Genesis 34: 1-31 "The Rape of Dinah Living in a Wicket World" [Part 1 of 2]

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 1:53 The Rape of Dinah – Living In a Wicked World [Genesis 34: 1-31]
• 21:02 Farewell and Outro

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated

The Rape of Dinah – Living In a Wicked World

Genesis 34: 1-31 [Part 1 of 2]

I don’t have to tell you that we live in a very wicked world. You would probably already agree with that question. I want to ask, if that is the case and we are surrounded by evil and wickedness, how should we respond? What is the proper response to that reality but also what is an improper response? We’re all faced with it and we all respond one way or another, even if it’s to do nothing. That’s an interesting question, isn’t it, is it OK to do nothing as a response to the evil around us. The other option is to go to some extreme and live are life in fear all the time. Is there a middle ground that is correct, what is the wise way to respond to this wicked world in which we live? Is the right response to evil is it possible to figure out what to do that honours the Lord and yet seeks what’s right, both at the same time. 

In going through the Book of Genesis, we have come to a passage that I think gives us some insight in at least in what not to do. Now it’s a troubling chapter and those who approach it in isolation without remembering to put the events depicted in it within the context of the entire book of Genesis are in great danger of reaching the wrong conclusions. So let’s approach it cautiously and do as we always do and work through the chapter verse by verse.

“Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land”.

(Genesis 34: 1)

Now remember we’re in the middle of the story of Jacob. If you’ve been with us through the last few podcasts, you may remember that Jacob fled his homeland for 20 years and he has now come back. He has been reconciled with his brother, and he ends up in the city of Shechem and this passage reminds us that he had a daughter called Dinah. You may recall, the Book of Genesis says he had twelve sons and, but this is about his one and only daughter, Dinah. Not surprisingly with twelve brothers, she probably wanted to have a social live among the women of the land. So, verse one says she went out to find a woman friend, probably somebody her own age that she could relate to. Only it was local woman she went out among not the Israelite women. Probably because they were based in Shechem and all she could find were local women. Bible teachers have tried to figure out how old she was. Given the little information we have, it’s not an exact science. One commentary I read that said she was somewhere between. 13 and 15 years old, another said she was 15 to 16 years old. So, the informed opinion seems to suggest she is somewhere between 13 and16. So she’s what seems to we today would call a young teenager. She’s out looking for girlfriend when things take a dark turn.

“When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her”.

(Genesis 34:2)

Oh dear, the one who raped her is called Shechem and the region is also  Shechem. This means he was a Prince or a ruler of the region, so clearly he thought he had special privileges. This is a familiar of story sexual violence which usually involves an abuse of power. There is little doubt Shechem grew up with a sense of entitlement and probably thought he was a above everybody else. Today we still hear stories of people who have power or privilege thinking they can do what they wish. They think they can just go out and do anything they want, and that is what’s going on here. But let me make another observation. Jacob shouldn’t have provided some protection for a young girl living in a pagan neighbourhood because it was Canaanite territory, who reputation for immoral living has already been identified in the Genesis stories so far. She was going into a neighbourhood that wasn’t Israelite and they were pagans with all of the stuff that pertains to that. Bible experts agree that Jacob is falling down as a father, he’s not protecting his teenage daughter and she unfortunately pays the consequences. What’s interesting in this particular case is that the man who raped her then says he is attracted to her. Look at the next verse. 

“ His heart was drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. and Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

(Genesis 34: 3-4)

So even though he violated her, it says he fell in love with her, and he wanted to marry her.  

When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so, he did nothing about it until they came home. “Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done”.

(Genesis 34: 5-7)

It was the custom of the day to ask parents to make arrangements for their children to be married. So, it was according to the custom of the day for Shechem to go to his father and say I found the girl I want to marry. Now, if his son is going to marry Dinah, then as a father he is going to have to go and speak to Jacob. These opening versus just sort of set stage for what is about to happen.

What happens next is, Hamer, Shechem’s father, goes to Jacob and requests that they make arrangements for marriage, and this is where the story starts getting interesting. We know Jacob has heard but his sons are with his livestock out in the fields. So, Jacob holds his peace until they came home. Now that’s particularly interesting because when we get deeper into this book one of his sons will go missing and he gets very upset. Yet his daughter gets raped, and he appears to be passive about the whole thing. Now some suggested that it would be the custom for him to wait till the sons to get home, but that doesn’t cut it for me.

If you read the rest of the passage, it's obvious that he is passive in this whole thing, if fact you could say he was shockingly insensitive to the whole situation and did nothing until her brothers came home. Then the father of Shechem come out to speak with Jacob and his sons come in from the field and they hear about it. Dinah’s brothers are very angry. Do you see any contrast here? It hasn’t mentioned Jacob getting angry yet, but, it is obvious that the brothers get upset, they’re furious, in fact. Jacob is just passive in this whole situation, but they are very angry saying Shechem had done a disgraceful thing by sleeping with their sister. “Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel”, is how they word it. What’s significant in that verse is the use of the word “Israel”. This is the first time this word appears in this regard, and it is indicative of the fact that this is a word that is used to make the point that this terrible thing has been done among God’s chosen people, “Israel”. So, the author is saying this offence was against one of God’s chosen people and they were very angry about it. It was their father’s Jacob, the man who had his named changed by God himself to Israel, that this had been done to. It was his daughter and their sister that had been violated.

“But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

(Genesis 34: 8-10)

Alright, here’s the proposal made by Shechem’s father, and it is not just for marriage, it much wider than that, it’s to share the land together and for both sets of children to intermarry. But what did God’s say about his chosen people Israel, when he chose them and made his covenant with them. They were to be a people set apart unto him. They were not to intermarry. This is a bad suggestion, and on top of that they want to make a commercial venture out of the whole arrangement. They say look, we’re all going to live in this land together, so we’ll just intermarry, and we will trade together, we’ll do business together. He didn’t just ask that. Jacob’s daughter becomes married to his son, he made a much larger proposition that, namely we make this new mixed community the basis of a new business relationship which will create a whole new society.

“Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favour in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

(Genesis 34: 11-12)

Now whatever you say about this Shechem, and there’s a lot of negative things we can say, he apparently really now wants to marry this girl, and he appears to have fallen in love with this her. Different times, eh, or maybe not so different. He was willing to pay whatever they asked for the dowry. Just give me this girl I want to marry this girl. That was the request, here’s the response.

“Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor”.

(Genesis 34: 13)

The keyword in the verse is, “deceitfully”. So, pay attention for what they are about to say is an attempt to deceive Shechem and his father. They aren’t sincere and they aren’t speaking the truth. This is the beginning of a deception, pure and simple.

“ They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.  We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you”.

(Genesis 34: 14-16)

They don’t mean any of this. How do we know that? Because the text point out, it was all a deception. If you recall, God told Abraham to practice circumcision, which was a symbol and a sign that God was going to set his people apart and greatly multiply Abraham family line and give him a lot of descendants out of whom the Messiah would eventually come. However, other people also practiced circumcision at that time, even adult circumcision, so this request that all of their men be circumcised isn’t out of the ordinary. This request would have struck them as a reasonable thing. They think that if we just adopt their custom and all of us are circumcised then we can consolidate this deal. So that’s the proposal but keep in mind this is a deception. Alright, keep reading. 

 “ But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go” Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. The young man, who was the most honoured of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.  So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city”.

(Genesis 34: 17-20)

So where we pause here it seems these two groups of people are at peace with each other.

“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are”.  Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

(Genesis 34: 21-23)

So, the Shechemite people are saying, you know what? OK, let’s do this.

“All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised”.

(Genesis 34: 24)

In ancient times all the business dealings were done at the city gate. This is something like saying they all met at City Hall and the Shechemite council ratified this. They will become one people. We will swap, our daughters will marry their sons and their daughters will marry our son, and we’re all going to live happily ever after. Is this a possibility? Is that how it is really going to work out, well we will find out next time.