Dinah, also spelled Dina, in the Old Testament (Genesis 30:21; 34; 46:15), daughter of Jacob by Leah; Dinah was abducted and raped near the city of Shechem, by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite (the Hivites were a Canaanitish people).
Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi pretended to agree to the marriage and the covenant if Shechem and all the other males of the city of Shechem were circumcised.
Shechem, also spelled Shekhem, Canaanite city of ancient Palestine.
From the mid-13th to the mid-11th century bc, Shechem was the site of the cult of the Canaanite god Baʿal-Berit (Lord of the Covenant).
Because Shechem then wished to marry Dinah, Hamor suggested to Jacob that their two peoples initiate a policy of commercial and social intercourse.
Shechem was important in ancient Palestine because of its position in an east-west pass between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (Arabic: Jabal al-Ṭūr and Jabal ʿAybāl, respectively), one of the few such routes in Palestine's hill country.
During the rule of the Hyksos kings of Egypt (16th 17th century bce), Shechem was a strong walled city with a triple gate, a fortress-temple, and an acropolis.
Shechem was at the time a political and religious centre, the importance of which has been perceived more clearly as a result of recent archaeological excavations.
Between Shechem and Bethel he had gone about 31 miles.
To the earliest sanctuaries and altars honoured as patriarchal foundations at Shechem, Bethel, Beersheba, and Hebron in Cisjordan (west of the Jordan); and at Mahanaim, Penuel, and Mizpah in Transjordan (east of the Jordan)—were added new sanctuaries and altars at Dan, Shiloh, Ramah, Gibeon, and elsewhere.
Ancient Shechem (near modern Nāblus), in the centre of Samaria, served as the crossroads and political centre of the region.
