Genesis 34:2

‘And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. And he took her, and lay with her and humbled her.'

Like many petty princes Shechem was proud and arrogant and considered he did not have to behave as others did. When he saw the tribal girl who aroused his feelings more than any woman had before, he did not think twice about taking her and having his way with her. To him she was simply a ‘stranger' in the land and therefore not very important. It may well be that he felt that by taking her he would render it impossible for her to marry anyone else.

“Humbled her.” That is, changed her status. There is an advancement in thought. First he took her, that is sent his men to fetch her, and then he raped her. And the final result was that she was ‘humbled' and lost her status. She was morally and socially degraded and lost the expectancy of a fully valid marriage. No act to a woman of Dinah's status could have been more cruel. We must recognise this when we consider the passage.

“Hamor the Hivite.” He was clearly the ‘king' of Shechem. We do not know who the Hivites were but they are regularly mentioned as one of the tribes in Canaan. They were possibly connected with the Horites (compare Zibeon in Genesis 36:2 with 36:20-21, and indeed the name may be an alternative rendering, ‘v' instead of ‘r', either as an error in copying or otherwise. The LXX of Genesis 34:2 here and Joshua 9:7 renders Hivite as Horite which may suggest an original different reading).