Bible Person

Shechem

Meaning: part; portion; back early in the morning · Male · 15 cross references

Shechem is the son of Hamor in the Dinah narrative, a Hivite prince whose desire and wrongdoing trigger one of Genesis' most disturbing episodes of family violence and deceit. He should not be confused with the place of the same name. First appears in Gen 33:18.1

AI summary: Shechem matters because the cross references present him as the human center of the Dinah episode, where sexual violation, negotiation, revenge, and communal bloodshed become tightly entangled. He desires Dinah, seeks marriage, and becomes part of a diplomatic exchange that Simeon and Levi exploit for massacre. The story is not interested in developing him sympathetically, but it does use him to expose the dangers of desire, weak moral response, and retaliatory violence. Taken together, the material presents this Shechem as a troubling figure whose actions become the spark for one of Genesis' darkest family conflicts.1

Central Figure

Shechem

Meaning: part; portion; back early in the morning

The son of Hamor the Hivite (Gen.