And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.
Genesis 34 finds Jacob camped beside a Canaanite city instead of at Bethel. In verse 6 the city walks into his camp: Hamor, the local ruler and father of the man who has violated Dinah, comes out to talk terms. Commentators read this quiet verse as the price of where Jacob had chosen to live.
The step behind the visit
Hamor's arrival was no accident. Writers trace it back to the land Jacob bought and the house he built near Shechem, instead of living in a tent.
William KellyOne wrong step away from our true position before the Lord leads to many a sin, scandal, and sorrow. So we find here, as the result of Jacob buying the land of the Hivite and building himself a house. His stay at Succoth and Shechem covers some ten years. He had to be unsettled to bring him back to his place as a pilgrim; but the way was painful for all, and brought deep shame, humiliation and fear to Jacob.
A father who says nothing
Trouble now came to Jacob from the household he had been busy protecting. One writer sets that beside his silence, and raises a question the family never asked itself.
Leslie M. GrantJacob had been concerned about his own house. Now he must learn through painful experience that when he puts his house first, he will find trouble and sorrow from his house. Jacob had heard the news before Hamor came, but had said nothing. He waited till his sons returned from their work in the field before speaking at all about the shame of Shechem's sin with Dinah. 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.
What Hamor came to say
Hamor does not arrive as an enemy. He comes as a father speaking for a son, and, by his own standards, doing the decent thing.
William KellyShechem earnestly sought marriage at any price, and his father went to Jacob. He pleaded hard for his son's fixed desire to have her as wife, and offered the readiest terms of peace between the two peoples, while Shechem urged his own case.
The offer to become one people
The terms go far past one marriage. Hamor proposes that the two peoples merge, and one writer hears in that a voice still speaking today.
G. C. WillisHamor also promised to give Jacob many things, and suggested they might be one people 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, "Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord" (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 fence Jacob had already pulled down
Hamor could make such a proposal because the two households were no longer separate. Years later Jacob saw what his time at Shechem had produced.
J. G. BellettHe finds out, at the end, the real character of all this, the fruit of his living at Shechem. In self-will a man had been killed there, and a fence thrown down. But surely Jacob himself had dug down God's fence before. God's call had raised a wall between the clean and the unclean, between the circumcised people and the Gentiles. Jacob himself had broken that wall down in spirit when he settled as a citizen or property owner on the land he had bought at Shechem. And Simeon and Levi may finish the job as soon afterwards as they please.
Where the discipline is heading
The story does not end in shame. Writers see God using that shame to move Jacob on to Bethel.
The Bible TreasuryJacob is made to feel the shame and humiliation of the position he had chosen for himself. Then the word of the Lord falls freely on his soul, and the discipline has prepared him to respond to it. "Arise," says the Lord, "go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." Jacob, leaving Shechem for Bethel, leaves all his defilements behind him. The idols have to be left at Shechem; they cannot be taken to Bethel.
Summary
- Settling. Jacob stopped being a pilgrim and became a neighbour. He bought land and built a house short of Bethel, so the city could walk into his camp.
- Silence. Jacob heard about Dinah before Hamor arrived and said nothing. He waited for his sons, and their anger filled the space he left.
- Proposal. Hamor came pleading for his son and offering easy terms of peace. By his own standards, this was the honourable way to settle it.
- Merger. The real offer was that the two peoples become one, with no difference left. The world still makes that offer; Scripture answers it with the call to come out and be separate.
- Return. The shame worked as discipline. It drove Jacob out of Shechem toward Bethel, and the idols could not travel with him.