Jo Reads The Bible

Genesis 34-36 The Rape of Dinah and Jacob’s Return

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Thoughts

This is a very unsettling story and hard to read. The treatment of women back then shows an abusive patriarchal culture where they were often treated as objects (which we still see that sin spillover today). We’ve already read how Sarah was given to other men because of her beauty, how Hagar was violated and used to create a child and then cast out, how Leah was unloved but used to bear sons, and now Dinah is violated. I know the Bible telling these stories is not endorsing the situations but rather giving a raw picture of how sin was/is. 

Jacob’s inaction in this is deeply troubling. He neither defends Dinah nor confronts his sons for their deceit and violence. Instead, he stays silent until afterwards. 

Circumcision was given to Abraham by God as a remembrance of their covenant, which is now being used by his great-grandchildren to manipulate an entire city into vulnerability for revenge. What was meant to be a sign of faith and devotion has been twisted into a tool of violence

We see the misuse of other blessings or symbols from God throughout the Bible as well (Samson and the Nazarite vow, the Ark of Covenant taken into battle, Saul doing a priestly sacrifice- can you think of others?)

Odd phrasing of Shechem to say his ‘soul’ longs for her when he has just violated her.

I had to look this up but the third day after circumcision is typically when swelling, pain, and inflammation reach their peak so makes sense to attack then.

The initial injustice against Dinah leads to further victimization of many more women and children.

Jacob only speaks up when he is worried about himself and judges his sons.

Genesis 35- God is reminding Jacob to go to Bethel (probably could have avoided all of this if he listened to God in the first place)

Finally Jacob is getting his house set right by removing idols – here is what Charles Spurgeon has to say about the earrings “Was there any hurt in their earrings? For a woman to wear an earring is not such a dreadful thing, is it? Perhaps not, but I suppose that these earrings were charms, and that they were used in certain incantations, and heathenish customs. It must have been a very sad discovery to Jacob, who himself could not have endured it, to find that wicked superstitions had come into his tents.”

So far we have heard of Reuben’s (first born) offense against Bilhah and Simeon and Levi’s (2nd and 3rd) massacre. Next is the 4th born Judah whose lineage carries the Messiah (even though there is the whole Tamar story).

I included 2 visuals of the first chunk of Genesis 36 below from https://huppbrian.us/bible-study/genesis-36-the-genealogy-of-esau/

Genesis 36 shows us the fulfillment of God saying to Rebekah that there would be two nations in her womb (Israel and Edom) and sets the stage for their relations throughout history.

Among Esau’s descendants is Amalek (Amalekites)

Questions

Why were the men of Shechem willing to get circumcised just for marriage/traded goods? I know circumcision was not only practiced among Abraham’s line as it was a practiced used in several cultures, but seems extreme to negotiate.

How many men did Simeon and Levi kill? Even if the men were sore from the cut, it seems that 2 against dozens (hundreds) is a lot.

What did it look like for the terror of God to fall on those around them to protect Jacob’s family?

This is the second time Jacob is told his new name is Yisrael – why do it twice? Perhaps he has not been living as Yisrael but Jacob? Now that his house is in order he will move forward as God intended?

Why does the narrator switch between Israel and Jacob?

Application
The more I read Genesis, the more I see the deep division between God and humanity. It is the exact opposite of what He intended in Eden. Without unity between the two, or rather without humanity walking with God since He is always pursuing us, nothing really prospers. It makes me wonder in my life how much I push God away or think I know what is best without consulting Him.

Comments

2 responses to “Genesis 34-36 The Rape of Dinah and Jacob’s Return”

  1. Nathaniel Largo Avatar
    Nathaniel Largo

    Genesis 34

    I am having a hard time reading one sentence where Dinah is raped and the next where her assaulter says that he loves her and speaks tenderly to her. Like she was a piece of property that he stole and then came to realize he loved it; just disgusting. Also, why did Jacob care that his sons weren’t there when he heard the news? I get wanting to form a posse, but if I EVER heard something like this happened to my daughter, I wouldn’t wait for anyone before going to find the person in question.

    I am confused as to what the deceit by Jacob’s sons was, but I am not going to say a lot because I am sure it will reveal itself. I figured with the covenant having circumcision as a part of it, that kind of made sense that they would demand this? But maybe they weren’t really in a position to do it instead of Jacob asking such a thing. But then Shechem also makes a point of saying Jacob’s livestock will become theirs – is that just because they will intermingle and live off their land? Is that the deceit?

    …ah, there it is. The oldest trick in the book.

    Not sure what to say about this. Obviously the deceit cannot be seen as a good thing in the eyes of God, and they are killing many people and taking what doesn’t belong to them, but they are doing so in the name of vengeance for their sister. I am not saying that’s right, but they feel justified in a crime having been committed against their family. Jacob seems very passive in this for someone who was just told that he would become Israel. With my previous comment about the covenant with God having circumcision as a component of it, wouldn’t using this in their lie anger God?

    Genesis 35

    Couple questions early on, here. Genesis 35:2 – “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.’”

    This is another mention of people carrying gods with them. I understand the concept of idols, but given that they are just carrying them on their person, I’m wondering about the size of these. It goes on to mention that their removed the rings from their ears as well and buried it all, so could it be that they had something like coins? I am just wondering this because if the coins had the image of whatever they thought their god was, it would be something that maybe they carried around, and could have been something made of gold. Just curious about it.

    Then in Genesis 35:5 – “Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.”

    Man, what must that have looked or felt like? Do you think it was something as “simple” as people getting a bad feeling and not wanting to venture out of their house, or were they paralyzed in fear for a time? That would have been such an insane feeling if you didn’t have any concept of what was going on (even if you did).

    In verse 22, we have this quick mention of Reuben sleeping with Jacob’s concubine, but it doesn’t really say much more. Curious as to what that will lead to.

    Esau comes back for the burial of Isaac. Did he say anything to the effect of “Hey, you said that you were going to come live with me on my land and you never showed up, what gives?”

    Genesis 36

    I guess verse 7 in this chapter clarified that – their livestock and belongings being too great to be together – but it’s just kind of hard to follow sometimes with how the Bible is written. Maybe it’s just these early books, but it’s a little hard to keep track of who is where and married to whom.

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  2. Nathaniel Largo Avatar
    Nathaniel Largo
    1. Circumcised for what?

      I kind of interpreted the line about them thinking the livestock would become theirs (Genesis 34:23a: “Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours?”) as their primary motivation. I am not really sure why they thought they would be taking over that aspect, but maybe they were in a situation where they didn’t really have access to livestock of this nature, and thinking if Jacob’s family came to live among them, they would have access to things like meat and wool and other by products that came from the animals. Maybe they also thought that intermingling the families was a big enough motivator for some reason.

    2. How many men were killed?

      Yeah, the lack of specifics surrounding the “battle” is a bit strange, but I know some of these stories aren’t meant to be really exact in how they are told to us. Maybe it was less of a out-in-the-open kind of a situation and the sons were going house to house while the men were recovering and killing them in their beds? Still, you’d think some kind of alarm would have been raised after a handful of people died.

    3. Terror of God

      I wondered the same thing!

    4. Renaming (again)

      My answer was going to be the second part of your question. Maybe he is still referring to himself as Jacob and not changing how he has lived and it was supposed to serve as a reminder that he was blessed and given a promise by God, and now he needs to follow through on being more of an example.

    5. Switching names

      I was a little thrown off by that as well. Maybe it’s us being given the chance to see how Jacob is struggling with his new identity? I think it ultimately links back to who our author is and how they were transcribing the story. I don’t think that (if it was Moses) the switching back and forth between names is insignificant or anything, but I wonder if even he fully understood why he was going back and forth between the names.

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