Genesis 34:1-18 NKJV 34 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her. 3 His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing which ought not to be done. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. 10 So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.”
11 Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, “Let me find favor 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 say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.”
13 But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 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 on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, 16 then we will 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 heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.”
18 And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.
Of the fifty chapters in the book of Genesis, there are only three that say nothing about the LORD God. This is the first of those three, and it is, indeed, a God-less chapter.
After his encounter with Esau, it appears that Jacob did not go immediately to see his parents in the south. Instead, he stopped along the way and tried to make a home for his family in the north, in the land of the Hivites. There a terrible crime was committed against his daughter Dinah by Shechem, the son of the Hivite ruler.
Without expressing any remorse, Shechem and his father approached Jacob with a wedding proposal. More than that, it was a proposal to absorb Jacob’s whole family into the Hivite community through more intermarriages in the future.
Sadly, Israel apparently left the negotiations up to his young sons. The sons of Israel, for their part, stricken with grief and understandably angry over the mistreatment of their sister, turned to deceit against the Hivites and blasphemy against God in how they treated the sacred sign of circumcision. Instead of turning to God for guidance, instead of seeking a God-pleasing solution, they ignored God entirely. They were determined to get vengeance. The rest of their God-less actions will be recounted in tomorrow’s reading.
We’re beginning to see that, for the most part, the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel were not godly men. That will become even more evident in the coming chapters. And yet God chose this family to receive His Word, to bear His name, and to become the earthly family of His eternal Son. The sons of Israel are a testament to the fact that human beings are lost creatures, and that God’s salvation has always been and will always be by grace alone. But Christians can also learn from their shameful example here, so that we do not allow anger, even righteous anger, to lead us into committing sins that will bring shame upon the name of our God. Let us pray: Father in heaven, forgive us for seeking our own will instead of Yours, and for ignoring You and Your will when others offend us. We renounce all deceit, and we abandon all vengeance, trusting that vengeance belongs to You alone. Amen.