Genesis 34:13-31

¹³ But sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor treacherously, because he had defiled Dinah, their sister.

¹⁴ They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a person who is uncircumcised, because that would bring shame on us.

¹⁵ We will agree with you on this condition – that you will become like we are by every male among you becoming circumcised.

¹⁶ Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people.

¹⁷ But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will go away.”

¹⁸ Their words seemed good to Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

¹⁹ And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he wanted Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most privileged of all his father’s house.

²⁰ So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and appealed to the men of their city, saying,

²¹ “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters.

²² The men will agree to dwell with us to become one people on this condition- that every male among us is circumcised like they are circumcised.

²³ Will not their livestock, their property and all their animals be ours? let us agree with them, and then they will live among us.”

²⁴ And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵ On the third day, when they were still sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.

²⁶ They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away.

²⁷ Those sons of Jacob went to the place of the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸ They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.

²⁹ All their property, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.

³⁰ But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

³¹ But they said, “Should he have treated our sister like a whore?” _______________________

consequences of avenging a rape

Two wrongs do not make a right. The rape of Dinah by Shechem was inexcusable. But the treachery of Jacob’s sons in insisting that the men of the town be circumcised – only to weaken them so that they could attack and kill them – was also wrong on so many levels. Fast forward into the future and you will see some of the consequences of this tragedy:

1. Simeon and Levi had taken it upon himself to avenge Dinah’s rape by murdering the inhabitants of Shechem. They would both lose the inheritance due to the oldest and it would go to Judah instead (Reuben would lose this privilege for another reason).

2. Jacob was right in assuming that this event would cause lasting enmity between his family and the Canaanites and Perrizites.

3. Some of the Israelites who would return to possess this land were actually descendants of the Shechemites (29).

LORD, help us to see that there can be lasting consequences when we insist on getting even with those who have wronged us.