Day 82 Monday 7/7/14 Genesis 34:11-24 OUCH.
This account has me baffled, first is the brazen way that Shechem approaches Jacob and his son's. Shechem had just raped Dinah, and he comes to her parents and brothers wanting forgiveness? Boy, am I different from those people. Our times are sure different from those times. If a man raped my daughter, he would have ended up in the hospital! Plus, if I didn't do that, I would have turned him over to the police. If he got just a slap on the wrist? He would have ended up in the hospital.
I don't know how much input Jacob had in making the decision to have all the Shechemites circumcised, I have an idea that the brothers of Dinah made the decision because it was deceiving,
not that Jacob was above deceiving people. At any rate, the bargain was that the girls in both camps would inter marry. Now my question about this is, where are all the eligible girls in Jacobs camp? Am I missing something? I thought Dinah was the only female.
I realize that the Law had not come into existence yet, but circumcision was an Abrahamic Covenant, and was to distinguish God's people from all others. It seems out of place to allow the Shechemites into this Covenant, to me.
Any thoughts? Apparently, the men in the City of Shechem really loved and respected the decisions of Hamor and son Shechem because they went along with this deception because of future gain for themselves. I'm sure that Shechem painted a rosier picture of the deal than is recorded here in Scripture.
V.24 paints a picture of all the males who, "go out of the gate" of the City, all were circumcised.