20-23 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public square and spoke to the town council: “These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle down here and make themselves at home; there’s plenty of room in the country for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage. But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as they themselves are. This is a very good deal for us—these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we’re going to get our hands on it. So let’s do what they ask and have them settle down with us.”

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21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it;(A) the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.(B) 22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised,(C) as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours?(D) So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.(E)

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