DINA (Heb. Dīnāh). — Daughter of the patriarch Giacobbe, born to him by Lia (Gen. 30:21) while he was in Mesopotamia. In Palestine, in the region of Sichem, D., who must have been very young, was abducted and raped by Sichem, son of the local king Hemor the Hivite, while she was wandering alone through the foreign city.
When the abductor asked for her in marriage, she was granted to him by her father Giacobbe and by her brothers. Two of them, however (Simeone and Levi), carried out, in the most cruel and treacherous manner, a merciless vengeance against Sichem and against all the men of the city (Gen. 34). This aroused the indignation of Giacobbe, who, even before his death, recalled the grim episode (Gen. 49:5–6). A rabbinic legend identifies her with the wife of Giobbe.