Genesis 34:30

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

Jacob said ... Ye have troubled me - or afflicted me-brought evil upon me (cf. Joshua 6:18; Joshua 7:25; 1 Samuel 14:29) [Hebrew, lªhab'iysheeniy (H887), to bring me into bad odour, to make me loathsome, hateful; Septuagint, Miseeton me pepoieekate, hooste poneeron me einai, and I (with my family and servants) being men of number - i:e., few, easily counted (cf. Deuteronomy 4:27; Isaiah 9:19).] This atrocious outrage perpetrated on the defenseless citizens and their families made the cup of Jacob's affliction overflow. We may wonder that, in speaking of it to his sons, he did not represent it as a heinous sin-an atrocious violation of the laws of God and man, but dwelt solely on the present consequences. It was probably because that was the only view likely to rouse the cold-blooded apathy, the hardened consciences of those ruffian sons (see the note at Genesis 49:6-7). Nothing but the restraining power of God saved him and his family from the united vengeance of the people (cf. Genesis 35:5).

All his sons had not been engaged in the massacre. Joseph was a boy, Benjamin not yet born, and the other eight not concerned in it. Simeon and Levi alone, with their retainers, had been the guilty actors in the bloody tragedy. But the Canaanites might not be discriminating in their vengeance; and if all the Shechemites were put to death for the offence of their chief's son, what wonder if the natives should extend their hatred to all the family of Jacob; and who probably equalled in number the inhabitants of that village?