12 Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.
12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife."
12 Ask me for as great a bride price
12 Set the bridal price as high as you will - the sky's the limit! Only give me this girl for my wife."
12 Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife."
12 No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will gladly pay it-just give me the girl as my wife."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 34:12
Commentary on Genesis 34:1-19
(Read Genesis 34:1-19)
Young persons, especially females, are never so safe and well off as under the care of pious parents. Their own ignorance, and the flattery and artifices of designing, wicked people, who are ever laying snares for them, expose them to great danger. They are their own enemies if they desire to go abroad, especially alone, among strangers to true religion. Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged children, like Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretence was, to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable among them; she went to see, yet that was not all, she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintance with the Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of Dinah's gadding. The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. How great a matter does a little fire kindle! We should carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it.