Genesis 34:13-17

‘And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you, if you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you and we will become one people. But if you will not listen to us then we will take our daughter and we will be gone.” '

“With guile.” It is unusual in Genesis for an explanation to be given for the motive of what is said. Thus the reference to guile shows that the writer wants us to know that what later happened was the brothers' intention from the start. It is again stressed that their motive is based on what has been done to their sister Dinah. She has been defiled, both socially and religiously. All that follows is thus but preparation for their revenge.

The issue that they take up is circumcision. It is probable that more explanation was actually given at the meeting but the writer is aware that such was not really in question and omits any mention of it. There was no real idea of the men of Shechem entering the covenant community. The fact was that the brothers simply saw it as a means of disabling the men of Shechem. Outwardly they are agreeing to the terms outlined by Hamor, but inwardly they have only one purpose in mind, justice and revenge, for before we judge them too harshly we must recognise that this was a case where justice and revenge went hand in hand. A terrible sacrilege had been committed and they required justice to take its course. They felt that they had no choice. Sacrilege must be expiated. And that involved the death of the offender. And because the offender was the king's firstborn and the darling of the people, they knew that they too would have to be dealt with.

We rightly cringe at what follows. But we must remember that it was then a regular occurrence for cities to be invaded and taken over, and that it was necessary for semi-nomads to make clear to others that they could not be trifled with. All too often they were the sufferers. But unquestionably here this is all exacerbated by the sense that a great sacrilege has been committed against ‘God, the God of Israel'.

“We will take our daughter and be gone.” Here ‘daughter' is used to signify a daughter of the tribe. This last phrase is a deliberate attempt to accomplish what they want, the disablement of the men of Shechem. They clearly hoped that Shechem's passion was enough for him to agree to their proposal. Had he not done so murder might have taken place on the spot regardless of the consequences. They did not really intend to ‘be gone'.