1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land;
Dinah, representing this feminine element, went out and mingled with the daughters of the land, who were Hivites. The Hivites were descended from Canaan, son of Ham, and represent the physical and carnal qualities in the individual.
2 and when Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.
Any unlawful relationship of thoughts or elements results in a heavy, burdensome, attitude of mind (Shechem). Hamor represents a central or ruling thought (he was a Hivite prince) in the carnal consciousness of man.
3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; he loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her.
The name Dinah means "justified," "avenged." Dinah represents the soul side of or the feminine element in the judgment faculty in man, which may be called intuition, the intuition of the natural man. The thought of vengeance that is suggested in the name always comes to the natural man in the process of judging; he is more likely to discern the error side of a proposition than the true side.
4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this maiden for my wife."
5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.
6 And Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it; and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had wrought folly in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.
Shechem (burden-bearing thoughts), representing a belief in the reality of the material and physical, sought to make his relationship with Dinah (feminine, intuitional element) permanent. When Jacob's sons (the offspring of the illumined intellect) discovered the unholy state of affairs they were naturally grieved and angered.
8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; I pray you, give her to him in marriage.
9 Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
10 You shall dwell with us; and the land shall be open to you; dwell and trade in it, and get property in it."
11 Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.
12 Ask of me ever so much as marriage present and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; only give me the maiden to be my wife."
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
14 They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.
15 Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male of you be circumcised.
16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people.
17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone."
18 Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem.
19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,
21 "These men are friendly with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters in marriage, and let us give them our daughters.
22 Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.
23 Will not their cattle, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us."
24 And all who went out of the gate of his city hearkened to Hamor and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
25 On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came upon the city unawares, and killed all the males.
26 They slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.
27 And the sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled;
28 they took their flocks and their herds, their asses, and whatever was in the city and in the field;
29 all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey.
The thought of judgment and punishment that is suggested in the name Dinah is carried out in the action of Simeon and Levi in taking vengeance for Dinah's disgrace on Shechem and his people. As man becomes more spiritual in his ideas of judgment, thoughts of revenge, punishment, and evil are eliminated from his mind and he sees the love, mercy, and goodness of YHVH instead. However, in cases like what was done to Dinah, Revenge is justified. In fact, the Bible has several prayers designed specifically to invoke Divine Retribution against others for wrongs they've committed. Psalm 109 is one such example. And invoking such, "revenge" in no way makes the practitioner any less spiritual or righteous.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household."
The Perizzites were inhabitants of Canaan and, like the Canaanites, represent the fundamental life element in the organism, only elevated to a more exalted plane by the outer, personal man and more strongly entrenched in the material consciousness of the individual.
31 But they said, "Should he treat our sister as a harlot?"
The whole purpose of Jacob (illumined intellect) in penetrating down into the city of Shechem (materiality) in the land of Canaan (the physical and carnal) was to lay hold of new vigor, vitality and substance. Dinah represents the intuitive, natural judgment that determines virtue and law in the physical. When this intuitive natural judgment is united with sense it loses its protective integrity, which is resented by the related faculties on that plane of consciousness (Dinah's brothers).