Genesis 34
Dinah and the Shechemites
34 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechemson of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman 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 did nothing about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in[a] Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
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[b] 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 young woman as my wife.”
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 enter into an agreement with 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 honoredof all his father’s family, 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 the men of their city. 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 agree 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 agree to their terms, 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.
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[c] 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.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious 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?”
This is a hard passage to read in many ways. It shows how Israel’s children are becoming increasingly dysfunctional and out of control. It also shows the challenges that they had living in a land surrounded by other cultures.
This story tells of a young man, Shechem, and Jacob’s grandaughter, Dinah. Most translations say that Shechecm raped Dinah, however that is not necessarily the most accurate translation of the event. The Hebrew says that he ‘took’ her and ‘lay’ with her. This could mean that he took her forcibly, which is what most translators have decided, but it could also mean that he took her away and slept with her before marriage. The crime here is slightly uncertain. However, let’s assume that the translators are correct. In which case this young prince falls in love with a woman and forces her against her will.
Jacob’s sons are indignant. They have started to see themselves as a nation and feel that they are all insulted by the offense. So, they hatch a plan to get revenge. They promise to share their families and intermarry on one condition: that they get circumcised.
The Canaanites agree quickly. In verse 23 we see their true motives, they are looking at Israel’s livestock and possessions and hope that they might be able to take them. However, Simeon and Levi were waiting for them to be at their most vulnerable and they killed every man in the town. That is perhaps 100 men who were all killed. They justified their violence: ‘should we allow them to treat Dinah like a prostitute?’
What do we learn from this mess? Greedy people will always want to take what God has blessed us with? Be careful of mixing too deeply with people who are not of God? Revenge always escalates and leads to greater sins?
For me, the takeaway here is about responsibility and justice. The root of this all starts with Jacob. In yesterday’s reading we saw that Jacob placed Leah’s family in front of of Rachel’s. This was a clear show of priority; if things turned violent Leah’s family would be killed first giving more time for Rachel to escape.
Time and again Jacob has shown that he cares more for Rachel and her family. Jacob does nothing to protect Dinah or to stand up for her. He ignores her attack in a way that would have been unimaginable had she been Rachel’s daughter. His lack of care provokes Simeon and Levi to take matters into their own hands and violence escalates.
I once heard someone say, ‘if you see the problem and do not deal with the problem, you are the problem.’ Jacob’s blind eye to injustice causes the events to escalate and boil over. The blood flows from his apathy.
