Genesis 35

Here is the cast of characters for this chapter. Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel. Leah had a daughter named Dinah. She gets raped by a non-Israelite named Shechem. Dinah’s two brothers, Simeon and Levi, seek revenge by massacring Shechem and all the other men of the village. Then the other brothers pillaged the village and kidnapped all the women and children. Other than that, it’s just another peaceful month in the life of Abraham’s descendants.

Verse 1, Dinah, the daughter of Leah . . . and Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land . . took her and lay with her. . . and he loved the damsel. And Shechem said to his father says to his father, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

First, who were the Hivites? The word Hivites means “villagers.” They were among the Canaanites, the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. You might recall Ham was the one who disrespected Noah in Genesis 9, where we hear Noah say, “Cursed be Canaan!”.

Shechem the rapist was the son of Hamor, the prince of this village. Being a prince was not quite the same as being Prince of Wales today. It just meant that his father was probably the village chief.

Does the statement made by Shechem, “Get me this damsel” sound a bit familiar? Didn’t Samson make the same demand of his parents? Judges 14:2 “I have seen a Philistine woman (another non-Israelite) in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” Do these young men sound a bit like spoiled brats who have permissive parents who gave their sons everything they wanted and not what they needed, like self-discipline, character, etc.?

Hamor, the father of the spoiled prince went to visit Jacob with a marriage proposal between his son and Jacob’s daughter, Dinah (verse 6). You will notice that Dinah isn’t even a part of the discussion. She is being held hostage by Shechem. Hamor tells Jacob that his people can settle in the land, trade in it, and have all the rights of citizenship. This was a highly valued privilege. They were being offered the chance to move to the front of the immigration line and to have all the rights and privileges of natural born citizens.

Should Jacob even be having this type of conversation with Hamor? “Hi Jacob. My son just raped and kidnapped your daughter. Do you want to do business with us, join our “team”?

Verse 8, “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.”

The Israelites were prohibited from intermarrying with these people. Imagine if Charles Manson invited Roman Polanski, husband of Sharon Tate, murder victim of the Manson family, to marry one of his girls involved in Sharon’s murder.

The son speaks up and tells Jacob and Dinah’s brothers to name their price for Dinah, “I will give you whatever you ask. I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife.”

Verse 13, “Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem.” Really? Deceitfulness? Aren’t we all shocked? The sons say that the only way they would agree to the marriage if all Hivites got circumcised. To sell the idea to his own people, Hamor tells them that if they agree to the Israelites’ demands, their livestock and property will be theirs.

Do you see the deceitfulness on both sides? The Israelites had no intentions of intermarrying with these people. But, of course, there is deceitfulness in most courtships, even today. Everyone gets dressed up nicely and is on their best behavior, as if they are going for a job interview. I tell my students if you want to know what someone is like in real life, you need to go with them on a mission trip. You want to see the other person when they are tired, hungry, have to eat strange food, work hard, and worse of all, do without their smartphone and internet connection. Under these pressures, you will see who is lazy, who is a complainer, who maintains a sense of humor, etc. Maybe we should start a dating service and take people to an impoverished part of the U.S. or elsewhere for a “test of character” to reveal the real person.

Hamor is agreeable to the terms proposed by Jacob and his sons. Now he has to convince the men of his village to go along with it. Notice in verse 20 how Hamor and his son Shechem spoke to his fellow townsmen to tell them of the proposal.  First, they told them the benefits they would derive by allowing them into the country. They will provide us with more business, trade and we can intermarry with them. These people will bring into our area the business we need, skills, women to marry, and they won’t be a burden in anyway. And in verse 23, he says that their livestock, their property and all their other animals will become ours. Was he saying this to get them to agree or was he lying? How would he obtain all of the wealth of the Israelites? Would you want to do business with such a person?

Notice that the village chief, the person in authority, gives his views first and the benefits of the proposal. Only after they are supportive of the plan, or pretend to be, does he reveal the one requirement imposed upon them.

Notice also who is joining who? The Canaanites were not joining the offspring of Abraham; rather, the descendants of Abraham would be joining with the Canaanites. This is counter to Abraham’s command to his servant to NOT get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites (Gen 24:3) and Rebekah in the case of Jacob and to Isaac’s command, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman” (Gen 28:1).

The condition of marriage was circumcision. Keep in mind, this was before the availability of local anesthetics such as cocaine used in the late 1800’s, then amylocaine in 1903 and the commonly used lidocaine of today wasn’t invented until after WW II. Nor were there sharp surgical scalpels like we use today. So, for these people to agree to the group circumcision, well, they must have had a lot of wine on hand.

Do you see Hamor manipulating these people into agreeing? Notice how these people were manipulated into making their decision. First, the person in authority gave his view first. Imagine if the president or a military commander or a manufacturer gave his view first, then asked, “What do you think?” It’s clear that expressing his view first manipulated the thinking of the group. This leads to Groupthink, where there is pressure for everyone to think alike. Notice also that Hamor gave the benefits of the proposal first, to get them excited about the plan. Only then did he tell them of the condition. One church leader who I’m familiar with used a similar technique to manipulate people into giving money. He would start his fundraising letter with good news, perhaps that a large radio station was offering airtime for their radio broadcasts. He says, “This is probably the MOST IMPORTANT announcement I have ever made to our Co-Workers.” Everyone gets excited. Then he tells them that the only roadblock to success is raising enough MONEY to pay for the airtime. There is then an urgent plea for funds with a hefty dose of guilt thrown in for those who are hesitant to jump on board with the rest of the members. Fear is also used, “We have to redouble our efforts! A miracle is now needed to keep the work going.” In other words, if this fails, it is all your fault and you will have to answer to God Almighty for not giving more money. Then the checkbooks open wide and the money flows in.

How do you avoid Groupthink? You should create an atmosphere where minority opinions are welcomed. Notice in Acts 15, when the church got together to discuss whether the gentiles had to observe the Law of Moses. Verse 5, some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and spoke, then Verse 7, after much discussion (not one person in authority lecturing) lecturing a passive audience), Peter got up and addressed them. Peter wasn’t the first to express his views. Later, verse 12, Paul and Barnabas spoke, then in verse 13 James spoke. Everyone had the chance to express their views and only at the end did James wrap it up with a summary of the arguments and his view, verse 19, “It is my judgment, therefore . . .”

Imagine if you are a member of Hamor’s village. Everyone is nodding their heads in approval of the proposal. You have your doubts, but there is subtle pressure for everyone to go along with it. Groupthink is taking hold. All agreed and were circumcised.

Three days later, (verse 15) when the pain of the procedure is greatest, Simeon and Levi attacked the men and killed them, all of them, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, where she was held hostage and left. Then the rest of the brothers arrived and looted the village, carried off all the wealth as well as the women and children. You will oftentimes see that the whole town is held responsible for the sin of a few because they didn’t act responsibly. Perhaps the people should have confronted Hamor and Shechem concerning the original crime of rape. This is collective responsibility.

Meanwhile, back at the home of Jacob, it’s dinner time. Jacob asks, “Well boys, what did you do today?” “Not much, Dad, we just slaughtered all the men of the village and plundered everything. You know, the usual, genocide and plundering. How was your day?”

Jacob was not pleased, at all. Verse 30, he says to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” But, they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” Here the sons may have thought that Jacob was too willing to compromise with Hamor. There was to be NO intermarriage between the Israelites and their neighbors. Any discussion of the subject should never have taken place.

In Exodus 21:24 is speak of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”, which means, in a court of law, the penalty should fit the crime. In this case, mass slaughter and looting were not an eye for an eye. The punishment should not be disproportionate to the crime.

Jacob was very disappointed in Simeon and Levi and he will keep their poor judgement in mind when, in chapter 49 of Genesis he allocates land to his children. In Genesis 49:5 Jacob says to these two sons, “their swords of weapons of violence. . . they have killed men in their anger . . cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them among Jacob and disperse them in Israel.” The descendants of these two violent men will not have their own territory in the land of Israel. They will be scattered among the other tribes. This way, they won’t be able, as a group, to endanger other people.

What do you do with people who have poor judgement yet are very ambitious, as we see with Simeon and Levi? There was a German general who categorized his officers this way: The intelligent and lazy officers were made commanders. Commanders had to make sound decisions; but didn’t do a lot of the planning work.

The intelligent and hard working were made staff officers. The staff does all the detailed planning for personnel, supplies, transportation, medical care, etc.

The stupid and lazy couldn’t do any damage so they were simply plugged into a slot somewhere.

But, the stupid and hard-working, these guys were dangerous to have around and you had to get them out of the system. I think that Jacob would have placed Simeon and Levi in this category. He had to disperse them among the other tribes, otherwise, as a group, they could cause a lot of trouble.

Jacob said that this Manson Family like slaughter made them “a stench” to the neighboring people.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we are Christ’s Ambassadors (II Cor 5:20). We represent Christ. An American Ambassador might be the only American that others see. Our everyday lives send a message to others. We can attract people to Christianity by our lives or we can repel them. I bet you can make a sermon out of this one thought.



So, we touched on German generals, local anesthetics, group think, Charlie Manson and manipulative fund raising by cult leaders, all in a Bible study about Jacob and his dysfunctional family. Who would have guessed?