Genesis 34:18-23

2009.Jun.05 09:30

Speaking Power to Fools

Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 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.
(Genesis 34:18-19, ESV)

In last week’s episode, Dinah’s brother had just pulled off a bit of deception, convincing Hamor and Shechem to make not just themselves but their whole city vulnerable, having all the males trained in fighting being down and out recovering from circumcision. Hamor falls for it hook, line and sinker, even to the point that he’s feeling his people are getting the best deal. At the cost of short-term pain, he reasons (as seen in verse 23, below), Jacob’s family will be assimilitated into the group Hamor rules. His power will increase.

Shechem’s reasons seem to have little to do with political or economic power, but power none the less. His gain for circumcision will be over Dinah. He has already raped her, but his lustful appetite has only grown with that act. Now he wants her to be his wife, and I don’t think in the way, say, that I am delighted that my wife is married to me. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t believe Shechem is seeking a relationship, a partnership, a family. Rather, he is seeking the sort of power and fame that high school boys think they are to gain by having sex with the hot virgin. Shechem–I am inclined to assume–wants to possess Dinah and thereby to proclaim himself as her master and a man of power. Even though he already is the most honored in the household of a local ruler.

So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, "These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people–when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us."
(Genesis 34:20-23, ESV)

We now watch their plea to the people, and the reasoning is much the same: more for us (Note they fail to mention the reason why this has all come up). We will suffer a little to gain. Actually, that’s not an inherently bad thing if you leave it general like that. After all, we followers of Jesus are called to accept suffering for his sake, knowing that our reward is beyond anything this world can offer. It’s the details that are the problem. The gain here is \ just worldly power, and that hope blinds the people to wisdom.

In their rush to gain, the men of this town make themselves vulnerable, and die for their foolishness. The sons of Jacob acted deceptively, but the men (and perhaps women) of Succoth are really deceived by the promise of wealth and power. Again, these things are not inherently evil. But the love of them, the lust for them and pursuit of them at the expense of greater things–love, faith, obedience, wisdom–is truly destructive.

Genesis 34:13-17

2009.May.29 10:00

Deception

Read Genesis 34:13-17 | Full Chapter

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.
(Genesis 34:13, NASB)

Fabulous question: Are lies ever not sin? Commandment no. 9 is, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." (Exodus 20:16, NASB) , not explicitly a prohibition on all lying (I’m sure there are other relevant passages here, which might clarify my forthcoming rambling). So what of lying in a defensive situation? It’s probably not really applicable here anyway, as, other than getting Dinah away from Shechem’s home, the brothers’ intentions are principally murderous. But it remains a valid question. On the other hand, how much does that answer matter to me? Because the number of situation I am likely to be in where it’s even a useful question are minimal. Hopefully, zero. And what of just plain diplomacy? Talking nice while looking for a stick and all that?

If I’m trying to make a point here, it’s twofold. First, it’s worth remembering that a black/white approach to considering every issue is woefully inadequate; even where I am certain of the righteousness or sinfulness of an action, I must remember that there may be additional elements to the story that need to be also considered when viewing the actions of others. This doesn’t change the nature of the action, but can affect how I react.

Second is that most of the time these edge case questions, while interesting, don’t matter that much. If I am consistently obedient in the clear cases, I will have an easier time being and seeking to be obedient in instances with more gray. In the narrative of Genesis, there’s not much evidence that Jacob made a significant effort to teach his sons to live consistently obedient to Yahweh.

They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. "Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. "But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go."
(Genesis 34:14-17, NASB)

The strategy of Dinah’s brothers is clever. They take advantage of Yahweh’s commandment that all males of their family be circumcised. They’re betting on the painful recovery to allow them an offensive advantage. Without making any theological judgement, I personally disapprove of this strategy, and in general of using my religious obligations to hurt another.

Genesis 34:5-12

2009.May.22 09:00

Negotiating the Priceless

Read Genesis 34:5-12 | Full Chapter

Meanwhile, Jacob heard what had happened. But his sons were out in the fields with the cattle, so he did not do anything at the time.
(Genesis 34:5, CEV)

As a father, I can’t imagine Jacob’s willingness to wait to react to the news that his daughter has been raped. Pragmatically, there are some points to consider:

Customs. The preceding passage definitely reads like rape to me, but maybe there is some courtship ritual going on. As I mentioned last article, I’m disinclined to that opinion.
Wait for his sons and servants to be around. If Jacob wants to attack, it’s wise to wait until he has some fellow attackers. It’s worth remembering that were his primary goal the rescue of his daughter and not purely vengeance, Jacob ought to be able to trust that the same God who has so recently rescued him will come through again. The question of why then Yahweh had not stopped the rape to begin with is one of those wonderfully perplexing problems that I’m going to ignore.
Fear of overreacting. Again, it’s hard to think of what would qualify as a parent overreacting to such news.

Always a bit difficult trying to assess actions that occur in a very different culture; there’s certainly the potential for misinterpretting them.

Hamor arrived at Jacob's home just as Jacob's sons were coming in from work. When they learned that their sister had been raped, they became furiously angry. Nothing is more disgraceful than rape, and it should not be tolerated in Israel.
(Genesis 34:6-7, CEV)

The CEV uses the word “rape” where some other versions are less direct. I’ll leave the word study to someone who could actually give an informed opinion thereupon. Anyway, Dinah’s brothers, upon learning of the situation, are understandably incensed. The narrator breaks out of the story for a moment to note that rape is unacceptable. It amazes me that this needs to be said, but as a species we are rather stupid sometimes. Or that is, we are selfish enough to be willfully unaware.

Hamor said to Jacob and his sons: My son Shechem really loves Dinah. Please let him marry her. Why don't you start letting your families marry into our families and ours marry into yours? You can share this land with us. Move freely about until you find the property you want; then buy it and settle down here. Shechem added, "Do this favor for me, and I'll give whatever you want. Ask anything, no matter how expensive. I'll do anything, just let me marry Dinah."
(Genesis 34:8-12, CEV)

Hamor, Shechem’s father, tries some diplomacy. He can probably see, at least more or less, what is coming. His offer is basically that if Jacob’s family will overlook the “disgrace,” then the two families could form something of a political and economic alliance (how formal this would be is not clear) with particular benefits to Jacob and group. The alliance would be cemented by marriages, beginning with Shechem to Dinah. Or, the bride price for Dinah would be good relations with the powers that be in Succoth. Shechem, now smitten, appears rather emotional in supporting his father’s proposal.

“Just overlook this one thing?”

There are things we value such that they have a price, and there are things we value such that there is no acceptable price (at least not a realistic one; armchair philosophers inventing absurdist scenarios can be ignored).

Genesis 34:1-4

2009.May.15 09:00

Rape

Read Genesis 34:1-4 | Full Chapter

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
(Genesis 34:1-2, NASB)

Life was good. Israel, né Jacob, has returned to Canaan, wealthy, having emerged unscathed from not one but two potentially deadly encounters, and having spent time talking with a messenger of Yahweh (possibly Yahweh himself). He and his family have arrived in Succoth. It’s not clear to me how soon this episode follows that arrival, but life for Israel and family takes a massive turn for the worse: Dinah, the only sister mentioned of the twelve tribal patriarchs, is raped by Shechem, a prince (of a tribe? city? larger group?).

Dinah is mentioned, almost as an aside, in Genesis 30, "Later, Leah had a daughter and named her Dinah" (Genesis 30:21, CEV) . From the position of presentation, Dinah is born shortly before Joseph, at this point the youngest (son, anyway). So, here’s a question: Is Dinah mentioned there solely to introduce her prior to this passage? Because daughters don’t get a lot of mention in Genesis. Since the stories present a geneology leading up to the twelve sons of Jacob, as at least nominal ancestors of the twelve tribes, and since geneologies are often traced through male ancestors in many societies, this is not surprising. But at least to my twenty-first century sensibilities, it is weird. That’s all on that; no point.

Back to the narrative. Dinah is going out to visit the women in her new, if possibly temporary, hometown. Unless there’s an element I’m missing, her action is very positive, trying to establish good relationships within her new community. One could argue that these are just the sort of “bad Canaanites” with whom the people of Israel will be warned against associating (at least to some extent), but I don’t see any reason to make that assumption.

As she’s making her rounds, Shechem sees Dinah, lusts for her, and follows that lust by raping her. So, I’m not at all going to feel sorry for him in what he has coming. It’s hard to really make a point about rape, at least not one requiring any real argument. It is simply one of the vilest things one human can do to another (I can see an argument here that this could be consensual, but I think that would be a difficult argument to support).

He was deeply attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young girl for a wife."
(Genesis 34:3-4, NASB)

Then something occurs to Shechem. He actually rather likes Dinah. I suppose he could have considered the rape part of some courtship ritual, but judging by her brothers’ response, I’m not willing to even give him that little bit of credit. He’s a selfish ass, and that’s finally coming back to haunt him. So, like David many centuries later, Shechem is going to try to “make it right”. Note, if you’re trying to make it right, you’ve already f—ed up. That’s not to say that one shouldn’t try to fix things, but rather that we must not deceive ourselves by supposing that by “fixing” it, we can pretend our original actions weren’t entirely inappropriate, sinful, etc.

So, anyway, Shechem asks his father to follow whatever the contemporary customs are in order to become afianced to Dinah. What Hamor must be thinking now is an interesting, if unanswerable, question. His position is certainly uneviable, approaching this newly arrived (or not) rich foreigner and negotiating (?) a marriage, not knowing their customs, and realizing that this man could know about Shechem’s raping his daughter and might just be royally pissed.

Genesis 33:12-20

2009.May.08 17:00

Good to See You…Bye, Now.

Read Genesis 33:12-20 | Full Chapter

Then Esau said, "Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you." But he said to him, "My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. "Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir." Esau said, "Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me." But he said, "What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."
(Genesis 33:12-15, NASB)

As best I can gather, the main point of this whole passage is that Esau invites Jacob to join him in Seir (Edom, I believe), where Esau has taken up residence and whose later occupants will be oft referred to as descendents of Esau. What I gather is that Jacob has no intention of heading to Seir, south of Canaan, whence he left, to which he is returning.

I guess.

Anyway, there’s this back and forth with Jacob saying Esau should go on and Esau saying they should travel together. This could just be some sort of diplomatic/politeness ritual. Eventually, Esau agrees to hit the road.

So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth. Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money. Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
(Genesis 33:16-20, NASB)

So, Jacob has survived, perhaps to his surprise, encounters with both Laban and Esau. And life is good. He’s returned to Canaan and for maybe the first time in his life isn’t at odds with anyone. He’s not perhaps “settled”, but he could certainly be very comfortable at this point. What a journey!

Now, we’re going to start seeing his kids more, especially his sons, the at least nominal patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. And we’ll also get to see what’s not apparent at this moment of relative ease, how Jacob’s playing favorites and allowing the growth of jealousies within his family has affected those children and their future. Ultimately, Yahweh’s going to jump in and work out a lot of this stuff, but the road is going to be much more painful than is immediately apparent at this point.

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