Genesis 34:18-23
2009.Jun.05 09:30
Speaking Power to Fools
Read Genesis 34:18-23 | Full Chapter
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 34:1-4
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, nĂ© 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.
