Smoodock's Blog

Dinah is the daughter of Leah, the eldest daughter of Laban. She is first mentioned after Leah had borne Jacob six sons (Genesis 30:20). There it is said: “Afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah” (Genesis 30:21). Clearly, she bore her six sons in Haran, but the afterward in the next verse leaves the time and place of Dinah’s birth in doubt. Was she born in Haran or Canaan? There is no mention of Dinah, as Jacob prepared to meet his brother, Esau, in Mt. Gilead: “And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok” (Genesis 32:22). So, was Dinah born in Haran? Was Leah pregnant with her, while she traveled with Jacob to Canaan? Was Dinah conceived and born sometime afterward? The matter of the time and place of her birth is pure conjecture. We simply don’t know, so how old can she be, when the text finally mentions her in Genesis 34?

First of all, we need to understand that Jacob’s sons were young men in Genesis 33, old enough to care for Jacob’s herds and flocks (Genesis 34:5). Not only so, but they were old enough to participate in a treaty with a tribe of the Canaanites (Genesis 34:13-17). Moreover, if what I have concluded below is true, then Jacob’s youngest sons would have been 17 years old, and eight of his sons would have been old enough to bear arms, according to modern standards. Although the text seems to reveal that only Simeon and Levi were “…bold and slew all the males” (Genesis 34:25), verse-27 implies all of the sons of Jacob participated in the looting. The point of all this is that Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son was only about 12 years old when he left Haran, after Jacob had served Leban for twenty years (cp. Genesis 31:41).[1]

If we conclude that the events of Genesis 34 must occur prior to Isaac’s death (Genesis 35:27-29), then Ruban couldn’t have been more than 35 years old and Joseph would have been 29.[2] However, Joseph appeared before Pharoah, when he was 30 years old (Genesis 41:46), and the events of Genesis 39 to 41 seem to have taken longer than one year. Therefore, Joseph was in Egypt, when Isaac died, and Reuben would have had to have been younger than 35 years old when the events of Genesis 34 occurred. How much younger is anyone’s guess. However, the context seems to point to Joseph being about 17 years old (Genesis 37:2), when he brought the bad report of his brothers to Jacob. Not long afterward, he was sold into Egypt (Genesis 37:26-28).

Keeping in mind that the ages of Jacob’s sons at the time of the events of Genesis 34 are still conjecture, Ruben would have been 23 years old. This would put Simeon’s age at 22, and both Levi and Dan would have been 21 years old. Judah would have been 20, while Naphtali would have been 19, putting Issachar and Gad at about 18 years of age. Therefore, Zebulun, Asher and Joseph would have been 17 years old, when their sister Dinah was defiled. The slaying of Shechem seems to have been a rash act, committed by very young and inexperienced men. While these ages for Jacob’s sons fit such rashness, their ages are still conjecture. However, such deeds done by these men do not favor men in their thirties and late twenties. Finally, if these guesses are close to being correct, then their sister Dinah, being at least 6 years younger than Joseph, must have been about 11 years old, assuming she was born in the Land of Canaan.

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[1] If Reuben was born during the first year of Jacob’s marriage with Leah (Genesis 29:32), as seems to be the case, and Joseph was newborn just after Jacob’s 14-year contract with Leban was completed, then there could be only six years difference between Reuben and Joseph. Reuben would have been born during Jacob’s 8^th year in Haran, and Jospeh the 14^th year. Thus, if Jacob journeyed to Haran at the age of 77, Reuben would have been born when Jacob was 85 years old and Joseph, when Jacob was 91 years old.

[2] Jacob was 60 years younger than Isaac (Genesis 25:26), and he was about 85 years old at the birth of Ruben. Isaac died 35 years later at the age of 180.