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.
Jacob, near death, does something you would not expect in a blessing: he pulls his own soul back from two of his sons. His words look back to a massacre at Shechem, and they raise a hard question — what does a father do when his sons kill in the family's name?
The deed behind the words
His words point back to a crime recorded earlier in Genesis, where the two brothers killed every man in a city.
L. M. GrantThese two brothers are considered together, and united in cruelty and violence. Nothing good is said about them at all. Jacob refused to be identified with them in their rampage of murder, driven by their bitter anger. He refers to their slaughter of all the men in the city of Hamor and Shechem.
Two honours, only one defended
The brothers had a defence ready: they were avenging their sister. Jacob does not accept the trade — the honour they claimed to protect was not the honour they damaged. Where the ESV says "my glory," older translations read "my honour," and the writers below use that older wording.
F. B. HoleTheir father never forgot their cruel and violent action, recorded in Genesis 34. He separated himself from it. They claimed to be avenging their sister's honour. But Jacob would not join his honour to what they did, and he condemned it as the fruit of their anger.
Violence dressed in religion
Their revenge wore a religious cover. One writer sees a verdict here on cruelty done in God's name, and points to the ox as proof that the harm spread beyond the guilty.
The Bible TreasuryThey band together and deceive, as religious bigotry always does, but every truly religious man will echo Jacob's rejection of it. The innocent suffer with the guilty in these cursed crusades — the innocent ox with the guilty Shechem — and Shechem was not half as bad as they were. The worst part of this crime is that they do it in the name of God, of religious order and separation. So they make thoughtless people hate religion, and they manage to wrong the world and the church at the same time.
Commentators differ over the last phrase. The ESV reads "hamstrung oxen." Others keep the older reading, "they dug down a wall," and admit the text is uncertain.
F. B. HoleThe last clause of verse 6 is unclear, because the reading is not certain. But take it as it stands: "they dug down a wall." We may apply this to their murder of their Messiah and Deliverer. In killing Him they destroyed their own separated position, and so dug down the wall of protection that had been theirs.
The father's own share in it
Jacob is not just a shocked bystander. He chose to settle at Shechem himself, and one writer sees the sons finishing what their father began.
J. G. BellettIn the end he sees what all this really was — the fruit of his living at Shechem. In self-will a man had been killed there, and a fence thrown down. But Jacob himself had dug down God's fence before. The call of God had raised a wall between the clean and the unclean, between the Jew and the Gentile. Jacob himself, in spirit, had broken that wall down when he settled as a citizen or landowner on his purchased estate at Shechem.
Shut out, then brought in
Jacob would not enter their council. Neither could God. Yet Levi's own tribe ended up carrying the holy vessels of the tabernacle.
C. H. MackintoshHow striking the language is! God could not come into Levi's council, or join his company. That was impossible. God could have nothing to do with self-will, fierceness, and cruelty. Yet He could bring Levi into His own council, and join him to His company. He could take him out of his home, where the instruments of cruelty were. He could bring him into the tabernacle to handle the holy instruments and vessels there. This was grace — free, sovereign grace. Here we must look for the basis of all Levi's blessed and high service.
Nature and grace tied Levi to two opposite covenants.
C. H. MackintoshBy nature he was "joined" in a covenant of murder; by grace "joined" in a covenant of "life and peace." The former, because he was "fierce and cruel"; the latter, because he feared and was afraid of the Lord's name.
Summary
- United in evil. Jacob judges the brothers as a pair because they acted as a pair. He saw only cruelty and violence, and refused to be identified with them.
- Refused union. They said they were defending their sister's honour. Jacob refused to tie his own honour to what their anger produced.
- Religion as cover. Their revenge came dressed as religion, and the innocent suffered with the guilty. Violence done in God's name wrongs the world and the church at once.
- Fence dug down. Writers differ on the last line: "hamstrung oxen" or "dug down a wall." On the older reading, Jacob's own move to Shechem had already broken God's fence down.
- Joined by grace. God could not enter Levi's company, but He could bring Levi into His own. By nature Levi was joined to a covenant of murder; by grace, to a covenant of life and peace, and to holy service.