Genesis · WEB
Genesis
34
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Genesis is not in WEB-C, so this chapter is shown from WEB (World English Bible (Protestant canon)).
Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. See also: Genesis 30:21Jeremiah 2:36Genesis 28:6Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. See also: Matthew 5:28Proverbs 13:20Job 31:1His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. See also: Isaiah 40:2Hosea 2:142 Chronicles 30:22Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.” See also: Judges 14:22 Samuel 13:13Genesis 21:21Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. See also: 2 Samuel 13:22Luke 15:25Genesis 37:13-14Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. See also: Joshua 7:15Judges 20:6Deuteronomy 22:21Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. See also: 1 Kings 11:2Psalms 119:20Psalms 63:1Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. See also: Deuteronomy 7:3Genesis 26:34-35Genesis 6:2You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.” See also: Genesis 13:9Genesis 47:27Genesis 42:34Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. See also: Genesis 33:15Genesis 18:3Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.” See also: Exodus 22:16-17Matthew 14:171 Samuel 18:25-27The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, See also: Psalms 12:2Proverbs 24:28-29Proverbs 26:24-26and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. See also: 1 Samuel 17:36Matthew 23:1-391 Kings 21:9Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, See also: Galatians 4:12then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.” Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. See also: Numbers 22:15Acts 17:12Acts 13:50Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, See also: Ruth 4:1Genesis 22:17Amos 5:15“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” See also: Proverbs 1:12-13Proverbs 23:4-5Acts 19:24-26All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. See also: 1 Corinthians 7:19Genesis 23:10Isaiah 1:10-16On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. See also: Genesis 49:5-7Genesis 29:33-34Joshua 5:8They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. See also: Deuteronomy 32:422 Samuel 2:26Isaiah 31:8Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. See also: Exodus 2:14Esther 9:16Genesis 34:2They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, See also: Job 20:5Job 1:15-16Deuteronomy 8:17-18and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.” See also: Joshua 7:25Psalms 105:12Exodus 5:21They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?” See also: Proverbs 6:34Genesis 34:13Genesis 49:7
See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)15 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Genesis 34:1
This 19th-century note uses polemical language; read it in the light of the note at the top of this panel.
Ver. 1. Country, when a great festival was celebrated. Josep.
Ant. i. 18.) Dina was urged by curiosity to see and to be seen.
Let others take example from her, and beware of associating with infidels, and of opening their hearts to pleasure at fairs and nocturnal meetings.
↑ 1Genesis 34:2
Ver. 2. Virgin. Heb. and Sept. "He humbled or afflicted the virgin." It is well if she made all the resistance she was able, and resented the indignity; as she seems to have done, though Sichem tried all means to comfort her. H.
↑ 2Genesis 34:5
Ver. 5. Heard this, perhaps, from Dina's companion. M.
↑ 5Genesis 34:7
Ver. 7. In Israel, or against the honour and peace of their father and all his family. --- An unlawful act, which some nevertheless commit without scruple, and even dare to represent as a matter of small consequence if they marry afterwards!
↑ 7Genesis 34:10
Ver. 10. Command, or you are at liberty to purchase and till it as you please. H.
↑ 10Genesis 34:12
Ver. 12. Dowry for Dina. --- Gifts for her parents and brothers.
G. xxiv. 53. C.
↑ 12Genesis 34:13
Ver. 13. Deceitfully. The sons of Jacob, on this occasion, were guilty of a grievous sin, as well by falsely pretending religion, as by excess of their revenge. Though, otherwise their zeal against so foul a crime was commendable. Ch. --- In this light it is viewed by Judith ix. 2. Simeon and Levi spoke on this occasion. Sept. as they were afterwards the chief actors, v. 25.
There were commissioned by their father to speak for him; but Jacob was ignorant of their deceit. H.
↑ 13Genesis 34:14
Ver. 14. Abominable. To be uncircumcised, was a reproach among the Hebrews. Yet there was no law forbidding to marry such. Laban was of this description, and the Chanaanites also; whose daughters the sons of Jacob themselves espoused, at least Juda and this very Simeon, as the Scripture assures us.
↑ 14Genesis 34:17
Ver. 17. Our daughter, the only one of our father; who, it would hence appear, was detained by Hemor, v. 26. C.
↑ 17Genesis 34:19
Ver. 19. The greatest man, (inclytus) perhaps associated to his father in the government of the town. Yet he is willing to submit to this painful operation. H.
↑ 19Genesis 34:20
Ver. 20. Gate. Here judgment was given, the markets held, &c.
They endeavoured to convince the people, that the conditions offered would be for their interest. M.
↑ 20Genesis 34:23
Ver. 23. Ours, by mutual commerce. The Rabbin pretend the Sichemite designed to circumvent Jacob and his family. But their conduct seems to screen them from any reproach of this kind, and Jacob throws the blame upon his own sons. C. xlix.
6. If Hemor said more than he was authorized by them to do, this will not pal iate their injustice and sacrilegious perfidy. C.
M.
↑ 23Genesis 34:25
Ver. 25. Greatest. On that day a fever and inflammation likewise often take place. See Hippocrates on fractures, Valesius sac. Phil. xii. M. --- Brothers of Dina by Lia, and both of a fiery temper. They were assisted by some servants, (M.) and afterwards the other children helped to pillage the city.
Theodot. ap. Eus. ix. 22.
↑ 25Genesis 34:29
Ver. 29. Captive. No doubt Jacob would force them to restore such ill-gotten goods. C. --- They had acted without authority, and even contrary to the known disposition of their father. They rashly exposed him to destruction, which would inevitably have taken place, if God had not protected him. C. xxxv. 5. H.
↑ 29Genesis 34:31
Ver. 31. Should they, &c. This answer, full of insolence, to a father who was as much hurt by the indignity offered to Dina as they could be, heightens their crime. Sichem was the only one among the citizens really guilty, unless perhaps some of his servants might have given him assistance; and Hemor, the king, might contract some stain by not causing a better police to be observed, and by not punishing his son with greater severity, and not sending Dina home, &c. But why are the harmless citizens to be involved in ruin? unless Quicquid delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi. H.
Procopius says Hemor also abused Dina; but the plural is here used for the singular, and this author builds upon a false supposition. C.
↑ 31License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses