And when Shechem the son of Hamor,.... From whom the city had its name, near which Jacob and his family now were:
the Hivite, prince of the country; Hamor was an Hivite, which was one of the nations of the land of Canaan, and this man was the prince or a principal man of that nation, as well as of Shechem. Josephus c calls him a king: when the son of this man
saw her; that is, Dinah, what a beautiful person she was, and was enamoured with her:
he took her: by force, as the Targum of Jonathan:
and lay with her, and defiled her; or "humbled" or "afflicted her" d; and it is a rule with the Jews, that every such act, which is done by force, is called an humiliation and affliction e: the child begotten in this act of fornication is said f by them to be Asenath, who was had into Egypt, and brought up by Potipherah's wife as her daughter, and afterwards married to Joseph, Genesis 41:45.
c Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 21. sect. 1.) d ויענה, και εταπεινωσεν αυτην, Sept. & afflixit eam, Pagninus, Montanus. e Gerundensis apud Munster, & Drusium in loc. f Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 33. fol. 42. 2.)