When Shechem son of Hamor
the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. His
heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young girl (NAAR) and
spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get
me this girl (NAAR) as my wife." (Genesis 34:2-4)
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Shechem raped Dinah when
she was 8 years old and also married her.
ותדבק נפשו בדינה, “His soul became attached to Dinah.” At that time Dinah waseight years and one month old. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 72,6)
arrive at this conclusion by assuming that Leah’s prayer... that her fetus
should be a girl wasoffered
when she was in a
state of advanced pregnancy. Dinah was born before Joseph as the
Torah mentions Rachel as becoming pregnant after her birth. Joseph was...
Joseph seven and a half years old at that time. Dinah was seven
months older than he (Joseph was born at the end of a seven month pregnancy) so
that made Dinah eight
years and one month when she was raped.
(Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 34:3:1)
whats fascinating is Jacob did not object his 8 year old raped daughter to get married to her rapist. though her brothers were against it purely out of vengeance, the fact Jacob had no objection says a lot. this is why we find such commandment given by Yahweh where the rapist marries his victim
“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this wife, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ then the father of the young girl (NAAR) and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. And the father of the young girl (NAAR) shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him, and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young girl (NAAR), because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young girl, then they shall bring out the young girl (NAAR) to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:13-21)
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The Hebrew word used for girl is NAAR. This command seems to indicate “child marriage” was a common practice with the Jews. Notice how the bible emphasises this command on a little girl NAAR. What’s embarrassing about this command is, if this NAAR (little girl) is accused her father must finger her and expose her virginity publicly. such a command cannot be justified, but one thing we know is child marriage was no exception it was a common practice done by the Jews of ancient times
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