And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Ver. 1. Went out to see the daughters of the land.] Who went abroad at this time, with timbrels, to play, say the Hebrews; kept a solemn feast, saith Josephus. Hence Dinah's desire to see them. But what saith St Bernard? Si tu otiose spectas, otiose non spectaris: tu curiose spectas, sed curiosius spectaris. Dinah's wanton gadding, and gazing on others, gave occasion to the adulterer to look and lust after her. See the fruit of her needless getting abroad to see fashions and novelties. The name of a virgin, in the original tongues, a is derived from the house hiding; shadow; locked treasure; apple of the eye: to teach them to refrain ill company, and idle gadding. Young women are taught "to be keepers at home". Tit 2:5 As when they come abroad among men, they must be, if not veiled, as at Venice, yet clothed, and in their right minds, as that demoniac in Luke 8:35. And this not only in winter, that they take no cold; but in the summer, that others take no heat from them, - which may rather burn them, than warm them, - as Shechem here did.
a בתולת; of בת a house; עלמה; of עלם to hide; טליתא; of טלל to shadow. Pαρθενος; of παραθειναι, to lay up. Kορη, a virgin, and the apple of thc eye.