Sex, Scandal, Intrigue, a Plotted Revenge, and a Massacre

Good evening from a cool Panhandle. The weather can't seemed to make up its mind, cold one day windy the next and then Spring like weather the next. Oh well that's Oklahoma for you.

There is scandal, intrigue, a plotted revenge, and massacre. It sounds like a book from the New York's Best Seller list doesn't it? But no we are talking about Jacobs family. Again I direct your attention to trouble in this family. In the families of Abraham and Isaac there were only two sons, but that was trouble enough. Poor Jacob has eleven sons at this particular time and only one daughter. It is a mathematical certainty that if a few children cause a little trouble then many children will cause more trouble. This chapter and chapter 38 are among the blackest in Genesis and they concern the children of Jacob. Are the works of the flesh in Jacobs youth now begin to bear the fruit of corruption in his later years?

CHAPTER 34 AT A GLANCE

I. Dinah dishonored v. 1-5.

II. A treaty of marriage between her and Shechem who had defiled her v. 6-19.

III. The circumcision of the Shechemites, pursuant to that treaty v. 20-24.

IV. The perfidious and bloody revenge which Simeon and Levi took upon them (v. 25-31.

(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

1. DINAH'S DISHONOR (vv. 1-5)

Genesis 34:1-5

34:1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."

5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.

Though freed from foreign troubles, Jacob met with a great domestic calamity in the fall of his only recorded daughter. Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, made a disastrous visit to the near-by city of Shechem. Some commentators think that Dinah was about thirteen year old when she went out to visiting. The Jewish doctors of a later period fix the marriageable age of a female at twelve years and a day. The immature girl had no background of spiritual understanding to sustain her in her hour of need. It is highly probable that she had been often and freely mixing in the society of the place. According to Josephus, she had been attending a festival; and had been flattered by the attentions of the ruler's son.

"Shekem." This name is hereditary in the family, and had taken hold in the locality before the time of Abraham. The Hivite was a descendant of Kenaan. We find this tribe now occupying the district where the Kenaanite was in possession at a former period (Gen 12:6). Shechem, fell desperately in love with her, and soon the tragic consequences were known in Jacob's family. Hebrew (laqah), took (v. 2), indicates that an irresistible force was used. The word ana, defiled (AV), indicates dishonorable treatment. The poor girl was ruined. Immediately Shechem spoke to the heart (v. 3) of the distressed one he had wronged, seeking to console her. He loved her and wanted her for his wife.

2. JACOB HELD HIS PEACE (VV. 6-7)

Genesis 34:6-7

6 Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter--a thing that should not be done.

Jacob, as a father and a good man, must have been deeply distressed. But he could do little. In the case of a family by different wives, it was not the father, but the full brothers, on whom the protection of the daughters falls. They are the guardians of a sister's welfare and the avengers of her wrongs. It was because of this Simeon and Levi, the two brothers of Dinah by Leah, appear the chief actors in this episode. Good men in such a case could not help but grieve; however it would have been better if the anger of Dinah's brothers had been restrained, or that they had known the saying, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." No injury can justify revenge.

Though the two fathers would have probably brought about an amicable arrangement of the affair, the hasty arrival of these enraged brothers, who came home while Hamor was conversing with Jacob (cf. Gen 34:6 with Gen 34:8), introduced a new element into the negotiations.

Jacob's sons, when they heard of the injury done to Dinah, showed a great resentment over it. It is a good chance that the brothers were influenced more by jealousy for the honor of their family than by a sense of virtue. It has been written that many are concerned at the shamefulness of sin that never lay to heart the sinfulness of it. And so Jacob's sons planned a scheme of revenge of the most grievous manner.

Simeon and Levi seem to have regarded the wrong done to their sister not simply as a private injury or domestic calamity, but as an humiliation of such an unforgettable a nature as to affect not only the honor merely, but the very existence of Jacob's house, for Israel was not yet a people, but a family only. Isn't funny or sad how dishonor done to the chosen family appeares in their eyes a graver offense, a greater crime, than if inflicted on any other.

Hamor came to treat with Jacob himself, but he turns him over to his sons; and here we have a particular account of the treaty, in which, it is a shame to say, the Canaanites were more honest than the Israelites.

Genesis 34:8-12

8 But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it."

11 Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 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 girl as my wife."

Shechem is deeply in love with Dinah; he was willing to meet any terms to have have her, v. 11, 12. His father not only consents, but solicits for him, and gravely insists upon the advantages that would follow from the union of the families, v. 9, 10. He shows no jealousy of Jacob, though he was a stranger, but rather an earnest desire to settle a association with him and his family, making him that generous offer, The land shall be before you, trade you therein.

Jacob's sons pretend to insist upon a coalition in religion, when really they wanted nothing less. If Jacob had taken the management of this affair into his own hands, it is probable that he and Hamor would soon have concluded it. But Jacob's sons contemplate only revenge, and a strange guise they had for obtaining it. The Shechemites had to be circumcised for “religious reasons”; yea, right it had nothing to do with making them holy (they never intended that), it was to make them sore so that they would become an easier prey to their swords.

Genesis 34:13-24

13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go."

18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. 21 "These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us."

24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

The pretense should have been specious. It was the honor of Jacob's family that they used as a pretense, as a token of God's covenant with them; and it would be a disgrace to them if those who wanted to enter into such a strict “family” alliance remained uncircumcised (v. 14); and so, if you will be circumcised, then we will become one people with you, v. 15, 16. Had Simeon and Levi been sincere in their proposal of these terms they would have commendable. However the intention was totally malicious, as appears by the rest of the story; all they really wanted was to prepare them for the day of slaughter. Note, Bloody designs have often been covered, and carried on, with a pretense of religion.

3. SIMEON AND LEVI ATTACK (vv. 25-29)

Genesis 34:24-29

24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.

After the Shekemites were circumcised Simeon and Levi led an attack on the city. Jacob's sons cut down all the men while they were incapacitated for fighting, and took away their families and possessions. In the history of the patriarch's family, it is a sordid chapter of cruelty, and disgrace.

When the inflammation was at the height, and a fever resulted rendering the person utterly helpless, that was time chosen by Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, and the sons of Jacob for their per-meditated revenge. Now they seem to have broken loose from every restraint, and to have allowed a wild spirit of ferocity to be taken. Probably assisted by that portion of the servants which helped them to take care of the flock, and being in no danger of meeting with resistance, they killed all the males. Great as the provocation was, and it certainly was very great, this was an act of unparalleled treachery and cruelty.

Simeon and Levi try to justify the retribution which they had led on the Shekemites for this and all their other crimes. But nothing could justify them taking the law like this into their own hands, or proceeding by fraud and indiscriminate slaughter. The use of circumcision, too, which was the sign of the covenant of grace, as a means of deception, was a heinous indictment to their offense.

4. JACOBS RESPONSE (vv. 30-31)

Genesis 34:30-31

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."

31 But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"

Simeon and Levi alone, with their retainers, had been the guilty actors in the bloody tragedy. But the Canaanites might not be discriminating in their vengeance; and if all the Shechemites were put to death for the offence of their chief's son, what wonder if the natives should extend their hatred to all the family of Jacob?

(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

God's chosen people in His holy land had behaved like cruel pagans. Poor old Jacob was distressed. He reminded his sons that they had made it difficult for him to keep the good will of the neighboring peoples. His attitude while not necessarily that of a man of faith was understandable. Was his fears well founded? Yes. Was it selfishness on Jacob's part in worrying about himself and his family? While some might disagree with me, I don't think so. At least one commentator believes he was needlessly worrying after all he was God's chosen leader. You know the Israelites are God's chosen people, but that has not kept them from suffering at the hands of their enemies. Okay, I know that Jacob did not rebuke his sons for their unspeakable cruelty, and he didn't seem to express sorrow because God's honor had been poorly represented.

Jacob had spent twenty years in Laban's land, and now probably another ten years at Succoth and Shechem. He may not have done anything noteworthy to prepare his family spiritually for the things life would throw at them, but is that wrong? We are to:

6 Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it. 

                                                      - Proverbs 22:6

There is nothing in that verse that says our training or raising of our children has to be noteworthy, it just has to be Godly. Had Jacob been too busy building a material empire and gaining worldly advantage to attend to his children's ethical and spiritual foundations? I don't know, he could have been or he could have been just trying to provide for his family. Now don't get me wrong, Jacob messed up in the way he handled this whole thing from the get-go. But let's not put more blame on him than he deserves. He had yet to reach Bethel. Would it be too late for Dinah and Simeon and Levi and all the others? The story could make even a strong man wring his hands and weep.