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Genesis
34:1-31.
THE DISHONOR OF DINAH.
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Verse 1-4. Though freed from
foreign troubles, Jacob met with a great domestic
calamity in the fall of his only daughter. According to
JOSEPHUS, she had been attending a
festival; but it is highly probable that she had been
often and freely mixing in the society of the place and
that she, being a simple, inexperienced, and vain young
woman, had been flattered by the attentions of the
ruler's son. There must have been time and opportunities
of acquaintance to produce the strong attachment that
Shechem had for her.
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Verse 5. Jacob held his
peace --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 is not the
father, but the full brothers, on whom the protection of
the daughters devolves--they are the guardians of a
sister's welfare and the avengers of her wrongs. It was
for this reason that Simeon and Levi, the two brothers
of Dinah by Leah [Genesis
34:25], appear the chief actors in this episode; and
though the two fathers would have probably brought about
an amicable arrangement of the affair, the hasty arrival
of these enraged brothers introduced a new element into
the negotiations.
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Verse 6. Hamor --that is, "ass";
and it is a striking proof of the very different ideas
which, in the East, are associated with that animal,
which there appears sprightly, well proportioned, and of
great activity. This chief is called Emmor (Ac
7:16).
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Verse 7. the men were grieved, and
. . . very wroth --Good men in such a case
could not but grieve; but it would have been well if
their anger had been less, or that they had known the
precept "let not the sun go down upon your wrath" [Eph
4:26]. No injury can justify revenge (De
32:35; Ro 12:9); but Jacob's sons planned a scheme
of revenge in the most deceitful manner.
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Verse 8-10. Hamor communed with
them --The prince and his son seem at first sight to
have acted honestly, and our feelings are enlisted on
their side. They betray no jealousy of the powerful
shepherds; on the contrary, they show every desire to
establish friendly intercourse. But their conduct was
unjustifiable in neither expressing regret nor restoring
Dinah to her family; and this great error was the true
cause of the negotiations ending in so unhappy a
manner.
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Verse 11. Shechem said unto her
father . . . and brethren --The
consideration of the proposal for marriage belonged to
Jacob, and he certainly showed great weakness in
yielding so much to the fiery impetuosity of his sons.
The sequel shows the unhappy consequences of that
concession.
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Verse 12. Ask me never so much
dowry and gift --The gift refers to the presents made
at betrothal, both to the bride elect and her relations
(compare Genesis
24:53), the dowry to a suitable settlement upon
her.
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Verse 13. The sons of Jacob
answered --The honor of their family consisted in
having the sign of the covenant. Circumcision was the
external rite by which persons were admitted members of
the ancient Church. But that outward rite could not make
the Shechemites true Israelites; and yet it does not
appear that Jacob's sons required anything more. Nothing
is said of their teaching the people to worship the true
God, but only of their insisting on their being
circumcised; and it is evident that they did not seek to
convert Shechem, but only made a show of religion--a
cloak to cover their diabolical design. Hypocrisy and
deceit, in all cases vicious, are infinitely more so
when accompanied with a show of religion; and here the
sons of Jacob, under the pretense of conscientious
scruples, conceal a scheme of treachery as cruel and
diabolical as was, perhaps, ever perpetrated.
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Verse 20. Hamor and Shechem
. . . came unto the gate of their
city --That was the place where every public
communication was made; and in the ready obsequious
submission of the people to this measure we see an
evidence either of the extraordinary affection for the
governing family, or of the abject despotism of the
East, where the will of a chief is an absolute
command.
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Verse 30. Jacob said
. . . Ye have troubled me --This atrocious
outrage perpetrated on the defenseless citizens and
their families made the cup of Jacob's affliction
overflow. We may wonder that, in speaking of it to his
sons, he did not represent it as a heinous sin, an
atrocious violation of the laws of God and man, but
dwelt solely on the present consequences. It was
probably because that was the only view likely to rouse
the cold-blooded apathy, the hardened consciences of
those ruffian sons. Nothing but the restraining power of
God saved him and his family from the united vengeance
of the people (compare Genesis
35:5). All his sons had not been engaged in the
massacre. Joseph was a boy, Benjamin not yet born, and
the other eight not concerned in it. Simeon and Levi
alone, with their retainers, had been the guilty actors
in the bloody tragedy. But the Canaanites would not be
discriminating in their vengeance; and if all the
Shechemites were put to death for the offense of their
chief's son, what wonder if the natives should extend
their hatred to all the family of Jacob; and who
probably equalled, in number, the inhabitants of that
village.
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Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic
edition prepared from text scanned by Woodside Bible
Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-Brown
Commentary is in the public domain and may be freely
used and distributed.
Bibliography
Information
Jamieson, Robert,
D.D. "Commentary on Genesis 34". "Commentary Critical and
Explanatory
on the Whole Bible".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/jfb/view.cgi?book=ge&chapter=34>.
1871.
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