Genesis 34:5

_AND JACOB HEARD THAT HE HAD DEFILED DINAH HIS DAUGHTER: NOW HIS SONS WERE WITH HIS CATTLE IN THE FIELD: AND_ _ JACOB HELD HIS PEACE UNTIL THEY WERE COME._ Jacob held his peace. Jacob, as a father and a good man, must have been deeply distressed. But he could do little. In the case of a family by different wives, it is not the father, but the full brothers, on whom the protection of the daughters devolves-they are the guardians of a sister's welfare and the avengers of her wrongs. It was for this reason that Simeon and Levi, the two brothers of Dinah by Leah, appear the chief actors in this episode; and though the two fathers would have probably brought about an amicable arrangement of the affair, the hasty arrival of these enraged brothers, who came home while Hamor was conversing with Jacob (cf. Genesis 34:6 with...

5._And Jacob heard_. Moses inserts a single verse concerning the silent sorrow of Jacob. We know that they who have not been accustomed to reproaches, are the more grievously affected when any dishonor happens to them. Therefore the more this prudent man had endeavored to keep his family pure from every stain, chaste and well-ordered, the more deeply is he wounded. But since he is at home alone, he dissembles, and keeps his grief to himself, till his sons return from the field. Moreover, by this word, Moses does not mean that Jacob deferred vengeance till their return; but that, being alone and devoid of counsel and of consolation, he lay prostrate as one disheartened. The sense then is, that he was so oppressed with insupportable grief, that he held his peace. (118) By using the word “defiled,” Moses teaches us what is the true purity of man; namely, when chastity is religiously cultiva...

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...

- 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 JACOB HEARD THAT HE HAD DEFILED DINAH HIS DAUGHTER,.... That is, that Shechem had defiled her; the report of this was brought him very probably by one of the maids which attended her to the city; for it was hardly to be thought that she should go thither alone, and which must be very distressing to Jacob to hear of: this was his first affliction in his own family, but it was not the only one, nor the last, others quickly followed: NOW HIS SONS WERE WITH HIS CATTLE IN THE FIELD; he had bought, or in some other hired by him for his cattle, feeding and keeping them, being arrived to an age fit for such service; here they were when the above report was brought to Jacob: AND JACOB HELD HIS PEACE UNTIL THEY WERE COME; neither murmuring at the providence, but patiently bearing the chastisement; nor reflecting upon Leah for letting Dinah go out, or not keeping a proper watch over her; nor...

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...

PART FORTY-THREE THE STORY OF JACOB: INCIDENTS IN CANAAN (Genesis 34:1 to Genesis 35:28) The Biblical Account 1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bare unto Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her; and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her. 3 And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. 4 And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife, 5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from th

THE DISHONOUR DONE TO DINAH, AND THE CRAFTY REVENGE OF SIMEON AND LEVI 1. Went out to see the daughters of the land] According to Josephus there was a festival among the Canaanites at Shechem....