Levi was a son of Jacob. He was the third-born, and his mother was Jacob’s wife Leah. Levi and each of his eleven brothers became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Bible does not give many details of Levi’s life; however, in Genesis 34, Levi and his brother Simeon defend the honor of their sister, Dinah, although the manner in which they went about it was appalling. This is what happened: when Dinah was away from her father’s house one day, she was raped by Shechem, the son of the Hivite ruler of that territory (verse 2). When Dinah’s brothers heard about the rape, they were furious. Shechem, who desired Dinah as his wife, asked for Dinah’s hand, so Dinah’s brothers tricked him and said that first he, his father, and the other men of the city must be circumcised (verse 15).