Genesis 34:13

_AND THE SONS OF JACOB ANSWERED SHECHEM AND HAMOR HIS FATHER DECEITFULLY, AND SAID, BECAUSE HE HAD DEFILED DINAH THEIR SISTER:_ The sons of Jacob answered ... deceitfully. Many writers have taken the word "answered," spoke, as signifying, 'plotted, laid snares.' Gesenius, who formerly supported this view, in later editions retracted, and held the natural sense, 'spoke deceitfully.' The honour 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 although that outward rite could not make the Shechemites true Israelites, yet it does not appear Jacob's sons required anything more. Nothing is said of their teaching them to worship the true God, but only of their insisting on the Shechemites being circumcised; and it is evident that they did not seek to convert Shechem, but only made...

13._And the sons of Jacob answered_. The commencement of their perfidious course is here related: for they, being outrageous rather than simply angry, wish to overthrow the whole city, and not being sufficiently strong to contend against so great a number of people, they contrive a new fraud, in order that they may suddenly rise upon the inhabitants weakened by wounds. Therefore, since the Shechemites had no strength to resist, it became a cruel butchery rather than a conquest, which increased the atrocity of wickedness in Jacob’s sons, who cared for nothing so that they might but gratify their rage. They allege in excuse, that, whereas they were separated from other nations, it was not lawful for them to give wives of their own family to the uncircumcised. Which indeed was true if they said it sincerely; but they falsely use the sacred name of God as a pretext; yea, their double profana...

1-19 Young persons, especially females, are never so safe and well off as under the care of pious parents. Their own ignorance, and the flattery and artifices of designing, wicked people, who are ever laying snares for them, expose them to great danger. They are their own enemies if they desire to go abroad, especially alone, among strangers to true religion. Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged children, like Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretence was, to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable among them; she went to see, yet that was not all, she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintance with the Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of Dinah's gadding. The beginning of sin is as the letting...

Verse Genesis 34:13. _ANSWERED - DECEITFULLY_] Which nothing could excuse; yet, to show that they had had much provocation, it is immediately subjoined וידברו _vaidabberu, they spoke_ thus _because he had_ _defiled Dinah their sister_; for so this parenthesis should be read....

- Dinah’s Dishonor This chapter records the rape of Dinah and the revenge of her brothers. Genesis 34:1 Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land. The Jewish doctors of a later period fix the marriageable age of a female at twelve years and a day. It is probable that Dinah was in her thirteenth year when she went out to visit the daughters of the land. Six or seven years, therefore, must have been spent by Jacob between Sukkoth, where he abode some time, and the neighborhood of Shekerm, where he had purchased a piece of ground. If we suppose Dinah to have been born in the same year with Joseph, who was in his seventeenth year at the time of his being sold as a bondslave Genesis 37:2, the events of this chapter must have occurred in the interval between the completion of her twelfth and th

EXPOSITION GENESIS 34:1 AND DINAH THE DAUGHTER OF LEAH, WHICH SHE BARE UNTO JACOB,—if Dinah was born before Joseph (Genesis 30:21) she was probably in her seventh year when Jacob reached Succoth (Genesis 33:17); but it does not follow that she was only six or seven years of age when the incident about to be described occurred (Tuch, Bohlen). If Jacob stayed two years at Succoth and eight in Shechem (Petavius), and if, as is probable, his residence in Shechem terminated with his daughter's dishonor (Lange), and if, moreover, Joseph's sale into Egypt happened soon after (Hengstenberg), Dinah may at this time have been in her sixteenth or seventeenth year (Kurtz). Yet th

AND THE SONS OF JACOB ANSWERED SHECHEM AND HAMOR DECEITFULLY,.... Proposing the marriage of their sister on terms after mentioned, when they never intended it should ever be: Onkelos, Jonathan, and Jarchi interpret it, "with wisdom", as if they answered wisely and prudently, but the word is never used in a good sense; and if it was wisdom, it was carnal wisdom and wicked cunning, and was disapproved of by plain hearted Jacob: AND SAID: or spoke in this deceitful manner: BECAUSE HE HAD DEFILED DINAH THEIR SISTER; and therefore were filled with indignation at him, and fired with resentment against him, and vowed within themselves revenge upon him....

CHAPTER 34 DEFILEMENT OF DINAH _ 1. The defilement (Genesis 34:1)_ 2. Hamor's proposal (Genesis 34:4) 3. The deceitful answer of Jacob's sons (Genesis 34:13) 4. The males of Shechem slain (Genesis 34:25) 5. Jacob's shame and grief (Genesis 34:30) If Jacob after the Peniel experience had gone to Bethel instead of building a house at Succoth and buying a parcel of a field, perhaps this sad event might never have occurred. God permitted it for the humiliation of His servant Jacob. Again he reaps what

GENESIS 34. SHECHEM'S OUTRAGE ON DINAH AVENGED. It is generally agreed that two sources have been used, but much uncertainty prevails as to their identity and extent, while in view of the priestly phraseology in one of the narratives, it is probable that the compiler has left his mark rather deeply upon it, unless we assign it directly to P, who may have employed an earlier story. According to one story, perhaps J, Shechem seduces Dinah and keeps her in his house. Jacob announces the news to his sons on their return from the field, and they are greatly angered. Shechem offers to accept any financial terms they may impose if only he may marry her. They reply that his uncircumcision is a fatal barrier. He accepts their conditions (not now recorded). Simeon and Levi, however, enter the city, kill him, plunder the house, and take Dinah away. This action arouses Jacob's consternation as to th...

_the sons of Jacob_ In Genesis 34:13 we have the treacherous proposal, made by the sons of Jacob, by which they would be able to revenge themselves upon the Shechemites, and attack them, when they would be incapacitated for defence....