`Listen to My Voice': Challenging Dinah's Silence in Genesis 34

Abstract

In this article, readers of Genesis 34 are invited to contemplate the narrative from the perspective of Dinah, a literary victim of sexual violence. Throughout this story, much ink is spilled recounting the effects of Dinah's rape upon the men who surround her. In stark contrast, Dinah remains a silent and passive observer to the dramatic events as they unfold. To redress this imbalance, I have appealed to the witness of contemporary rape survivors, in an attempt to give Dinah a voice with which she can recount her experience of sexual violence to the reader. Finally, I give consideration to the importance of such a reading within a contemporary pastoral context.