקֹב אֶת־שְׁכֶם וְאֶת־חֲמוֹר אָבִיו בְּמִרְמָה וַיְדַבֵּרוּ אֲשֶׁר טִמֵּא אֵת דִּינָה אֲחֹתָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּעֲנ֨וּ בְנֵֽי־יַעֲקֹ֜ב אֶת־שְׁכֶ֨ם וְאֶת־חֲמ֥וֹר אָבִ֛יו בְּמִרְמָ֖ה וַיְדַבֵּ֑רוּ אֲשֶׁ֣ר טִמֵּ֔א אֵ֖ת דִּינָ֥ה אֲחֹתָֽם׃
ἀπεκρίθησαν δὲ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰακὼβ τῷ Συχὲμ καὶ Ἐμμὼρ τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ μετὰ δόλου, καὶ ἐλάλησαν αὐτοῖς, ὅτι ἐμίαναν Δείναν τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Responderunt filii Jacob Sichem et patri ejus in dolo, sævientes ob stuprum sororis:
Como Siquén había deshonrado a su hermana Dina, los hijos de Jacob les respondieron a Siquén y a su padre Jamor con engaños.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y respondieron los hijos de Jacob á Sichêm y á Hamor su padre con engaño; y parlaron, por cuanto había amancillado á Dina su hermana.
But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob ’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 34:13 reports that Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor "with deceit" (be-mirmah, H4820), speaking to them because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah. The verse combines two verbs of speech — "answered" and "spoke" — with a subordinate clause giving the reason (asher, "because/that", H0834A).
Key words
- va-ya'anu ("and they answered", H6030B) — qal narrative form, third person masculine plural; opens the sequence of narrated events.
- bemirmah ("with deceit", H4820) — feminine singular noun governed by the preposition be ("with", H9003); qualifies the manner of the sons' response.
- va-yedabberu ("and they spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative form, intensive stem, distinct from the first verb ya'anu; the piel here marks a more deliberate or emphatic act of speaking.
- asher ("that/because", H0834A) — relative/causal particle introducing the clause explaining the sons' motive.
- tim·me' ("he had defiled", H2930A) — piel perfect, third person masculine singular; the perfect aspect marks the defilement as an already-completed action prior to the sons' response.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence structure places two finite narrative verbs in sequence: va-ya'anu ("and they answered", H6030B) and va-yedabberu ("and they spoke", H1696G), both governed by the subject bene Ya'aqov ("sons of Jacob", H1121A + H3290). The direct objects — Shechem (H7927H) and Hamor his father (H2544 + H0001G with suffix H9023) — are marked twice with the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853), once for each name joined by ve- ("and", H9002). The adverbial phrase be-mirmah ("with deceit", H4820) sits between the object phrase and the second verb va-yedabberu, syntactically it can modify either or both of the two speech-verbs, since Hebrew word order places it right before the second one while following the first.
The clause introduced by asher ("that/because", H0834A) reports the defilement of Dinah (H1783) using the piel perfect tim·me' ("he had defiled", H2930A), the perfect aspect indicating this act preceded the sons' speech act — it functions as the stated grounds for their deceptive answer, with achotam ("their sister", H0269 + suffix H9028) closing the verse by identifying Dinah's relation to the speakers.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew presents two verbs, ya'anu ("answered") and yedabberu ("spoke"), while the LXX renders these as ἀπεκρίθησαν ("answered") and ἐλάλησαν αὐτοῖς ("spoke to them"), adding the pronoun "to them" not present as a separate word in the Hebrew clause. The Vulgate diverges further, rendering the second verb not as "spoke" but as sævientes ("raging/being fierce"), a participle describing the sons' emotional state rather than a speech act, and shifts ob stuprum ("because of the outrage") to a causal prepositional phrase rather than a relative clause with a finite verb as in the Hebrew asher tim·me'.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.