Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Genesis 34:1) And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
In the last chapter, Jacob had bought a parcel of land near Shechem. At least a few years have passed, because when Jacob first settled in the land, Dinah couldn't have been more than a little girl, as she was the eleventh child born in the 13 years he lived with his wives after he served the first seven years for them. Now Dinah was surely a young woman in her teens. It looks like she had some curiosity about the other girls of the land, and went out to see for herself. I suppose something could be said here about the "wisdom" of youth, and why Jacob's young daughter should have been more supervised and protected and not allowed to venture out by herself.
(2) And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
Shechem was the person for whom the land of Shechem was named. It would seem that his father Hamor was king of the country and named the place after his son, who was prince. Shechem saw Dinah on the occasion that she ventured out in the land. It looks as if he may have taken her forcibly and lay with her.
(3) And his soul cleaved to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke kindly to the damsel. (4) And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this damsel as wife."
It looks as if Shechem sincerely loved Dinah, but he had taken her by force. He spoke kindly to her which may mean he spoke sweet nothings, or maybe he was trying to calm her and gain her affection after he had raped her. Either way, he loved Dinah and he told his father the king to get her for his wife.
(5) And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; now his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they came. (6) And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.
Apparently Jacob heard the news about his daughter, but did not act on it immediately. His sons were out in the field and he held his peace until they had come. Meanwhile, Hamor the father of Shechem went to speak to Jacob, surely about the affair with Dinah and to get his consent for his son to marry her.
(7) And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and they were very angry, because he had done wickedness in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done.
The sons of Jacob came out of the field, either because they heard the discussion between Hamor and Jacob, or because they had also heard the news, as Jacob had, about their sister. They were upset and very angry. The original translation was that they were angry because Shechem had "wrought folly" in Israel. "Folly" doesn't seem a strong enough translation of the original word "nebalah". It means "foolishness" or "senselessness", but when spoken of morally, it means "wickedness" or "villainy". At this time, Israel is not the name of a place, but the name of Jacob, so this must be translated as "in Israel's land". However, since Moses is the one who presumably wrote this account later, he may have written "in Israel" as he viewed Israel as not only a place, but a church and a people.
(8) And Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; I pray you give her to him as wife. (9) And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you. (10) And you will dwell with us, and the land will be before you; dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it."
Hamor appears to be very sincere when he spoke with Jacob and his sons. He told them that his son loved Dinah and he asked their permission that she become his wife. Not only Dinah, but he asked that they all dwell together and intermarry. As king, he offered the family of Jacob to dwell and trade and prosper in his land. Hamor seems very sincere and generous. He obviously offered these things in an attempt to gain approval for his son to marry Dinah, but he appears upfront, honest, and honorable.
(11) And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find grace in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. (12) Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you will say to me; but give me the damsel as a wife."
Now Shechem, who had apparently come with his father to speak to Jacob, spoke for himself. He also seems sincere in asking for favor, which surely required forgiveness for what he had done to Dinah. He offered to give Jacob and his sons whatever they asked for dowry and gifts for the hand of Dinah.
(13) And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.
We are told that what the sons of Jacob were about to say was deceitful. Once again, we find the people of God acting deceitfully! Although this looks to be not Jacob himself, but his sons, it appears they may have learned the deceitful ways of their father and of their grandfather, Laban. They may have felt that they were justified because of what Shechem had done to their sister, but these pagans did not have the same values as Jacob and his family supposedly had. In this case, the pagans may have been more sincere and honest than Jacob's sons!
This may be a good place to insert a general synopsis of Jacob's life given by John Nelson Darby in his Synopsis of the Old and New Testaments. At the time of Jacob's wrestling with the angel of God, I suppose I was giving Jacob a little more benefit of the doubt than does Darby, with regard to the desire of his heart being to follow God. Again, I will say that I realize these are Jacob's sons and not Jacob himself, but since deceitfulness always seems to be a part of this family, this seems a good time to refect on Darby's opinion of the life of Jacob. He sees the wrestling with God as the dealings of God with a soul that does not walk with Him. He contrasts the relationship of God and Abraham with the relationship of God and Jacob. With Abraham, who was called a friend of God, there was a calm communion with God, where Abraham interceded for others, instead of a wrestling with God for himself. Even after Jacob wrestled with the angel and received the blessing, he appeared to be deceitful when he said he would go to his brother in Seir, a brother who was most sincere and loving, but there was no evidence that he ever did. Now his sons acted deceitfully to Hamor and Shechem who appear to be sincere and honest.
To continue Darby's thought, God was still dealing with Jacob. Jacob thought about God, but really wasn't in proper communion with Him. But God was with Jacob anyway. Jacob constantly had to live with the consequences of his actions, but God blessed him through it all. What a hope this should give us. Don't we often do things our way, the hard way, instead of giving it all to God, and doing it His way? Do we not wrestle with God? This is a beautiful picture of the love and mercy of God for His imperfect and selfish children. God does show mercy for us, but if we could learn to live His way and be in communion with Him, our lives would be much more peaceful and calm.
(14) And they said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. (15) But in this we will consent to you, if you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, (16) Then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. (17) But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone."
The brothers of Dinah told Hamor and Shechem that they could not intermix with uncircumcised people, but if they agreed to become circumcised, they would agree to become one people. We have already been told that this was a deceitful statement. But how reasonable and sincere it sounded! That makes it all the more terribly deceitful and wrong. It would be one thing to speak in sarcasm and to be honest about their anger, but these comments appear to come from the heart; they are obviously trying to gain the trust of Shechem and that seems so much more wicked than just laying their honest feelings out for Hamor and Shechem to see.
(18) And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. (19) And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was more honorable than all the household of his father.
Indeed, Hamor and Shechem believed and trusted what the sons of Jacob had told them, and Shechem did not delay in getting circumcised and in encouraging the rest of the men to do the same, as revealed in the next verses. Verse 19 states that Shechem was honorable, at least more honorable than all the others in his father's household. Even though he had done a terrible thing in raping Jacob's daughter, he sought to marry her, and do anything requested of him to make up for the injury he had caused, and he seems honest and honorable in keeping his side of their covenant by acting on it immediately.
(20) And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying, (21) "These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for indeed the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. (22) Only in this will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. (23) Will not their cattle, their possessions, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us." (24) And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
Shechem and his father encouraged all the men of the city to do as Jacob's sons asked. They convinced them that they were peaceable and that it would be ultimately to their advantage to become as one people with them. All the men consented and were circumcised as requested by their king and his son.
(25) And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. (26) And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out.
From what I have read, evidently the third day after circumcision was the worst--the pain was at its worst, the part was most inflamed, and the person was even feverish at this point. With such pain and inflammation in that area of the body, and even in the entire body as fever would make the person weak and hurt all over, they were not that aware of their surroundings in the first place, and were not able to defend themselves once they were aware of what was going on. Simeon and Levi came easily into the city and killed all the adult males, as we are told later that they took all the little children captive. They also killed Shechem and Hamor, and took Dinah from Shechem's house.
(27) The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. (28) They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, and what was in the city and what was in the field, (29) And all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives they took captive, and they plundered even all that was in the houses.
Not only did they kill all the men, but they plundered the city, and took all their livestock, all the women and children, and took all their possessions.
(30) And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house."
Jacob was not happy with what Simeon and Levi had done. He feared he would be considered abominable and hated by all the people round about them. He and his family, being a small number of people in the land, would be easy prey to the Canaanites who could easily have destroyed them over this thing if it was not for God's promise to protect Jacob.
(31) And they said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?"
Simeon and Levi felt perfectly justified in their actions because of what Shechem had done to their sister. They may have even felt that Jacob had not shown the proper regard for his daughter's honor, and they had to take matters into their own hands. It might have been more easily understood if it had been Jacob who had said that the men must be circumcised and that they could then become one with his people, and then Jacob's sons who would have no part of it, then killed the men. But this was premeditated murder on the part of Simeon and Levi. They intentionally gained the trust of Shechem and Hamor and then took advantage of the men in their weakened state, and killed an entire people because of the actions of one. The act cannot be excused, and in fact, when Jacob blessed his sons near the end of his life, he recalled this event and cursed their anger and their cruel wrath.
As I reflect on this chapter, I am first grateful that I and my entire family do not have to be perfect in order to receive the love, mercy, salvation, and blessings of my Lord! The Bible is full of imperfect and sinful people; many seem much worse than we could imagine, and yet we see how God could love and forgive and bless those who tried to follow Him. That should give us hope!
I also think about how some people use incidents like this in the Bible to refute the whole book. They claim the Bible is full of sex and violence and murder, so why would you want such a God? But this is exactly the thing that should make the unprejudiced reader realize that the Bible is true. It is historical fact, no matter how messy and imperfect. If the Bible were the fabricated book that atheists try to tell us it is, would not the fabricators have used less embarrassing examples of God's people? It is because these things actually happened, that they are recorded in the Bible, as messy as they are. Once again, it should give us great hope, and also great confidence that the Bible is true.
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