Shechem also said: Shechem was not mentioned as accompanying his father to these negotiations in Gen 34.6. However, it is clear in verse 11 that he is a participant, and in some languages it may be necessary to introduce him as a participant in Gen 34.6. It is also possible to make the situation clear at this point by saying, for example, “Shechem had come with his father, and he now said….”

Shechem’s speech makes a break with what Hamor has been proposing. What the son says goes back to verse 8 and picks up the request to marry Dinah. He shows no interest in his father’s plans for intertribal marriages. He is concerned only for himself.

To her father: that is, “to Dinah’s father, Jacob.”

Let me find favor in your [plural] eyes: see 33.10, 15. Since this is a plea for Jacob and his sons to agree to the marriage proposal, some translations make Shechem say something like “If you agree to my request” or “If you are happy to help me in this matter.”

Whatever you say to me I will give: because of the discontinuity between verse 11 and verses 9-10, it may be necessary to make Shechem’s statement refer more clearly to the marriage proposal. If this is not done in the previous clause, we may say here, for example, “whatever you ask for Dinah I will give it to you” or “ask anything you [plural] want for your [singular] daughter and your [plural] sister and I will give it to you [plural].”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .