In Genesis 34, something objectively evil happens and the response to it by the “good guys” is also objectively evil and reprehensible. Moses doesn’t include this story because he approves of what’s done here, or because he just wants to teach us something about family honor. He includes this story to remind us that God’s relationship with his people is built on grace, not his people’s stellar moral abilities.
In this chapter, we see transgression (vv. 1-7), negotiation (vv. 8-24), and retribution (vv. 25-31).
Transgression
In verses 1-7, we see a terrible transgression. Shechem, like many men today, saw a beautiful woman and assumed it was his right to have her and do what he wanted with her. Verse 2 may not use the word rape, but how else would you describe a man “seizing” a woman to sleep with her, leaving her “humiliated”?
Then we read verses 3-4 and we think, “Oh, Shechem loves her and wants to marry her, so what he did to her is okay.” No, it isn’t. He doesn’t love her or he wouldn’t have raped her. He would’ve gone to her family first and told them he wanted to marry her and they could’ve settled on a price. But Shechem didn’t want to take “no” for an answer. He saw what he wanted and he took it.
This is a picture of the kind of possessiveness that often follows sexual assault. After an incident like this, there’s often a “honeymoon” period where the abuser wants to pull the person in and make them think that they’re great. An abusive and controlling person will often do something horrible and then make it seem like everything is alright and that they aren’t a bad person and if the victim disagrees, then they’re blamed for not loving or forgiving the abuser.
Shechem took what he wanted, and then he told his father to go and get him what he wanted. In verse 2, he was physically overpowering. In verse 3, he tries to be verbally overpowering. But words and actions can’t undo the violation and harm he’s committed against Dinah.
Skeptics read stories like this in the Bible and say that the Bible affirms the abuse of women. But, as we’ll see, this is actually a story that teaches the very opposite. As one writer says, “We must distinguish between what the Bible reports and what it supports, between what it asserts and what it authorizes…(just) because the Bible reports something does not mean that it supports what it reports.”1 Verse 7 says that this kind of behavior is never to be condoned in “Israel.”
Interestingly, the sequence of “seeing” then “seizing” her is the same sequence in the episode of the sons of God taking the daughters of men in chapter 6, and the same order of Eve and the forbidden fruit in the Garden. First comes the desire, then the action when the lust is not checked. This pattern lives in our hearts and minds when we see something we want but know we shouldn’t have but take it anyway.
Satan is busy trying to convince us that the thing we need is the thing that God forbids. He offers promises for our joy that contradict God’s promises for our joy. And then when we follow him, he turns it around on us and accuses us for believing his promises.
To make matters worse, when Jacob finds out what happened, he doesn’t do anything (v. 5). Why doesn’t he respond with shock and outrage, like his sons do in verse 7? In Genesis 37, when Jacob finds out about Joseph’s apparent death, he tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and mourns for a long time, even refusing to be comforted by his other children. There’s none of that here. Perhaps this is further evidence of Jacob’s favoritism. What we do know is that a non-reaction is a reaction, and that it’s extremely hurtful and even more damaging to a victim if the people closest to her don’t fight for her.
Then Hamor comes in verse 6 and starts the conversation about Shechem marrying the girl he raped. Then in verse 7 Jacob’s sons come home and they respond in the opposite way Jacob did. They’re “indignant and very angry” over this “outrageous thing” that was done to their sister. This is the way every man should feel when they learn of a woman who’s been abused.
Negotiation
In verses 8-24, Hamor and Shechem start negotiating with Jacob and his sons over Dinah. Hamor seems to think that since Shechem “longs” to be with Dinah, then she should be given to him to be his wife. Their thinking is, “Okay, so there was a forcible rape, but that’s nothing a follow-up marriage can’t fix.”
This kind of sexual immorality and evil is what characterized the pagan Canaanites and should be seen as “outrageous” among God’s people. Men, just because you want something doesn’t mean that you must have it. Desires are not rights. Husbands, if you start manipulating and pouting and whining when your wife doesn’t give you what you want, your actions reflect the pagan Canaanites.
Hamor and Shechem offer lands and marriages and a great bride price. Their offer seems generous, but did you notice the one thing they forgot? There’s no mention of Shechem’s humiliation of Dinah. No apology. The offer doesn’t contain one hint that what Shechem did to Dinah was evil and reprehensible. They aren’t interested in making things right. They’re only interested in making things go away.
Then in verses 13-17, the sons of Jacob make a counteroffer. Verse 13 says they answered “deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.” This isn’t the way to do things. Fighting fire with fire just makes bigger fires. Notice that it’s Jacob’s sons, and not Jacob himself, who take the lead in these negotiations. Jacob’s passivity in this whole account is baffling and wrong.
Their offer is simple: we’ll let you have Dinah if all the males among you are circumcised. In chapter 17, God gave Abraham and his family circumcision as a sign of the covenant people and their separation from the rest of the nations. But the way Jacob’s sons are trying to use it is a reversal of God’s intention. They offered circumcision as a means for these two families to become “one people” (v. 16). Using the covenant sign as a ploy to kill your enemies is wicked. It’d be like using baptism to drown people.
In verses 18-24, Hamor and Shechem convince all the males of their city to be circumcised. I would loved to have heard that conversation! Nowhere do they tell the men why they need to do this. There’s not a word about Shechem’s defilement of Dinah and how this is the way for him to have her as his wife. They focus on the material gains that intermarrying with Jacob’s family will have for them (v. 23).
Jacob’s sons are being deceitful with Hamor and Shechem, and Hamor and Shechem are being deceitful with their city. The deceivers are themselves being deceived.
Retribution
In verses 25-31, Jacob’s sons bring retribution on Hamor and Shechem and their city. Dinah had six full blooded brothers, but only two, Simeon and Levi, went into the city to kill all the males.
We’re not sure why, but it’s likely that Moses gives us these details to show us why the second and third born sons of Jacob have disqualified themselves from kingship. In the next chapter we’ll see why his firstborn son Reuben also disqualifies himself. Moses is making a case for why the king must come through the line of Judah, Jacob’s fourth born son. Judah, at the end of Genesis, is portrayed as the exact opposite of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.
There may also be some anticipation of the way that the descendant of the seed of Jacob will visit wrath upon his enemies through his victory on the third day (v. 25). On the third day after the circumcision, the pain from the operation would’ve been the most intense and fever would’ve set in, making the men totally incapacitated and unable to fight back.
The killing is followed by pillaging (vv. 27-29). It appears that all the other brothers came at this point, finishing what Simeon and Levi started.
Jacob’s response to all this in verse 30 is more of the same from him. Jacob’s concerns are pragmatic, not moral or ethical. He’s more interested in peace than honor. As one commentator notes, “It is ironic to hear Jacob venting his disgust over Simeon’s and Levi’s failure to honor their word…for he had done exactly that on more than one occasion.”2 Just one chapter earlier, he told Esau he would meet him in Seir but went into Canaan.
Simeon and Levi get the last word in verse 31. Moses lets their rhetorical question stand as a fitting end to this tragic event.
Should We Treat Our Enemies Like This?
Is this story meant to teach us how we should treat our enemies? Of course not. Israel was meant to enact God’s justice on the earth. But things shifted when Jesus came. He, as the new and perfect Israel, came to defeat even greater threats to God’s people, namely, sin, Satan, and death. He did this by dying on the cross and then rising again on the third day.
Jesus will come again to kill all of God’s enemies, but Paul makes it clear that our job until that day is to “repay no one evil for evil” and to “never avenge ourselves.” Rather, we’re to “leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom. 12:17, 19). We don’t have to pay people back because one day God will.
Then Paul says something surprising, “To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” (v. 21). He says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (v. 22). This coming from the guy who killed his enemies, the first Christians!
Something shifted in Paul after he saw the glory of Jesus and received the grace of Jesus. And so it is with us. We may feel like hurting those who hurt us, and that’s understandable. Suppressing those feelings is neither healthy nor wise. If you’re not processing those thoughts, they’ll start to own you and turn you into a something you don’t want to be. But no matter what we feel, we must remember that God in Christ gave us mercy instead of death. He could’ve hurt us for how we’ve dishonored and defiled his holy name, but he gave us grace instead.
So we’re marked as people who do the same. When we’re hurt, we bless. When we’re abused, we pray. When we’re sinned against, we forgive. If we don’t forgive our enemies, we’ll start to become like them. In his new book on forgiveness, Tim Keller says, “If you don’t deal with your wrath through forgiveness, wrath can make you a wraith, turning you slowly but surely into a restless spirit, into someone who’s controlled by the past, someone who’s haunted.”
When we forgive, we show the world what the true Israel, Jesus Christ, is like. This means that the local church should be known for its mercy, not its muscle, known for our love not our score-keeping, known for our forgiveness, not our revenge and grudge-holding.
A Son Not Like the Other Sons
This is one of the darkest chapters in the Bible. One thing this chapter is doing is setting up the problem that will be resolved in the next section of Genesis on Joseph. Jacob’s sons are violent and unrighteous men, and their sin risks tearing the family apart. The story of Joseph is the narrative where God provides a response to Israel’s own wickedness. Joseph redeems and transforms his family by not being like his family. He’s not a man of vengeance, not a man of violence. He transforms his family by forgiving them.
This chapter is showing us just how unrighteous God’s people are. The resolution to this problem is coming in the next section. Someone from within the family must be unlike the family in order to redeem the family.
This redeemer, Joseph, of course points forward to another member of Jacob’s family who was unlike all his family members. All of Israel and all the world has acted unrighteously. Yet there is One who hasn’t. This one, Jesus Christ, seed of the woman, offspring of Abraham, the true and greater Israel, stepped forward to redeem his family by not being like his family.
He’s not a man of violence, but a man of peace. He’s not a man of vengeance, but a man of forgiveness. He’s not a man of deceitfulness, but a man of truth. He’s not a man of sin, but a man of righteousness. He’s not like his brothers but came to save his brothers. Praise God for the Son of Israel who’s not like Israel’s other sons.
Lord’s Supper
In the Lord’s Supper, we remember and give thanks to God for his Son, the Son of Israel who’s not like Israel’s other sons. He’s the righteous One who came to save unrighteous ones like us.
God, man, Christ, response.
Those who’ve trusted in Jesus remember what he did on the cross by observing the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is for Christians, for baptized believers who belong to a local church. If you’re not yet a baptized follower of Jesus who’s part of a local church, we’re glad you’re here, but we’d encourage you to refrain from taking the Supper. If you’re a visitor and you’ve been baptized as a believer and you’re a member in good standing at another gospel-preaching church, you’re welcome to observe the Supper with us.
Let’s pause and confess our sins to God, remember the cross, and prepare our hearts for the Supper.
- Pray for God’s blessing over the Supper (ushers and musicians come forward).
- The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for you, preserves your body and soul for everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your heart by faith, and be thankful. (take the bread)
- The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for you, preserves your body and soul for everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for you, and drink on him in your heart by faith, and be thankful. (take the juice)
- Let’s stand and sing “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”