Genesis 34:25-29

"And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city unawares, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went forth. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field; and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, took they captive and made a prey, even all that was in the house."

"Dinah's brethren ..." Simeon and Levi were children of Leah, as was also Dinah. Thus, they were her real brothers distinguished from others who were half-brothers.

There is some question as to whether any other of Jacob's sons took part in this episode, Simeon and Levi being the only ones mentioned. The indefinite "sons of Jacob" (Genesis 34:27) could mean that all of Jacob's sons participated in looting and plundering the city. It is one of the things that we can not know. At least it is a reasonable conjecture that Simeon and Levi had some kind of assistance, since two men would not have been able to carry off a whole city. The women alone could have prevented only two men from doing that. Perhaps many of the servants commanded by Jacob's household were recruited for this mission, especially those controlled by Simeon and Levi, and perhaps many others.

The shameful deeds of gross wickedness in evidence here include these:

1. They desecrated the sacred rite of circumcision, making it the means of their brutal cruelty and murder of a whole city.
   
2. They "took" all the wives of the slain, a violation as sinister and damnable as the rape of Dinah, thus multiplying endlessly the very sin they claimed they were avenging.
   
3. They shamelessly backed out of an agreement they themselves had proposed, doing so even after the Shechemites had kept their part of it to the letter.
   
4. Their robbery of all the property and wealth of the city itself, as well as of all that was in the field, was a horrible example of greedy avarice.
   
5. They made a "prey" of women and helpless children, whom they either kept for their own profit and lust, or sold into slavery. Never was there a darker day to cast its shadow over the people of God.
   

"They took Dinah out of Shechem's house ..." This indicates that Dinah was indeed a prisoner in Shechem's house, having been sexually assaulted and confined to his dwelling. The word "took" here is the same one used earlier to describe how Shechem "took" her, meaning that the taking was violent.

"In effect, Simeon and Levi had waged a two-man war against the city of Shechem and had come out completely victorious, at least in their own estimation. They might have even considered their great victory as an evidence of the blessing of God."[19]

Regardless of what they might have thought, however, God was sorely displeased with their wicked behavior, and by inspiration, Israel (Jacob) on his deathbed remembered and reprobated their malicious evil (Genesis 48:5,6).