This is a chapter that has had quite a bit of analysis thrown at it lately. I imagine feminist interpretations abound.
But it's kind of an interesting story. Dinah (she of the 12 brothers) wanders off in Canaan to hang with the local girls ("daughters of the land"). Shechem, a local prince sees her, takes her, lies with her and ... and here's the trick ... defiles/degrades her.
Now is that rape, per se? Or has he defiled/degraded her by sleeping with her before her family has consented to a marriage? She is, presumably, a valuable property.
Shechem loves her. And he wants to marry her. He asks his dad to set things up.
But we never get to hear Dinah's side of the story. Only her brothers' side of things. Simeon and Levi trick Shechem and the Shechemites. They will have to be circumcized if they wish to marry Israelites. So they AGREE!!!! All the males in Shechem town AGREE!!!!!!
And on the 3rd day of their pain... Here come the bad boys of Israel with thirsty swords. They slaughter the men (who are helpless with the pain of the circumcision) and plunder the women, the children the property.
The text is not approving of this. Shechem is painted as the good guy, and Simeon and Levi as bad guys. Dinah, of course, gets little mention at all.
A few interesting words -- but the best one was in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible. Not content with the modern "whore" that most English translators use in Gen 34.31 they go with "strumpet". Strumpet. What a wonderful word!
The Hebrew is זֺנָה (zonah) which HALOT defines as "woman occasionally or professionally committing fornication". From the verb, zanah, to commit fornication.
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