Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you 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.
A prince pleading at any price
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.
William KellyWith 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.
What "whatever you say to me I will give" meant
The promise is not vague generosity. Shechem is naming a known custom, spelled out in the next verse as the bride-price.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
What no payment could mend
Shechem and Hamor hoped generous terms would repair the damage. Instead the anger grew.
F. B. HoleHis 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.
The offer behind the offer
Verse 11 is one line in a much larger offer. One writer hears in that offer a voice Christians still hear today.
G. C. WillisHamor 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 answer Shechem received
The brothers answered his open-handed plea with words that sounded religious. They were a trap.
William KellyThen 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.
A fence already broken down
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.
J. G. BellettIn 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.
Summary
- 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.