Genesis 34:27

Summary

Genesis 34:27 states that the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, giving as the reason (introduced by the relative particle) that their sister had been defiled. The verse marks the transition from the killing (v. 26, Simeon and Levi) to a collective action attributed to "the sons of Jacob."

Key words

• be.Nei ("sons of", H1121A) — construct plural, linking directly to Ya'aqob; grammatically this phrase functions as the subject of both verbs in the verse.
• cha.la.Lim ("slain ones", H2491A) — masculine plural adjective used substantively ("the slain"), preceded by the definite article, referring back to the men killed in the preceding narrative.
• va.yyaVozzu ("and they plundered", H0962) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking sequential action ("and then they plundered"), continuing the main storyline after Ba'u ("they came").
• timme'u ("they had defiled", H2930A) — piel perfect, an intensive stem conveying a completed, forceful act of defilement, introduced by the relative particle 'asher ("that/who").
• 'achota-m ("their sister", H0269 + H9028) — singular noun with construct form and third-person masculine plural suffix, referring to the sister shared by "them" (the sons of Jacob).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential qal/narrative verbs — Ba'u ("they came") and va.yyaVozzu ("and they plundered") — both governed by the same subject, be.Nei Ya'aqob ("the sons of Jacob"). The first verb uses a simple perfect, describing an already-completed movement toward "the slain" (ha.chalalim), while the second uses the narrative vav construction, which chains the plundering as the next event in sequence. This grammatical linkage presents "coming upon the slain" and "plundering the city" as two connected but distinct actions performed by the same group.

The subordinate clause beginning with 'asher ("that/who") explains the city as "the one that they had defiled" — grammatically referring back to ha.'Ir ("the city"). The verb timme'u is in the piel stem, an intensive form, describing a completed act of defilement. The referent of "they" in timme'u is grammatically ambiguous in the Hebrew consonantal text alone: it could refer to the men of the city or to the sons of Jacob's earlier actions, since the piel perfect plural does not specify by itself which male group is meant. The final word, 'achotam ("their sister"), uses a suffixed construct form, tying the sister explicitly to "them" — the plural referents already established as "the sons of Jacob."

Differences between versions

The LXX names the sister explicitly as Δείναν ("Dinah"), where the Hebrew text simply reads 'achotam ("their sister") without stating her name in this verse. The Vulgate adds the phrase "in ultionem stupri" ("in vengeance for the rape"), an interpretive clause not present in the Hebrew 'asher timme'u 'achotam ("that they had defiled their sister"), which itself contains no explicit vocabulary of vengeance. The Vulgate also inserts "ceteri" ("the other/remaining") before "filii Jacob," a qualifier absent from the Hebrew be.Nei Ya'aqob. Similarly, the SBLIBRE Spanish version renders the clause as "para vengarse por la deshonra de su hermana" ("to avenge the dishonor of their sister"), introducing an explicit notion of vengeance not present in the Hebrew relative clause, which states only a causal fact of defilement.