Jacob's Stay Near Shechem
It seems that the events of Genesis 34 took place in a short period of time--maybe less than a week.
Genesis 34 opens with a seemingly innocent choice: Dinah went out to see the women of the land. Well, why not? She'd always lived with relatives. Now there were others to become acquainted with. But in short order, innocent curiosity turns into an incomprehensible catastrophe. I suspect that she had not travelled far into the city when Shechem spotted her, seized her, lay with her, and humiliated her (34:2). The rapist becomes more drawn to her, speaking tenderly to her whom he had humiliated. He demands of his father, "Get me this girl for my wife" (34:4).
How will their families deal with this situation? Jacob chooses to wait until his sons come home from work before confronting the offender and his family. The offender's father approaches and says, essentially, "my son loves your daughter. Please may he marry her?" Jacob's sons had come home as soon as they had heard Dinah was raped and were not satisfied by this proposition.
"Whatever it costs, I want to marry her," says the would-be groom. The wily brothers insist that the one thing required for the marriage to take place is for all the men--not only these two--to be circumcised.
This seems reasonable to the rapist and his father; after all, once they intermarry, all the possessions of Dinah's family will become theirs. So these men, from their positions of power in the Shechemite community, talk all the rest into having this procedure done. And all have it done on the same day.
While they are recovering, two of Dinah's brothers slaughter not only the culprit and his parent, but all the males of the community. Then their other brothers enter into the plundering, taking women, children, livestock, etc. What happened to Dinah was wicked, but so was the way Jacob's sons chose to respond.
Jacob is not pleased with this. How will their small group survive when word of this slaughter of the innocent gets out? As insolent as the response of Jacob's sons appears to be, it also seems to silence him. Still, his question is valid. How will this group survive. It can't stay near Shechem now.
It seems that the events of Genesis 34 took place in a short period of time--maybe less than a week.
Genesis 34 opens with a seemingly innocent choice: Dinah went out to see the women of the land. Well, why not? She'd always lived with relatives. Now there were others to become acquainted with. But in short order, innocent curiosity turns into an incomprehensible catastrophe. I suspect that she had not travelled far into the city when Shechem spotted her, seized her, lay with her, and humiliated her (34:2). The rapist becomes more drawn to her, speaking tenderly to her whom he had humiliated. He demands of his father, "Get me this girl for my wife" (34:4).
How will their families deal with this situation? Jacob chooses to wait until his sons come home from work before confronting the offender and his family. The offender's father approaches and says, essentially, "my son loves your daughter. Please may he marry her?" Jacob's sons had come home as soon as they had heard Dinah was raped and were not satisfied by this proposition.
"Whatever it costs, I want to marry her," says the would-be groom. The wily brothers insist that the one thing required for the marriage to take place is for all the men--not only these two--to be circumcised.
This seems reasonable to the rapist and his father; after all, once they intermarry, all the possessions of Dinah's family will become theirs. So these men, from their positions of power in the Shechemite community, talk all the rest into having this procedure done. And all have it done on the same day.
While they are recovering, two of Dinah's brothers slaughter not only the culprit and his parent, but all the males of the community. Then their other brothers enter into the plundering, taking women, children, livestock, etc. What happened to Dinah was wicked, but so was the way Jacob's sons chose to respond.
Jacob is not pleased with this. How will their small group survive when word of this slaughter of the innocent gets out? As insolent as the response of Jacob's sons appears to be, it also seems to silence him. Still, his question is valid. How will this group survive. It can't stay near Shechem now.
Labels: Dinah, Genesis 34, Shechem
posted by Ebeth | 10:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home