Genesis 34:1-4

2009.May.15 09:00

Rape

Read Genesis 34:1-4 | Full Chapter

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
(Genesis 34:1-2, NASB)

Life was good. Israel, né Jacob, has returned to Canaan, wealthy, having emerged unscathed from not one but two potentially deadly encounters, and having spent time talking with a messenger of Yahweh (possibly Yahweh himself). He and his family have arrived in Succoth. It’s not clear to me how soon this episode follows that arrival, but life for Israel and family takes a massive turn for the worse: Dinah, the only sister mentioned of the twelve tribal patriarchs, is raped by Shechem, a prince (of a tribe? city? larger group?).

Dinah is mentioned, almost as an aside, in Genesis 30, "Later, Leah had a daughter and named her Dinah" (Genesis 30:21, CEV) . From the position of presentation, Dinah is born shortly before Joseph, at this point the youngest (son, anyway). So, here’s a question: Is Dinah mentioned there solely to introduce her prior to this passage? Because daughters don’t get a lot of mention in Genesis. Since the stories present a geneology leading up to the twelve sons of Jacob, as at least nominal ancestors of the twelve tribes, and since geneologies are often traced through male ancestors in many societies, this is not surprising. But at least to my twenty-first century sensibilities, it is weird. That’s all on that; no point.

Back to the narrative. Dinah is going out to visit the women in her new, if possibly temporary, hometown. Unless there’s an element I’m missing, her action is very positive, trying to establish good relationships within her new community. One could argue that these are just the sort of “bad Canaanites” with whom the people of Israel will be warned against associating (at least to some extent), but I don’t see any reason to make that assumption.

As she’s making her rounds, Shechem sees Dinah, lusts for her, and follows that lust by raping her. So, I’m not at all going to feel sorry for him in what he has coming. It’s hard to really make a point about rape, at least not one requiring any real argument. It is simply one of the vilest things one human can do to another (I can see an argument here that this could be consensual, but I think that would be a difficult argument to support).

He was deeply attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young girl for a wife."
(Genesis 34:3-4, NASB)

Then something occurs to Shechem. He actually rather likes Dinah. I suppose he could have considered the rape part of some courtship ritual, but judging by her brothers’ response, I’m not willing to even give him that little bit of credit. He’s a selfish ass, and that’s finally coming back to haunt him. So, like David many centuries later, Shechem is going to try to “make it right”. Note, if you’re trying to make it right, you’ve already f—ed up. That’s not to say that one shouldn’t try to fix things, but rather that we must not deceive ourselves by supposing that by “fixing” it, we can pretend our original actions weren’t entirely inappropriate, sinful, etc.

So, anyway, Shechem asks his father to follow whatever the contemporary customs are in order to become afianced to Dinah. What Hamor must be thinking now is an interesting, if unanswerable, question. His position is certainly uneviable, approaching this newly arrived (or not) rich foreigner and negotiating (?) a marriage, not knowing their customs, and realizing that this man could know about Shechem’s raping his daughter and might just be royally pissed.

Genesis 34:5-12

2009.May.22 09:00

Negotiating the Priceless

Read Genesis 34:5-12 | Full Chapter

Meanwhile, Jacob heard what had happened. But his sons were out in the fields with the cattle, so he did not do anything at the time.
(Genesis 34:5, CEV)

As a father, I can’t imagine Jacob’s willingness to wait to react to the news that his daughter has been raped. Pragmatically, there are some points to consider:

1. Customs. The preceding passage definitely reads like rape to me, but maybe there is some courtship ritual going on. As I mentioned last article, I’m disinclined to that opinion.
2. Wait for his sons and servants to be around. If Jacob wants to attack, it’s wise to wait until he has some fellow attackers. It’s worth remembering that were his primary goal the rescue of his daughter and not purely vengeance, Jacob ought to be able to trust that the same God who has so recently rescued him will come through again. The question of why then Yahweh had not stopped the rape to begin with is one of those wonderfully perplexing problems that I’m going to ignore.
3. Fear of overreacting. Again, it’s hard to think of what would qualify as a parent overreacting to such news.

Always a bit difficult trying to assess actions that occur in a very different culture; there’s certainly the potential for misinterpretting them.

Hamor arrived at Jacob's home just as Jacob's sons were coming in from work. When they learned that their sister had been raped, they became furiously angry. Nothing is more disgraceful than rape, and it should not be tolerated in Israel.
(Genesis 34:6-7, CEV)

The CEV uses the word “rape” where some other versions are less direct. I’ll leave the word study to someone who could actually give an informed opinion thereupon. Anyway, Dinah’s brothers, upon learning of the situation, are understandably incensed. The narrator breaks out of the story for a moment to note that rape is unacceptable. It amazes me that this needs to be said, but as a species we are rather stupid sometimes. Or that is, we are selfish enough to be willfully unaware.

Hamor said to Jacob and his sons: My son Shechem really loves Dinah. Please let him marry her. Why don't you start letting your families marry into our families and ours marry into yours? You can share this land with us. Move freely about until you find the property you want; then buy it and settle down here. Shechem added, "Do this favor for me, and I'll give whatever you want. Ask anything, no matter how expensive. I'll do anything, just let me marry Dinah."
(Genesis 34:8-12, CEV)

Hamor, Shechem’s father, tries some diplomacy. He can probably see, at least more or less, what is coming. His offer is basically that if Jacob’s family will overlook the “disgrace,” then the two families could form something of a political and economic alliance (how formal this would be is not clear) with particular benefits to Jacob and group. The alliance would be cemented by marriages, beginning with Shechem to Dinah. Or, the bride price for Dinah would be good relations with the powers that be in Succoth. Shechem, now smitten, appears rather emotional in supporting his father’s proposal.

“Just overlook this one thing?”

There are things we value such that they have a price, and there are things we value such that there is no acceptable price (at least not a realistic one; armchair philosophers inventing absurdist scenarios can be ignored).