Read with Me
Genesis 34:25-31 (HCSB)
On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away. Jacob’s other sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. They took their sheep, cattle, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. They captured all their possessions, children, and wives and plundered everything in the houses.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
But they answered, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
Listen with Me
The plot of Jacob’s sons against the Shechemites to avenge their sister’s honor went off as planned. They knew that on the third day following their circumcision the men of the city would be thoroughly disabled by the pain, so that’s when they made their attack.
There was no effective defense or resistance. Simeon and Levi hacked to death every male they came across. When they got to Hamor and Shechem’s big house they killed all the men there, including Hamor and Shechem, and they took Dinah out of the city.
The rest of Jacob’s sons were waiting outside the city gates. But when the signal was given, they charged in and began to plunder the city, taking everything of value, including the women, children, and any livestock both from within the city walls and from the fields surrounding the city. Thus, the city of Shechem, while not destroyed, was left completely empty.
Jacob’s sons had not shared their plan with their father. He was by nature a timid man, and they didn’t want him trying to talk them out of doing all they had set their minds to do. When he found out what they had done after the fact, he was horrified, not primarily by the carnage that they had caused, but by the possibility that the surrounding peoples might hear about the massacre and attack Jacob and his family in revenge.
But Simeon and Levi were unrepentant. To them, the whole campaign was a matter of salvaging the family’s honor. Jacob understood their reasoning, but he never accepted that they had done the right thing. Even fifty years later as he blessed his sons on his death bed, he gave no blessing to Simeon and Levi, but only condemned them for their harsh, unbridled anger (Genesis 49:5-7).
Pray with Me
Father, this is a deeply troubling episode in the history of your people, and I can find nothing in it that provides a model for my own life, except to see things to avoid. It’s not that the anger of Dinah’s brothers was unjustified, but their actions and response were too broad, killing men and enslaving women and children who were innocent of the offense against their sister. Lord, You never call us to turn a blind eye to sin, wrongdoing, or injustice. But You do call us away from “an eye for an eye” justice (Matthew 5:38-42), and You claim the right to revenge as Your own (Deuteronomy 32:35). Help me, Lord, to always handle injustice, and unrighteousness in Your way, so that You are always lifted up and exalted in my life. Amen.