Глава 34

Gen.34:1. Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Described in ch. 34 the incident took place no earlier than 8 years after those described in Chapter 33. events: Dinah, born at the end of the second seven years of Jacob's service with Laban (Gen. 30:21), is here an adult girl of about 16 years old (she was 6-7 years old when Jacob arrived in Succoth, Jacob lived there for about 2 years and, then, about 8 in Shechem), as well as Simeon and Levi - adult youths (vv. 5, 7). Despite their long stay in the vicinity of Shechem, Jacob’s family, apparently, did not communicate with its inhabitants, and, perhaps, there was even some hostility, which was expressed with all terrible force in the blood feud of Simeon and Levi, finding only a pretext for themselves in the dishonor of Dinah. According to Josephus (Ant. 1:21), the Shechemites had a holiday, during which Dinah came to the city to see women’s outfits. The Midrash condemns Dinah (and Leah) for going out dressed like a harlot (Beresch. r. Par. 80, pp. 391–392). Dina allegedly inherited such frivolity from her mother. Gen.34:2–3. And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of that land, saw her, and took her, and slept with her, and did violence to her. And his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he fell in love with the maiden and spoke according to the maiden’s heart. Shechem, the ruling prince of the city, who received his very name from him (cf. Gen. 4:17), was inflamed with love for the girl and, under the influence of passion, committed violence against her. But Shechem’s passion was not exclusively animal lust, which upon satisfaction turns into the opposite feeling of hatred (cf. 2 Samuel 13:14–15). On the contrary, he had the intention of entering into marriage with her and with this thought he calmed and consoled Dinah (“speaking from her heart,” cf. Gen. 50:21; Ruth. 2:13). His marriage proposal to Jacob and Dinah's brothers Gen.34:4–5. And Shechem spake to Hamor his father, saying, Take me this maiden to wife. Jacob heard that [the son of Hamor] had dishonored Dinah his daughter, but as his sons were with his cattle in the field, Jacob was silent until they came. Shechem turned to his father Hamor with a request to arrange this marriage, but Dinah, apparently, continued to keep him in his house. Jacob heard with sadness about his daughter’s dishonor, but for fear of Hamor and Shechem he did not dare to do anything without his sons, consanguineous with Dinah, who, as such, were most sensitively affected by the shame of their sister (cf. Gen. 24:50). Gen.34:7. The sons of Jacob came from the field, and when they heard, those men were upset and inflamed with anger, because he had dishonored Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter, and that was not the right thing to do. Even now among the Arabs, the rape of a sister is considered a greater disgrace for a brother than even the desecration of a wife for a husband. Bearing in mind this feature of Eastern morals, Hamor turns on behalf of Shechem with a marriage proposal not to Jacob, but to Simeon and Levi, who, meanwhile, became extremely irritated at the news of shame (nebalah, madness, then shameful dishonor, Deut. 22:21; Judges 20:10); mainly a gross insult to chastity, 2 Sam. 13:12, and then in general a serious crime, contrary to the foundations of theocracy, Nav. 7:15) sisters, in which they saw a blatant violation of moral and social rights, a violation that cannot be excused by any motive (“this should not have been done,” cf. 2 Samuel 13:12). Their passion is also joined by just zeal for the honor and purity of “Israel”, i.e. God's chosen tribe, the purity of whose blood was “defiled” (timme, v. 5) by an uncircumcised foreigner. Gen. 34:8–10. Hamor began to speak to them, and said: Shechem, my son, has joined his soul to your daughter; give her to him as a wife; become related to us; Give your daughters for us, and take our daughters for yourselves [for your sons]; and live with us; This land is [vast] before you, live and trade in it and take possession of it. Pointing to the strong love of Shechem for Dinah (daughter, bath, here, v. 8, - sister), Hamor offers the family of Jacob, in addition to the marriage of Shechem with Dinah (v. 8), also: a) mutual marital unions (v. 9) between the Shechemites and the clan of Jacob and b) unhindered settlement on the territory of Shechem with the right of citizenship and freedom of all trades (v. 10). Obviously, Hamor offers Jacob's family a complete merger with his own people. Such a merger, regardless of the external motives for which it was proposed, was not at all for the purposes of the history of salvation, and therefore in the subsequent bloody Shechem event one can see the negative-good side that it prevented the disastrous disappearance of the God-chosen family of Jacob from the mass of the Canaanite population. The bloodthirsty act of Simeon and Levi is not justified by this, however. Gen.34:11–12. Shechem said to her father and her brothers: If only I find favor in your eyes, I will give whatever you say to me; appoint the greatest vein and gifts; I will give, whatever you tell me, just give me the girl to wife. Shechem, passionately desiring marriage with Dinah, in turn promises to give the largest ransom (mohar), (cf. Ex. 22:16, 17; Deut. 22:28–29; 1 Sam. 18:25) and, in addition, the same gift (mattan) - the first to the father (or in this case, brothers) of the bride, the second to the bride herself, according to the customs of the ancient East. Fanatical revenge on the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi. Gen.34:14–15. and they said to them [Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, sons of Leah]: We cannot do this, marry our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for this is dishonorable for us; Only on this condition will we agree with you [and settle with you], if you are like us, so that all your male sex will be circumcised; In response to the words of well-intentioned readiness for all the conditions of the world of Hamor and Shechem, the sons of Jacob, namely Simeon and Levi, the half-mother of Dinah, make, apparently, a plausible proposal, but with a crafty purpose (v. 13): declaring it a disgrace for themselves to enter into close family relationships, they demand from the Shechemites the universal circumcision of all male members of the population, to the letter (Gen. 17:10–12). In this proposal, of course, one cannot see a serious desire of the sons of Jacob to propagate the divinely established institution of circumcision among alien tribes. The very proposal of circumcision could neither surprise nor irritate the Hivites: circumcision, according to Herodotus, existed from ancient times among the Egyptians, Phoenicians, etc., and therefore could have been known among the Canaanites, who are not usually called uncircumcised in the Bible; It is rather surprising that the Hivites remained uncircumcised when, for example, the strong tribe of Ishmael undoubtedly had circumcision. The sons of Jacob say nothing to Shechem and Hamor about the internal meaning and meaning of circumcision. Gen. 34:18–24. And these words pleased Hamor and Shechem the son of Hamor. The young man did not hesitate to do this, because he loved the daughter of Jacob. And he was respected more than anyone from his father’s house. And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and they began to speak to the inhabitants of their city and said: these people are peaceful with us; let them settle on the land and make a living on it; the earth is vast before them. We will take their daughters as wives and marry our daughters to them. Only on this condition do these people agree to live with us and be one people, so that all our males will be circumcised, just as they are circumcised. Are not their flocks, and their goods, and all their livestock, for us? Only [that] we agree with them, and they will live with us. And all who went out of the gates of his city obeyed Hamor and Shechem his son: and all the males were circumcised, all who went out of the gates of his city. Imbued with the desire to arrange the marriage of Shechem with Dinah, Shechem and Hamor (the latter because of his especially strong love for his son, v. 19) willingly agree to the difficult condition of an alliance with the family of Jacob (v. 18), and Shechem, especially flaming with love for Dinah, was ready to immediately perform (according to the text of the Bible - apparently, he immediately performed, v. 19) circumcision on himself. But according to the condition (v. 15) all their males were to be circumcised. And so they, having gathered the inhabitants of the city to the usual place of all gatherings and transactions (cf. Gen. 19:1, 23:10), to the gates of the city, diplomatically negotiate with them, skillfully proving to them the benefits of an alliance with the family of Jacob - an alliance that is actually needed only for their personal purposes - for the entire Shechem community: members of the family of Jacob are peaceful people, friendly towards the Shechemites, they are inclined to settlement and trades; there are no obstacles to their settlement near the Shechemites - the territory of Shechem is vast and uninhabited; in terms of its settlement, mutual marriages of the Shechemites and members of the descendants of Jacob may be important (v. 21). Having exposed the benefits of the alliance, Hamor and Shechem finally mention the conditions of the alliance - a complete bloody operation of the entire male population. But even this difficult condition they apparently try to present as very suitable, not containing anything shameful simply because all members of Jacob’s family are circumcised (v. 22). Moreover, this is the only condition, continue Hamor and Shechem, that will provide their people with all the benefits of material contentment, placing in their hands all the wealth of the family of Jacob; and once again they persuade their fellow tribesmen to agree to accept circumcision (v. 23). And so, perhaps, it was not so much the eloquence of the princes, but the natural desire of the people to strengthen themselves through an alliance with the strong and wealthy, as they believed, family of Jacob, that finally persuaded the inhabitants of Shechem to circumcision, especially since the operation of circumcision was not at all unusual, unheard of in the surrounding countries of that time. They agreed to accept circumcision “everything that comes out of the gates of the city,” i.e. all full-fledged, having the right to vote in public affairs, and circumcision was performed on them and on the entire male population of the city. This population may not have been particularly large, as can be seen from the ease for Simeon and Levi of the subsequent bloody massacre of the entire male half of the population. Who performed circumcision on an entire community? Probably by the sons of Jacob, with the especially active participation of Simeon and Levi, with the help of slaves as well (v. 24). Gen.34:25. On the third day, when they were sick, the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinin, each took his sword, and boldly attacked the city, and killed all the male sex; Here is a terrible picture of the bloody revenge of the two sons of Jacob on the Shechemites and the violent plunder of their property by all the brothers. The third day after circumcision is characterized by the greatest inflammation of the wound after the operation (Vulg: Die tertio, quando gravissimus vulnerum dolor est). Taking advantage of the painful suffering and helplessness of the inhabitants of Shechem, their inability to protect and resist, Simeon and Levi (here deliberately called the brothers of Dinah, since they had to take revenge for the insulted honor of their half-sister), in the community, no doubt, of their servants, armed with swords, bravely (Hebrew betach; this word can be, according to the construction of speech, attributed to both the city and such case gives the idea that the inhabitants of the city carelessly and calmly met the attackers, in whom they trustingly saw only allies) and carried out a wholesale massacre of the entire male population. This bloody task could have been carried out all the more easily because, according to Josephus, the Sichemites were then celebrating a holiday, and the guards and residents were intoxicated. The Midrash, wanting to assuage the guilt of the two Jewish patriarchs, says that the bloody massacre of Simeon and Levi was a signal for Jacob himself to arm himself against the surrounding tribes (Beresch. r. Par. 80, s. 395), and refers to Gen. 48:22. But the biblical text not only says nothing about Jacob’s participation in the crime of his two sons, but directly testifies that Jacob was extremely upset by the act of Simeon and Levi (v. 30) and poured out all the bitterness of condemnation and curse of this act on his deathbed (Gen. 49: 5–7). Gen.34:26. and Hamor himself and Shechem his son were killed with the sword; and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went out. The perpetrators of the misfortune of their people, Hamor and Shechem, also perished, and Dinah was returned from Shechem’s house, which had been with him either from the day of her capture by Shechem (v. 2), or immediately after the circumcision (the avenging brothers could deliberately leave Dinah in Shechem’s house in order to more accurately lull his vigilance). The Midrash notes that the disgraced Dinah was in despair until Simeon consoled her with the promise of marriage with her; in Gen. 46:10 The sixth son of Simeon, called the son of a Canaanite woman, according to the Midrash, was the son of Dinah, who is here called a Canaanite woman, as defiled by a Canaanite (Beresch Par. LXXX, 396). Gen.34:27. The sons of Jacob came to the slain and plundered the city because they had dishonored their sister [Dinah]. The bloody revenge on the Shechemites was followed by the plunder of the city by Simeon and Levi, in which the other sons of Jacob took part for the same motive of revenge on the whole city for the crime of its prince. In the book of Judith (Judith. 9:2–3), the slaughter of the Shechemites and the plunder of their city seems to be the work of God’s judgment on the first for violating the Dinah. But if the sons of Jacob served as instruments of God’s judgment over the Shechemites, then this bloody deed is in no way whitewashed by any efforts of national-Jewish pride, since, regardless of its bloody nature, it also contained: a treacherous violation of the alliance with the Shechemites; the blasphemous use of circumcision for the purpose of revenge and self-will in relation to his father, which plunged his entire family into danger from neighbors. Gen.34:30. And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, making me hated by [all] the inhabitants of the land, by the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have few people; they will gather against me, and I and my house will be destroyed. It is this side of the matter that Jacob draws their attention to, expressing censure of their action, but he gave a full assessment of it from the moral side on his deathbed (Gen. 49:5–6). Gen.34:31. They said: is it really possible to treat our sister like a harlot! The response of Simeon and Levi shows their lack of repentance, which, in addition to the nature of the era that sanctified blood feud, also speaks of their personal heartlessness. You might be interested in: