And Shechem said to her father and to her brethren, Let me find favour in your eyes; and what ye shall say to me I will give.
Genesis 34 opens with Jacob's daughter Dinah going out to visit the women of the land. By verse 11 the prince who wronged her stands before her father and brothers, asking for their goodwill and offering to pay any price they name.
Shechem is not brushing the matter aside. He wants Dinah as his wife at any price. He pleads with the brothers because their father has stayed silent.
With or without her parents' permission, Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land… Her wandering curiosity exposed her to the young prince of the land. He was taken with her and carried away by his passion. He seduced her, if he did not take her by force. Her poor father stayed silent until his sons came back from work. Meanwhile Shechem pushed hard for marriage at any price. His father went to Jacob and pleaded for his son's fixed desire to have her as his wife. He offered the readiest terms of peace between the two peoples, while Shechem pressed his own case.
The promise is not vague generosity. Shechem is naming a known custom, spelled out in the next verse as the bride-price.
The sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Genesis 34:12; Exodus 22:16-17; 1 Samuel 18:25… The dowry which Jacob gave for his wives was seven years' service for each. Genesis 29:18, 27.
Jacob had once paid such a price himself. Now a man offers a price for his daughter.
Shechem and Hamor hoped generous terms would repair the damage. Instead the anger grew.
His daughter Dinah wanted to enjoy the company and pleasures of the other young women of the land. As a result she became entangled and defiled. This stirred up great anger among Jacob's sons. What Shechem and Hamor did to repair the damage did not calm it. The anger came to a head in the terrible violence of Simeon and Levi, which Jacob never forgot, nor did God. At the end of his life Jacob spoke as a prophet about his sons. He foretold the future of the tribes and gave certain blessings. He condemned these two sons and cursed their anger, as recorded in Genesis 49:5-7.
Verse 11 is one line in a much larger offer. One writer hears in that offer a voice Christians still hear today.
Hamor promised to give Jacob many things. He suggested that they might be one people, live in the land, trade, and marry together. Just like the world today, they want Christians to be one with them — no difference. Christians, be careful! The Lord says, "Go out from their midst, and be separate from them" (2 Corinthians 6:17). The world says, "We may be one." The Lord says, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19).
The brothers answered his open-handed plea with words that sounded religious. They were a trap.
Then Jacob's sons stepped in with a deceitful condition: every male must be circumcised. They had not the slightest thought or wish of bringing the Shechemites into the covenant. It was the basest treachery, meant to trap and slaughter them. Jacob had nothing to do with the cruel secret. Their pride and revenge ignored God just as it ignored their father. Shechem was guilty of a great wrong; but Dinah was at fault too… The condition was a lying, cowardly pretext. It let them carry their resentment to the limit.
Why was such a proposal even on the table? Because Jacob's family had already dropped the separation that should have kept the two households apart.
In self-will a man had been killed there, and a fence had been thrown down. But it was Jacob himself who had dug down God's fence first. God's call had raised a dividing wall between the clean and the unclean. Jacob broke that wall down in spirit when he settled as a citizen and landowner on his purchased estate at Shechem. And Simeon and Levi may finish the job as soon afterwards as they please.
- Compromise — Jacob broke God's fence first, settling and buying land at Shechem. His sons only finished what he had started.
- Corruption — Dinah's visit to the daughters of the land left her entangled and defiled. That is the wrong verse 11 tries to settle.
- Compensation — Shechem offers the bride-price, the sum a man paid the woman's relatives. Jacob had paid it himself, with fourteen years of work.
- Confederacy — the payment hid a bigger proposal. Two peoples become one, sharing land and marriages. That is the world's standing invitation. Scripture answers it: "go out from their midst, and be separate
- Cost — the brothers answered with treachery dressed as covenant, and Jacob cursed their anger on his deathbed. The whole chain started when Jacob settled down instead of staying separate.
Impose on me very much as dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say to me; but give me the maiden as wife.
Shechem has sinned with Jacob's daughter Dinah, and now he offers her family any price they care to name. Two questions follow: can money settle a wrong, and how did Jacob's family end up here at all?
Writers trace the whole chapter back to one choice by Jacob, and to what it cost his daughter:
Jacob seems to have grown tired of the pilgrim path, and gave in to the temptation to settle down and build a home. And what was the fruit of this? His daughter Dinah goes out to see the daughters of the land. Her father had settled down in the world instead of being a heavenly pilgrim passing through it. What could be more natural than that his daughter should want to be friends with the world?
The bride-price Shechem names had a fixed meaning in that world:
The sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Genesis 34:12; Exodus 22:16-17; 1 Samuel 18:25... The dowry which Jacob gave for his wives was seven years' service for each. Genesis 29:18, 27.
Shechem puts no ceiling on the sum, and his father comes to Jacob's family to arrange it:
Hamor came at this time to tell them that Shechem had real affection for Dinah and wanted to marry her. At the same time he invited them to remain in the land and have their families intermarry. No doubt to the mind of Hamor this was the honorable way to meet the question. Shechem adds that he is willing to pay any dowry they might ask of him for Dinah.
The trouble started before any offer was made:
His daughter Dinah wanted to enjoy the companionship and pleasures of the other young women of the land. As a result she got entangled and defiled. This aroused great anger among Jacob's sons. What Shechem and Hamor did to repair the damage did not calm it.
The money came attached to a wider proposal:
Hamor also promised to give Jacob many things. He suggested that the two peoples might become one, and live in the land, and trade, and marry together. Just like the world of today; they want Christians to be one with them — no difference. Christians, be careful! The Lord says, "Go out from their midst, and be separate from them" (2 Corinthians 6:17).
Grant does not lay all the blame on Shechem:
The sons, when they came, were not only grieved but very angry at Shechem. Did they not stop to think that the blame was not only Shechem's, but Dinah's also? For though this was sin, it was not rape.
Shechem's open offer met a closed reply. The brothers named a religious condition they had no intention of honouring:
Then Jacob's sons stepped in with deceit. They set one condition: every male must be circumcised. They had not the smallest thought or wish of inviting the Shechemites into the covenant. It was the basest treachery, meant to trap and massacre them. Jacob had nothing to do with the cruel secret. Their pride and revenge ignored God as much as it ignored their father. The condition was a lying and cowardly pretext, used to push their resentment as far as it would go. Hamor and Shechem fell into the trap. They had enough influence to persuade all their townsmen to join them in the painful rite, and in the danger they never saw coming.
The cost of that day did not end with the city, and judgment was not God's last word on it:
The shameful story of Genesis 34 made Jacob "stink to the inhabitants of the land." That was a dreadful position for him, since he was the only man in the land who had the true knowledge of God. It also brought judgment on the two men who promoted the violence. Yet in later days the tribe of Levi acted in a way that won them a special blessing. So we are allowed to see how God can turn what was once a curse into a blessing. The word had been, "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). They were divided — but by Levi being called to special service and scattered through all the tribes.
- Settled. Jacob grew tired of the pilgrim path and built a home in the world.
- Exposed. A father who settles in the world should not be surprised when his daughter looks for friends there.
- Offered. The dowry was the normal payment to a bride's family. Shechem lifted every limit on it to get Dinah.
- Unrepaired. No payment repairs a defilement. Nothing Shechem and Hamor offered calmed the brothers' anger.
- Compounded. The brothers' deceitful reply ignored God and their father, and judgment followed. Yet God later turned that curse on Levi into a blessing.