Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 65
34:14–35:1
G enesis
53
responded deceitfully to Shechem and his father, Hamor. They said to
them, “We couldn’t possibly allow this, because you’re not circumcised.
It would be a disgrace for our sister to marry a man like you! But here is a
solution. If every man among you will be circumcised like we are, then we
will give you our daughters, and we’ll take your daughters for ourselves.
We will live among you and become one people. But if you don’t agree to
be circumcised, we will take her and be on our way.”
Hamor and his son Shechem agreed to their proposal. Shechem wasted
no time in acting on this request, for he wanted Jacob’s daughter desperately. Shechem was a highly respected member of his family, and he
went with his father, Hamor, to present this proposal to the leaders at the
town gate.
“These men are our friends,” they said. “Let’s invite them to live here
among us and trade freely. Look, the land is large enough to hold them.
We can take their daughters as wives and let them marry ours. But they will
consider staying here and becoming one people with us only if all of our
men are circumcised, just as they are. But if we do this, all their livestock
and possessions will eventually be ours. Come, let’s agree to their terms
and let them settle here among us.”
So all the men in the town council agreed with Hamor and Shechem,
and every male in the town was circumcised. But three days later, when
their wounds were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, who
were Dinah’s full brothers, took their swords and entered the town without
opposition. Then they slaughtered every male there, including Hamor and
his son Shechem. They killed them with their swords, then took Dinah
from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp.
Meanwhile, the rest of Jacob’s sons arrived. Finding the men slaughtered, they plundered the town because their sister had been defiled there.
They seized all the flocks and herds and donkeys—everything they could
lay their hands on, both inside the town and outside in the fields. They
looted all their wealth and plundered their houses. They also took all their
little children and wives and led them away as captives.
Afterward Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have ruined me! You’ve
made me stink among all the people of this l and—among all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will join forces and crush us. I
will be ruined, and my entire household will be wiped out!”
“But why should we let him treat our sister like a prostitute?” they retorted angrily.
Then God said to Jacob, “Get ready and move to Bethel and settle there.
Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from
your brother, Esau.”
