John Calvin Commentary Genesis 30:21

John Calvin Commentary

Genesis 30:21

1509–1564
Protestant
John Calvin
John Calvin

John Calvin Commentary

Genesis 30:21

1509–1564
Protestant
SCRIPTURE

"And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah." — Genesis 30:21 (ASV)

And afterward she bare a daughter. It is not known whether Jacob had any other daughter. For it is not uncommon in Scripture, when genealogies are recorded, to omit women, since they do not bear their own name but are often unmentioned, remaining in the shadow of their husbands.

Meanwhile, if anything worthy of commemoration occurs to any women, special mention is then made of them. This was the case with Dinah, on account of the violence done to her, of which more will be said later.

But since the sons of Jacob subsequently regarded it as an indignity that their sister should marry someone from another nation, and as Moses records nothing of any other daughters, either as being settled in the land of Canaan or married in Egypt, it is probable that Dinah was the only one born to him.