And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land: Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation render this as a “when” clause. In some languages it will be more natural to make a complete sentence; for example, “Shechem was the son of Hamor who was a Hivite and ruler of that area.” In some languages it will be more natural to make Hamor the subject of the sentence, seeing that he is the more important person, and the information given is mainly about him: “Now Hamor, who was of the Hivi tribe, and who was the chief of that place, had a son whose name was Shechem.” For Hivite see 10.17. Prince does not refer to the son of a king but to a local leader or chief. In this context it refers to Hamor, not to his son; see Good News Translation “chief of that region.”

Saw her: in this context there is more in the word saw than just seeing with the eyes; as some translations say, this may be expressed as “saw that she was beautiful” or “saw and desired her.”

Seized her and lay with her and humbled her: after seeing Dinah, Shechem is reported to have committed acts of violence against her. For lay with her see the translation suggestions under the subdivision heading. Humbled her translates a verb form meaning to “cause to submit.” When used of a man in relation to a women, it refers to forced sexual relations or rape. See Deut 21.14; 22.24, 29 (“violated”). Lay with her and humbled her is a common Hebrew construction in which two verb clauses are joined to express a single idea. Note that Good News Translation and others use only one expression. Some examples of the way this whole expression is rendered in different languages are “took hold of her and forced her to sleep with him,” “forced her to himself, slept with her, and spoiled her,” “forcefully pulled her and did what was not good to her.”

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 .