Genesis 34: 7-13: “And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; which thing ought not to be done. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife. And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:”
Jacob’s family was very proud. We can see that from the competition that occurred between Jacob and his brother, Jacob’s wives and Jacob and his in laws. They felt as though their pride was severely dented by this episode. After all, the young man showed them no respect at all when he took their sister by force. They would have known about the fact that Jacob went to Haran to find a wife because his mother didn’t want him to marry a local woman. This also added further insult. Although, of course, they didn’t think about a husband for their sister at this stage. They were living in the Promised Land and Jacob had agreed with Laban not to go back to Abraham’s homeland. Dinah doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Bible so we cannot say what happened to her after this episode. We have seen how Jacob’s sons were used to deceit, for both their father and their maternal grandfather were deceitful so they followed the patterns that they knew and dealt deceitfully with Shechem and Hamor. We can understand from this that people will tend to do what they see in their own family life. However, every person is ultimately responsible for their own actions, that is, you can’t help what happens to you when you are a child but when you are an adult you choose what you think.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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