Shechem, Dinah's attacker, wants to marry her. His father Hamor has come to speak to Jacob about arranging the marriage and he has presented the idea very attractively. He's a ruler in the area and is very wealthy and influential. Jacob is quite wealthy himself and could also become an influential official if he allies his family with Hamor's. Shechem was wrong to force himself sexually on Dinah but in his culture it seems things like that can be smoothed over with a marriage proposal and by fanning large sums of money around.
Jacob has not taken the lead role in sorting this mess out but has left it up to his sons to handle the negotiations. This is a grave mistake. His sons are being led by their emotions right now and not by reason, so they pretend to negotiate with Hamor while plotting revenge. Hamor has suggested not only that they give Dinah to his son in marriage but also that the entire family would intermarry with his people, making one very large and prosperous clan. The sons of Jacob pretend to consider Hamor's proposal. "Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and to his father Hamor. They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go." (Genesis 34:13-17) I think Jacob's sons can tell that the men of the city are very much motivated by greed. They intend to use these men's greed against them. Jacob's sons threaten to leave the area and take their money with them instead of joining their family with the citizens of Shechem.
In Genesis 17 the Lord gave to Abraham what is called "the covenant of circumcision". All the males of Abraham's line were to undergo this procedure as a permanent reminder in the flesh that they are separate from pagan heathens and that they belong to the Lord. It was a sign to the males of the line of Abraham that the Lord would keep this promise made to Abraham: "I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:6-8) The Lord gave this covenant only to the descendants of Abraham and no other peoples are required to perform the sign of the covenant. In the New Testament, when Gentiles start believing in and being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders of the Christian church do not require them to undergo circumcision. It's not a practice that makes a person more "saved"; it's a practice that reminds the Jewish males of the covenant the Lord made with their father Abraham and it's a reminder that the Lord will never abandon the nation of Israel.
Jacob and all of his sons have undergone circumcision, and now his sons present this one physical thing as the only difference between them and the pagan men of the Canaanite city in which they currently reside. Nothing could be further from the truth, but the Canaanites don't understand the difference between themselves and the descendants of Abraham. The Canaanites don't serve Abraham's God and couldn't care less about Him. They have no covenant with the living God and the rituals involved in serving the living God mean nothing to them. If they even believe the God of Abraham exists I'm sure they think He is only one of many gods. To these Canaanites, being circumcised presents a temporary and minor inconvenience. It means nothing to them spiritually and it seems like a small price to pay to join themselves with a large and wealthy family. This blending is expected to make them one of the most powerful and well-to-do cities in the region and it will offer them an extra measure of security against any enemies they may have. Warlike tribes in the area would think twice about attacking a city with the resources this one will have once they all band together.
Jacob's sons are requesting the Canaanite men to undergo circumcision as a way of weakening them for attack, but Hamor and his son Shechem suspect nothing. "Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. 'These men are friendly toward us,' they said. 'Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.'" (Genesis 34:18-23) The men are willing to agree to these unusual terms because of their greed. Jacob's sons have said to them, "You all are a bunch of uncircumcised heathens. We can't let our sister or our daughters marry into your families unless you undergo this ritual. But if you do undergo it, we'll consider you to be just like us and we won't have any objections to intermarriage." At no point do any of Jacob's sons invite the Canaanites to turn to and serve the living God. They are not trying to convert them. Circumcision in the flesh doesn't convert anyone; it's an outward sign of what should be in a man's heart---a love for the Lord. Who knows, maybe if Jacob's sons had tried to convert the men of the city, some of them might actually have turned to the Lord. A great revival might have broken out. But no one talks to them about the Lord and they agree to be circumcised because to them it's no big deal in the scheme of things. They intend to keep on living the way they've always lived and they intend to keep on serving idols. "All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised." (Genesis 34:24)
"Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses." (Genesis 34:25-29) Pain and swelling from surgical wounds are usually at their worst on about the third day. That's when the discomfort tends to reach its peak, so all the men of the city of Shechem are lying in bed at home. They are not at their businesses or working in the fields. They are too uncomfortable to do anything but lie still waiting for their wounds to heal. That's why the sons of Jacob choose the third day as the day to carry out their murderous plot. They know it's going to be as easy to pick all these men off as it would be to shoot fish in a barrel, as the saying goes. None will escape because none will be anywhere other than at home. Just think about how cold-blooded and premeditated the attack is! The sons of Jacob have had three days to reconsider. They've had three days to cool off and back down from their plans of revenge. But they haven't wavered an inch. Simeon and Levi, the full brothers of Dinah through the union of Leah and Jacob, systematically go through every house in the city killing the men one by one. The other ten brothers come along behind them looting and pillaging.
I don't believe Jacob knew about his sons' plot. We can tell by what he says later upon hearing the news, but I still find it disturbing that he had been willing to go along with allowing his family to intermarry with the heathen Canaanites. When his sons proposed their deceitful plan to Hamor, Jacob didn't know it was a lie but he didn't speak out against the agreement his sons appeared to be making with Hamor and the men of the city. Jacob knows it's not the Lord's will for the descendants of Abraham to intermarry with idolaters. Abraham made certain to obtain a wife for his son Isaac from among his believing relatives. Isaac made certain to obtain a wife for Jacob from among his relatives who believed in the one true God (although the father of Rachel and Leah also practiced some other forms of religion as evidenced by the presence of small idols in his house). Why would Jacob find the idea of intermarriage acceptable? We don't know, unless he is still struggling against the carnal side of his nature and is motivated by ambition. The Canaanites might be godless but they are wealthy. Or it could be that, grieved by what has happened to his daughter and grieved by the fact that it could have been prevented, he feels trapped into making the best of a bad situation.
When Jacob's sons come home with all the women, children, livestock, and belongings of the men of Shechem, Jacob is appalled to hear what they've done. He's not horrified by the loss of life as much as he is afraid that he and his family will be wiped out. "Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 'You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.'" (Genesis 34:30) The actions of his sons are far out of proportion to what happened to their family. Dinah should never have been sexually violated, but no one from the city of Shechem killed anyone who belonged to Jacob. I can understand if Jacob doesn't really care that a bad thing has happened to the man who raped his daughter. Any loving father might not feel pity upon hearing that the person who hurt his daughter is dead. I can also understand Jacob having a callous and suspicious attitude toward all the men of the city after what happened to Dinah there. But a number of men have lost their lives---men who had nothing to do with the attack on Dinah. Jacob doesn't seem as disturbed by that as he should be. I can't decide if Jacob is just very unfeeling about this or if he's speaking in a panic. He's scared his entire family might be killed now if the tribes of Canaan band together to avenge the men who have been slaughtered. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his mind is preoccupied with the safety of those he loves. The slaughter of the men of Shechem is already a done deal; there's nothing Jacob can do to change it. All he can do now is make sure nothing bad happens to anyone else.
When Jacob scolds and accuses his sons they are unrepentant. They do not think they reacted disproportionately. Their pride has been hurt that any man would dare to touch their sister. They have been dishonored. In their opinion, the wholesale slaughter of every man in the city was an appropriate response. "But they replied, 'Should they have treated our sister like a prostitute?'" (Genesis 34:31)
The family is going to have to leave the area immediately. The Lord will tell Jacob to get out of this city where He never intended him to settle in the first place. Jaocb's eldest son Reuben will do something later on that disqualifies him from being Jacob's chief heir and the one through whose descendants the Messiah will come, which would have put either Simeon or Levi in the running as the forefather of the Redeemer except they have disqualified themselves by being heartless killers. Their younger brother Judah, the son of Leah and Jacob, will be the one from whose descendants the Lord Jesus will come. The line of Judah will become the royal line of Israel, and it is into this tribe Jesus of Nazareth will be born. Despite all their mistakes, the Lord doesn't abandon Jacob or his twelve sons. The Lord doesn't abandon His plan to bring a Redeemer from their family. Thanks be to the God who is able to weave even our mistakes into the tapestry of our lives and make something beautiful from them! I've made a lot of mistakes, haven't you? But the Lord still called me to salvation through His Son. The Lord still wanted to make something out of me, just as He still wanted to make something out of the sons of Jacob. The family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ contains a lot of very shady characters, as we have seen, and we will see a lot more shady characters as we continue on through the Bible. But the Lord was willing to be born into a family of imperfect people. The Lord was willing to die for imperfect humans so He could make something better out of us than we could ever have been without Him. He's not ashamed of His family tree and He's not ashamed of us either, for through faith in Him we are considered "not guilty" of all our crimes against a holy God. Faith in the Lord is what makes us the family of God, and Jesus isn't ashamed of anyone in his family, which is why the Bible assures us "Jesus is not ashamed" to call us His brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11)
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