The Dinah Incident

Dinah, as yet the only daughter of Jacob could not have been more than five or six years old when the family left Haran, since she was not born until after Leah's sixth son (ch. 30:21). She had possibly reached the age of 14 or 15 when the sordid event described in this chapter took place. It is apparent, therefore, that some eight or more years had passed since Jacob's return to Canaan (see ch. 33:17).

If the events narrated in chapters 34 to 37 are presented in chronological order, as they seem to be, Dinah cannot have been much older than 15 at the time, because Joseph, who was about the same age as Dinah (ch. 30:21—24), was only 17 when sold into slavery by his brothers (ch. 37:2). The fact that she went out unaccompanied would seem to indicate that she was still regarded at home as a child. While at this event, Shechem approaches her. From what we know of Canaanite morals, Shechem's conduct was by no means unusual, and Dinah paid in full the penalty for her unwise independence in associating with wordly youth.

Information concerning Dinah's experience must have reached her father indirectly, since she herself remained in Shechem's house (v. 26). Jacob's silence was probably due to a combination of sorrow, caution, and perplexity. He had learned to be prudent rather than to act upon impulse. The seriousness of the predicament was certain to affect the interests of the entire household, and called for united counsel and decision.

To refuse the marriage proposal would be to incur the ill will of the Shechemites to accept it would be an open violation of the principle of non association with the heathen (see chs. 24:3, 6 26:35). Yet Dinah was with Shechem, and how was he to secure her return? Had Jacob foreseen the tragic course of action some of his sons were to pursue upon learning of the affair, he would probably have taken things into his own hands and acted at once. As it was, however, he did better in thus "ruling his spirit" than did his sons when they took the city (Prov. 16:32).

Hamor, Shechem's father, proposed a policy of intermarriage between Jacob's family and the Shechemites. Attractive as the offers of the prince of Shechem were, they were declined by Jacob's sons, who now took the initiative in discussing their sister's proposed marriage (see ch. 24:50). To accept the proposals would have been to violate the sacred principles of their call as a family and to sacrifice the promises of God for wordly gain. Their rejection of Hamor's proposal was right, to be sure, but their procedure was just as certainly wrong. In plotting murder under the protecting cloak of religious scruples, Jacob's sons were guilty of hypocrisy and cruelty. Their hypocrisy consisted in professing to accept the proposition of Hamor when they had no intention of doing so, on condition that the Shechemites accept the seal of God's holy covenant. They knew that if the Shechemites should submit to circumcision it would be a mere form on their part. Their proposal was, finally, conceived in a spirit of cruel revenge.

Inflammation and fever usually set in on the third day. While the Shechemites were thus helpless, two of Dinah's older brothers set about their bloody work of revenge. This cruel massacre demonstrates how one sin leads on to another, like flames of fire spreading in a dry thicket (Isa. 9:18). Dissipation led to seduction, and seduction to revenge and murder (see James 1:15). The disgrace that had been brought upon one family made widows and orphans of the women and children of an entire city. Indirectly, this narrative testifies to the reliability of Moses as a historian. Himself a Levite, he does not spare the character of his progenitor.