Genesis
34:18 ¶ And their words pleased Hamor,
and Shechem Hamor’s son. 19 And the
young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s
daughter: and he was more honourable than all the house of his father. 20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the
gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, 21 These men are peaceable with us; therefore
let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is
large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us
give them our daughters. 22 Only herein
will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every
male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23 Shall not their cattle and their substance
and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will
dwell with us. 24 And unto Hamor and
unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and
every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
Now,
Shechem, the man who assaulted Dinah, is said to be the most honorable man in
his father’s family. This shows you how, by Christian standards, depraved the
Canaanite culture was. He was very fond of Dinah, though, and wanted to ‘do the
right thing’ because of his affection for her and not discard her like garbage
as some cultures of men in America so easily do today. We understand and most
of us accept today that rape is rape and a woman can say, “no,” at any time and
it must be respected or the act is considered a crime. Offering to marry the
girl doesn’t change anything today.
Father
and son encourage the men of their city to make this treaty of peace with
Jacob’s sons and what must have been a rather large army of servants to care
for their flocks. They would have been a formidable force. Hamor and Shechem,
as part of their argument, say that this will signify a union between the
family of Israel and themselves making them both one people.
Jews
and Gentiles (non-Jews) are made one
people at the Cross. Pay attention to Paul’s argument again.
Ephesians
2:14 ¶ For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in
one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were
afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
There
is another hint here at self-interest. Hamor and Shechem want the men of their
city to believe that with this union the wealth of Israel and his sons will be
their wealth as well.
…all that went out of the gate of his
city refers to the residents of the city, in context, the
male residents who held political power. These are the men who could also
defend the city. In this somewhat bizarre agreement based on questionable
thinking on every side all of the men of the city consent to be circumcised.
It
does not say that Jacob’s sons and servants did the circumcision, but it is
certain that Jacob’s sons would have been there to verify that it was done.
This would not have been too strange, as we think of it.
Cultural
standards were much different in the past than in the last century or two. My
point is that people were must less concerned about such things between men in
the past. For instance, the Greeks worked out in their gymnasiums naked and
their athletic events were conducted in the nude. Presumably Hamor and Shechem
did the circumcising as it was the custom for the leaders or priests to perform
the act and we know the king of a city was also its high priest from past
references. First, with Abraham, father to his children and master to his
servants, to Joshua, leader of his people;
Genesis 17:23
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house,
and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s
house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God
had said unto him.
Joshua
5:3 And Joshua made him sharp knives,
and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
The
very idea that the authority of governmental or even tribal leaders extends to
our reproductive organs is appalling to us today. We cannot even imagine it.
Imagine the local mayor or the patriarch of your extended family doing this.
Imagine you letting them. We have relegated such things to doctors or, in the
case of parts of the Jewish culture, a person called a ‘Mohel’ does this.
If
by this point you don’t know what circumcision is you’ll have to look it up. I’m
not going into the grisly details here.
Genesis
34:25 ¶ 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 brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and
slew all the males. 26 And they slew
Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of
Shechem’s house, and went out. 27 The
sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had
defiled their sister. 28 They took their
sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and
that which was in the field, 29 And all
their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and
spoiled even all that was in the house. 30
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to
stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the
Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together
against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. 31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister
as with an harlot?
Simeon
and Levi were the two who did the slaughter. You might assume that they had the
help of their many servants, as Abraham did in his rescue of Lot. The third day is a recurrent thread
throughout the Bible as a significant time elapsing between two things.
On
the third day God created dry land
and plant life, food for man and beast, in Genesis 1. Abraham saw where he
thought he was supposed to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. It on that day that
Laban realized Jacob had escaped in chapter 31. So, while it is hard to connect
these four events as having a relationship with each other we do know that God
separated land from ocean in chapter 1, that God separated Abraham for Himself
in chapter 22 by his willingness to obey, and Jacob’s separation from Laban, a
type of the world and a type of antichrist, was revealed on the third day.
Here, in this chapter, there is no going back. Jacob’s sons will not become
merged with the Canaanites. This act forever seals their separation and the
understanding of them as a dangerous people.
In
this regard the third day shows an
action which separates one from the other, as Christ rises on the third day forever separating His own
people from the fate of unbelieving mankind.
But
here we also see that Simeon and Levi steal the wealth and the families of the
men they’ve killed as plunder. This has not been commanded by God and is
condemned, but not very strongly, by Jacob. Certainly, this city would have
been of no more size than a small town by our standards today but,
nevertheless, circumstances and the young men’s lust for revenge have placed
Jacob’s family in grave peril. Jacob fears a union of Canaanite city-states
that could wipe out his family and servants. His sons demanded revenge for a
wrong done to them as a proud family.
Please
note that these Canaanite children and women are now added to the servants that
Jacob and his family have with them.
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