Read Genesis 34
Dinah and the Shechemites
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son 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 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 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 honored of 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 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?”
Go Deeper
Today’s reading should be hard for us to digest. It’s not a light read. Oftentimes, we look to the Bible to be our “pick me up” and daily inspiration. Many times it does leave us feeling good, but the Bible isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are days like today, when everything we read makes us sick to our stomach. It contains rape, a father’s passivity, violence and murder at the hands of vengeful brothers. There is nothing good, wholesome, or positive in this chapter. It’s all ugly sin.
The difficult part in reading about today’s sins is realizing that our sins are just as bad. God doesn’t look at one type of sin as worse than another. We’re the ones who do that–we like to assign levels to sin so that we can feel better about the sins we struggle with. We read chapters in the Bible like this and think, “How could they? They’re awful. I would never.” Then we turn a blind eye to the sins that so easily entangle us, because at least they’re not as bad as theirs. However, that’s not the way God sees it. Sin is sin, and He hates it all; because all of it, no matter what type, prevents us from being with Him and living the abundant life He has for us.
Like in this passage, we can sometimes disguise our sin as justice and judgment. Thinking we are doing the right thing, we might take action on something that God says we had no right to take action on, causing us to get our hands just as dirty with sin as the offender. Although it can be difficult, God has made it clear in Romans 12:19 that judgment is His, and if we are to do anything, we are called to do the opposite of judge and act loving towards our enemies.
Today’s reading is a sobering reminder of the fact that sin separates us from what God has for us. Instead of comparing sins, may we focus on our need to repent from all of it. May we see our sin as disgusting as the sins in this passage so that we can also see the fullness of the redemption offered to us through Jesus. He didn’t die on the cross for some of our sin, but for all of it, no matter how ugly.
Questions
- What part of today’s reading disturbs you most? Why?
- In this chapter, Jacob’s passivity is contrasted against the angry actions of his sons. Both sides were sinful. What would have been the biblical way to handle Dinah’s rape? How was she further hurt by the response of her family?
- What is a sin you give into that you view as “lesser than” than ones that others struggle with? Confess it to God now and ask Him to have you see your sin the way He sees it so you can overcome it.
Did You Know?
The name of the Lord is not mentioned in chapter 34. His wisdom is clearly absent from the contents of this chapter. We are again reminded that where the Lord is not present, darkness will fill in the gap.
5 thoughts on “Genesis 34”
Jacob disobeyed God and the consequences were costly.
God commanded Jacob to return to Bethel (31) and then on to Hebron (35). But Jacob went his own way. His actions cost Dinah, Simeon and Levi. Jacob just wanted to fit in. He was afraid for his life instead of being concerned about his family and the concequences of what had happened. Even though Jacob failed, God is still in his story, just like me. Becoming a christian does not mean all things will be happy and joyful at all times. Being a Christ follower or disiple, or apprentice just means I get to walk by faith with God. It means I am thankful for direction, love , and joy in my daily, minutely, walk with God. It means I endeavor to place complete trust in God. Walk in faith=believing, putting into action my beliveing, by doing things out of my comfort zone. To share the love of God through what His son accomplised on mine and your behalf. When the trials and troubles come being a Christ follower means I will rely on Him and not my own self.
God thank You for me walking by faith and putting it into action minutely. Thank You giving me all the tools I need that supplies every need of mine according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. God I am going to rejoice in You. I am not going to anxious for NO THING, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let my requests be made known to, You, God. And the peace of, You, God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. So I am going to work today on thinking and living, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What I am learning, received, heard and seen I will practice these things, and the God of peace will be with me. God I am so thankful for what I read and see from Your scriptures so that I can walk in today, in the minutes of this day in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I copied and pasted this from my comment after Genesis 31. I could probably copy and paste it for much of scripture… But I shall not.
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Often times people will reference the many sad dysfunctional – crazy episodes in scripture to question what kind of God do we serve and what kind of book (Bible) are we honoring and following that would have these kind of accounts inside of it. Isn’t it supposed to be Holy?
I often need to remind myself that the Bible does not only contain the Holy directives of our compassionate good God… But it’s also a historical account of what actually happened in this broken world after the fall in Genesis 3.
Cringeworthy, that’s how I felt after digesting this narrative once again. Passion unchecked, arrogance, deceit, murder —all sins with devastating consequences. When we attempt to take justice in our own hands it can go horribly wrong. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (17:9) I’m reminded of how desperately we need biblical community to speak into our decisions, ones who will faithfully stand in the gap and remind us of the righteous path that leads to life.
Such depravity on so many levels. This reads like a R-rated movie or an episode from an Old Testament spinoff of Game of Thrones.
We really need a savior!
Kinda disturbing that they are both sinful. Makes sense to me to kill the man if he raped their daughter… wasn’t that the old Jewish law and fair?