Genesis 34 – The Rape of Dinah a Threat to the Family’s Distinct Identity

Shortly after Jacob has successfully separated from his brother Esau a new threat to the distinct identity of the family emerges. Shechem, a Canaanite prince, seeks to marry Jacob’s daughter Dinah after raping her.

Dinah had gone out to visit with “the daughters of the land” when Shechem sees her and defiles her. Dinah was hanging out with the wrong people. She was making friends with the world around her rather than remaining faithful to the family code of not mingling or marrying the pagan Canaanites which surrounded them.

Jacob himself was sent all the way to Haran to marry within the family to avoid marrying the pagans in his home area. His twin brother Esau had troubled their parents by marrying a Hittite woman:

And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon, the Hittite: Who were bitterness of spirit unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Genesis 26.34-35

Later Esau marries a daughter of Ishmael

And Esau saw how Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padanaram, to take a wife from there for himself, and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob had hearkened unto his father and his mother and had gone to Padanaram; and Esau, seeing that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father, Esau went unto Ishmael and took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife. Genesis 28.8-9

The ramifications of these marriages still plague relations between Israel and Islam to this day in the Middle East. Esau is the father of the Edomites (Gen 36.9) from which King Herod the Idumean came.

Shechem now called Nablus is also the name of an important city which still exists in what is now the West Bank of Israel controlled by the local Palestinian population. The city lies between Mount Ebal, the mount of cursing and Mount Gezarim, the mount of blessing (Deut 27.11-26).

Hamor, the father of Shechem goes to visit Jacob to negotiate a marriage between the families. The sons of Jacob are very angry about the whole affair. Jacob’s sons deceitfully negotiate a marriage on the terms that all of Hamor’s tribe become circumcised. Shechem agrees and after talking it over the rest of the tribe agrees to become circumcised. They believe by agreeing they will eventually become enriched by marrying into Jacob’s tribe.

On the third day after becoming circumcised and, very sore, Simeon and Levi enter the town and kill all the men. They take Dinah and leave. The rest of Jacob’s sons come and take all the plunder, wives, and children including all the livestock.

Jacob is very displeased with this and tells Simeon and Levi they have caused him and the family to be in great danger of being attacked by the surrounding Canaanite tribes. Simeon and Levi ask Jacob if their sister should be treated like a harlot and the chapter ends. In Genesis 35 Jacob tells the family to rid themselves of strange gods prior to moving.

Harlot in Hebrew – Strong’s #2181 = To be, become a prostitute, be sexually immoral turning into a harlot.

Things we can learn and some interesting facts

We are to be a set apart moral family shining our light in an immoral world. Our character and friends should shine as a light to the world. The ways of the world should not become our way of life. The Apostle Paul lists how we should walk in a sinful world:

But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition   For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6.6-12 Note it is “Love of money” that entraps us, not the money itself.

Jacob’s sons deceitfully set up Hamor’s family to make a covenant which would later be prohibited in the Torah. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.

Little by little I will drive them out from before thee until thou be multiplied and take the land by inheritance… Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land lest peradventure they make thee sin against me by serving their gods, for it will be a snare unto thee…Exodus 23.28-33

Deuteronomy will later forbid intermarriage with the pagan tribes: When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land into which thou must enter to inherit it and has cast out many Gentiles before thee, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them.

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods; and the anger of the LORD will be kindled upon you and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images in the fire. Deuteronomy 7.1-5

Non marital sex would also be addressed later in the Torah: When a man finds a damsel that is a virgin who is not betrothed and lays hold on her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver and she shall be his wife; because he has humbled her, he may not divorce her all his days. Deuteronomy 22.28-29

Intermarriage and embracing false gods would eventually lead the Israelites toward immorality, corruption, turning away from Yahweh the one true God.

This story brings up another interesting example. The brothers who killed for the sake of the family’s honor will later have their own brother, Joseph, sold into slavery in Genesis 37.

In Genesis 49.5-7 Jacob curses the anger of Simeon and Levi for their excessive zeal and revenge. Simeon would be absorbed into the tribe of Judah receiving the poor desert land in Beersheba (Joshua 19.1-9).

Levi would become the priestly tribe with the bloody and difficult job of slaughtering the sacrificial animals (Numbers 25).

The city of Shechem, today known as Nablus, is located in the West Bank of Israel under Palestinian control. It is difficult for Western Tourists to visit, but not impossible. Joseph’s grave is there but has recently been vandalized in April 2022. Rachel’s tomb is located in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.

In Jewish tradition Edom in the Book of Obadiah is a type of the nations which will come against Israel during Jacob’s trouble. Gen 36.1 Esau is Edom – Bozrah (sheep pen) was a royal city of Edom. Jeremiah 49.13; 22 pronounced judgment on Bozrah. Isaiah 63.1-6 and Micah 2.12-13 picture Yeshua the breaker coming to save his people in Bozrah the sheep pen.

 

Gen 36 Esau is Edom – Bozrah (sheep pen) was a royal city of Edom. Jeremiah 49.13; 22 pronounced judgment on Bozrah. Isaiah 63.1-6 and Micah 2.12-13 pictures Yeshua the breaker coming to save his people in Bozrah the sheep pen.

Simeon receives no blessing from Moses in Deuteronomy 33.