34:1
So far the tales we have read have been fairly gentle. There has been the odd murder, there has been lying and decpetion, but also a lot of examples of faith. There has been an intermingling of faith and doubt, obedience and disobedience. This is what life is like, and the Bible is utterly realistic. It is now about to get mercilessly realistic. There are some parts of Genesis, as there are in Judges, which are nothing but sordid. Sometimes we tell tales about humanity which paint a rose-tinted picture. The Bible is brutally realistic and honest about the nature of humanity, and the effects of sin. In this chapter we have an example of this affecting Jacob’s family. This example involves Dinah, the daughter of Leah. She went out to see the “women of the land”. Back in Gen 27:46 Rebekah had warned against Jacob marrying “one of the women of the land”.
34:2-4
We see immediately why Rebekah had been wary of the people of the land. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite raped Dinah. Hamor was a “prince of the land”, so presumably of some importance. There is a mixture of lust and attraction in his attitude towards Dinah. It begins with pure lust, but then he decides he quite likes her and speaks to his father, wanting her as a wife.
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