And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father's house.
Shechem had wronged Jacob's daughter Dinah. Yet he is the one who moves fastest to put things right, and this verse calls him the most honoured man in his father's house — while her brothers hide murder behind a religious demand.
Why Jacob's Family Was There
Jacob had changed the way he lived. He stopped travelling as a stranger and settled near the city, and one writer traces the whole disaster to that choice.
George C WillisJacob 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 action? 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 a friend of the world? We all know the sad, shameful result. Who would have guessed that exchanging a tent for a house could produce such bitter fruit?
The Speed of a Man in Love
The verse gives the reason for Shechem's haste: he loved Dinah. So he agreed on the spot to a painful condition — circumcision, the bodily sign of God's covenant — and his city saw no danger in it.
L. M. GrantHamor and Shechem fully agreed to the terms Jacob's sons proposed. Shechem in particular did not delay to be circumcised, because he loved Dinah. We are told he was more honourable than all the household of his father... No doubt everyone recognised that circumcision had a religious meaning. So they were not in the least suspicious of any hidden plan against them.
Honoured — and Still the Lesser Sinner
The verse rates Shechem above everyone in his own house. One writer rates him above the brothers who killed him, Simeon and Levi. He reads Jacob's later words over those two as the Spirit's verdict on religious violence.
The Bible TreasuryThe condemnation of Simeon and Levi is the Holy Spirit's witness against religious intolerance and persecution... They are allied and deceitful, as religious bigotry always is. But every truly religious man will echo Jacob's rejection: "Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen." The innocent suffer with the guilty in these cursed crusades — the innocent ox with the guilty Shechem — though Shechem was not half as bad as they were.
The Condition Was Never an Invitation
Shechem hurried to meet a demand that was designed to disable him. The brothers had no interest in bringing the city near to God, and one writer says their father knew nothing of the plan.
William KellyThen Jacob's sons stepped in. They set a deceitful condition: every male must be circumcised. They had no thought or wish at all 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, just as it ignored their father... The condition was a lying and cowardly excuse to carry out their resentment to the limit.
The Sign Without the Reality
The men of the city took the covenant sign, and it changed nothing. One writer turns the picture around and puts the real failure on Jacob's side.
J. G. BellettSurely what we see here is an uncircumcised Jacob, not circumcised Shechemites. It is all miserable. Is this a son of Abraham? Is this a saint of God? Is this one of God's strangers in a world that has turned away from Him?... Such religion is empty. That was so in those earliest days at Shechem, and it is so now among the nations of a judged and condemned world. God's call is to separate from it.
From Curse to Blessing
Shechem's eagerness cost him his life, and the violence cost Jacob's sons a curse. Yet the sentence on Levi did not stay a sentence.
F. B. HoleIt brought a judgment on the two who promoted the violence. In later days the tribe of Levi acted in a way that gained a special blessing. So we get to see how God can turn what began as a curse into a blessing. The word had been, "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." They were divided. But the division came through Levi's call to special service, scattered through all the tribes.
Summary
- Drift — Jacob traded the tent for a house. His daughter then went looking for friends among the people of the land.
- Delay — Shechem "did not delay." His speed came from real love, and it walked him straight into a trap.
- Honour — The verse ranks him above his father's house. One writer ranks him above his killers: he was not half as bad as Simeon and Levi.
- Disguise — Jacob's sons turned the sign of God's covenant into a lying excuse for revenge. Scripture condemns that kind of religious bigotry.
- Reversal — The city carried the covenant sign while Jacob lived like a man without it. Yet God turned Levi's curse into scattered service and blessing.