Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 1. And Dinah-went out to see the daughters of the land.] It is supposed that Jacob had been now about seven or eight years in the land, and that Dinah, who was about seven years of age when Jacob came to Canaan, was now about fourteen or fifteen. Why or on what occasion she went out we know not, but the reason given by Josephus is very probable, viz., that it was on one of their festivals.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-19 - Young persons, especially females, are never so safe and well off a under the care of pious parents. Their own ignorance, and the flatter and artifices of designing, wicked people, who are ever laying snare for them, expose them to great danger. They are their own enemies in they desire to go abroad, especially alone, among strangers to tru religion. Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged children, lik Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretenc was, to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and ho they danced, and what was fashionable among them; she went to see, ye that was not all, she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintanc with the Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of Dinah' gadding. The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. Ho great a matter does a little fire kindle! We should carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it.
Original Hebrew ותצא3318 דינה1783 בת1323 לאה3812 אשׁר834 ילדה3205 ליעקב3290 לראות7200 בבנות1323 הארץ׃776
