Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”
After the killing at Shechem, Jacob's first words are about himself: his good name, his small numbers, his likely death. Commentators see a man reaping what his choice of home had sown, though they differ over whether he felt the evil itself or only what it cost him.
Where the trouble started
The disaster did not begin with Simeon and Levi. It began earlier. Jacob pitched his tent beside a Canaanite city, and the line between his household and the world blurred.
F. B. HoleGenesis 34 is filled with the unhappy results that came from Jacob lowering his separation from the world, as we have just noted. Its effects for evil were not seen in Jacob himself but in his family. The tide of evil runs in two broad channels: violence and corruption... The world is just the same today. How often, as Christian parents, we have to hang our heads in shame and admit that a little living close to the world has brought sorrow and even disaster into our families.
Blaming the circumstances
Jacob's complaint fastens on his sons and on his danger. God had already promised to keep him, and one writer measures the complaint against that promise.
C. H. MackintoshCould faith have led him to say, "I shall be destroyed, both I and my household"? Surely not. God's promise in Gen. 28:14-15 should have banished every fear from his poor timid spirit. "I will keep you… I will not leave you." But the fact is, his mind was full of his danger among the Shechemites rather than his safety in God's hand... He should not have looked at Simeon and Levi, or at the results of their rash act. He should have judged himself for being in such a position at all... We often see Christians fall into deep sorrow and trouble through their own unfaithfulness. Then, instead of judging themselves, they look at their circumstances and blame them.
What Jacob objected to
The same crime came before Jacob twice. One writer sets the two moments side by side.
J. G. BellettIt troubled him then because of the mischief which it might work for him among his neighbours... This was the mind he was in when he was a citizen in Shechem. But now it is on other ground altogether, higher and purer ground, that his soul refuses this iniquity. It was iniquity; that is enough; and he will not let his honour be united with it.
Commentators differ here. One argues that even now Jacob was not blind to the wickedness itself, only overwhelmed by alarm.
William KellyStill it is going too far to say that Jacob felt only the consequence, not the appalling iniquity... Jacob was no doubt so full of alarm that he forgot God's promise. But who can forget how deeply he felt this dark and hateful day? On his deathbed he spoke of it in words of prophetic power.
The sons' reply
Simeon and Levi answer their father with a question about their sister, and admit nothing else. One writer weighs that defence and finds it hollow.
L. M. GrantJacob's sons, however, gave only a defiant answer: "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?" This was not fair-mindedness, for Shechem had not treated her that way. And if he had, did that justify Simeon and Levi in killing all the men of that city and plundering their houses? Their dealings with the city were far worse than was Shechem's sin.
The bill comes later
Judgment on the two brothers came later, and it was not God's last word about Levi.
Morrish Bible DictionaryScripture records very little of Levi. He joined with Simeon in the treacherous and vengeful dealings with Shechem, Gen. 34:25-31. When Jacob blessed his sons, he pronounced a curse on their cruelty, and added, "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." This shows the righteous government of God. That government is not set aside, even though God later rewarded faithful conduct by choosing this tribe for the Levitical service and the priesthood... It was sovereign grace.
The fear that lifted
Jacob's dread of the peoples around him does not last. The next chapter answers it, but only after he moves.
BevirGod calls him to Bethel, and this wakes him up. He begins to act consistently. He buries all the idols and worldly jewellery of the household... God is with Jacob after this, and the terror that weighed on him in chapter 34:30 has gone. Now it is God's terror that holds his enemies in awe.
Summary
- Settle — Jacob camped beside a Canaanite city. That choice lowered the separation between his household and the world, and the whole chapter is its harvest.
- Reap — his daughter is defiled and his sons turn murderers. Living close to the world hurt his family, not himself.
- Blame — faced with the wreckage, he looks at Simeon and Levi and at his own danger. He should have judged himself for being there at all.
- Forget — "I shall be destroyed" is not the speech of a man holding on to God's promise: "I will keep you… I will not leave you."
- Return — the fear lifts only at Bethel. There Jacob buries the idols, and God's terror, not Jacob's scheming, holds the nearby peoples back.