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Thursday 18 February 2010

Genesis 34

This is another story of an incident with little to commend it morally. There is an attack on Jacob's family in the form of Shechem, a Hivite, raping Jacob's daughter Dinah.  Verse 3 seems to indicate there was more to it than mere lust. Hamor then tries to use the incident to get the two people's to intermarry, offering trade as an additional incentive.

Jacob's sons do the right thing by not going along with this, but go about it in a deceitful way, just as Jacob had gone about many things in a deceitful way. They pretend to go along with the offer, but insist that the Hivites circumcise themselves. The Hivites agreed to this, but after they had circumcised themselves, the Israelites attacked and killed the Hivites.

Jacob is concerned about the after effects, but his sons are more concerned about the loss of honour. Older people tend to have a more pragmatic outlook on life.

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