seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 34:34 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
This is one of those stories in the Bible that really stands out. Now I know that Jacob [Israel] comes from a really dysfunctional family. Dinah is his daughter. And now she has been raped and on top of that the rapist has a stalker mentality.
This is the commentary from studylight.org.
This chapter contains one of the most shameful incidents in Israels history. When the Bible shows its leaders and heroes in such terrible, plain truth, we can know for sure that it is a book from God. Men don't normally write about themselves and their ancestors like this.
Remember, Jacob brought his family to a place God didn't really want them to be. It seems God directed him to return to Bethel (Genesis 31:13), and his time spent in the city of Shechem did much harm to his family.
Dinah's desire to do this understandable but unwise. Jacob did not make sure she was properly supervised. To allow unsupervised socialization in a pagan town was a failure of responsibility on the part of Jacob and Leah.
Jacob's lack of attention and protection was partially at fault in this tragedy. His own compromise made him less able to stand up to his own children and guide them as he should.
As for the young man named Shechem, his soul was strongly attracted to Dinah and he even spoke kindly to her. Yet we cannot say he loved her, because he violated her.
Remember, Jacob brought his family to a place God didn't really want them to be. It seems God directed him to return to Bethel (Genesis 31:13), and his time spent in the city of Shechem did much harm to his family.
Dinah's desire to do this understandable but unwise. Jacob did not make sure she was properly supervised. To allow unsupervised socialization in a pagan town was a failure of responsibility on the part of Jacob and Leah.
Jacob's lack of attention and protection was partially at fault in this tragedy. His own compromise made him less able to stand up to his own children and guide them as he should.
Jacobs children knew he told his brother Esau he would go south with him, but Jacob went north instead. They picked up on this and other areas of compromise and used them to justify their own compromise
As for the young man named Shechem, his soul was strongly attracted to Dinah and he even spoke kindly to her. Yet we cannot say he loved her, because he violated her.
The biblestudytools.com commentary calls the rape a dishonor.
Though freed from foreign troubles, Jacob met with a great domestic calamity in the fall of his only daughter. According to JOSEPHUS, she had been attending a festival; but it is highly probable that she had been often and freely mixing in the society of the place and that she, being a simple, inexperienced, and vain young woman, had been flattered by the attentions of the ruler's son. There must have been time and opportunities of acquaintance to produce the strong attachment that Shechem had for her.
The studylight.org takes another stance.... reminding us that this same thing almost happened with Sarah and Rebekah.
And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the country, saw her (literally, and Shechem … saw her, and) he took her. "Dinah paid the full penalty of her carelessness. She suffered the fate which Sarah and Rebekah encountered in the land of Pharaoh and Abimelech; she was seen and taken by the son of the prince" (Kalisch); forcibly, i.e. against her will in the first instance, though not, it is apparent, without the blandishments of a lover. And lay with her, and defiled her—literally, oppressed her, offered violence to her, whence humbled her—ἐταπείνωσεν (LXX.), vi opprimens (Vulgate).
Well, I know how Hollywood would betray this, once it's decided if it was really rape or really dishonor. I can hardly wait to see [again] how this dysfunctional family deals with it.
Remember, these are stories about the heritage of Jesus.
