Matthew Henry on Genesis 34:
"Dinah was, for aught that appears, Jacob’s only daughter, and we may suppose her therefore the mother’s fondling and the darling of the family, and yet she proves neither a joy nor a credit to them; for those children seldom prove either the best or the happiest that are most indulged. She is reckoned now but fifteen or sixteen years of age when she here occasioned so much mischief. Observe, 1. Her vain curiosity, which exposed her. She went out, perhaps unknown to her father, but by the connivance of her mother, to see the daughters of the land (v. 1); probably it was at a ball, or on some public day. Being an only daughter, she thought herself solitary at home, having none of her own age and sex to converse with; and therefore she must needs go abroad to divert herself, to keep off melancholy, and to accomplish herself by conversation better than she could in her father’s tents. Note, It is a very good thing for children to love home; it is parents’ wisdom to make it easy to them, and children’s duty then to be easy in it. Her pretence was to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable among them. She went to see, yet that was not all, she went to be seen too; she went to see the daughters of the land, but, it may be, with some thoughts of the sons of the land too. I doubt she went to get an acquaintance with those Canaanites, and to learn their way. Note, The pride and vanity of young people betray them into many snares. 2. The loss of her honour by this means (v. 2): Shechem, the prince of the country, but a slave to his own lusts, took her, and lay with her, it should seem, not so much by force as by surprise. Note, Great men think they may do any thing; and what more mischievous than untaught and ungoverned youth? See what came of Dinah’s gadding: young women must learn to be chaste, keepers at home; these properties are put together, Tit. 2:5, for those that are not keepers at home expose their chastity. Dinah went abroad to look about her; but, if she had looked about her as she ought, she would not have fallen into this snare. Note, The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. How great a matter does a little fire kindle! We should therefore carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it. 3. The court Shechem made to her, after he had defiled her. This was fair and commendable, and made the best of what was bad; he loved her (not as Amnon, 2 Sa. 13:15), and he engaged his father to make a match for him with her, v. 4. 4. The tidings brought to poor Jacob, v. 5. As soon as his children grew up they began to be a grief to him. Let not godly parents, that are lamenting the miscarriages of their children, think their case singular or unprecedented. The good man held his peace, as one astonished, that knows not what to say: or he said nothing, for fear of saying amiss, as David (Ps. 39:1, 2); he smothered his resentments, lest, if he had suffered them to break out, they should have transported him into any decencies. Or, it should seem, he had left the management of his affairs very much (too much I doubt) to his sons, and he would do nothing without them: or, at least, he knew they would make him uneasy if he did, they having shown themselves, of late, upon all occasions, bold, forward, and assuming. Note, Things never go well when the authority of a parent runs low in a family. Let every man bear rule in his own house, and have his children in subjection with all gravity."
A. Calvin
on this passage notes several things that are important. Some are beyond the
scope of praying that we would forgive others, and forgiving others in our
prayers to God, but they are worth noting:
1. Calvin notes how
distressed Jacob was to hear of his daughter Dinah’s being violated, but the distress
was tripled upon hearing of the unholy vengeance of his sons, who “committed
a most dreadful crime”.
2.
But Calvin also blames Dinah and her father, Jacob, for
her going out of her father’s house, “she wandered about more freely than
was proper. She ought to have remained quietly at home, as both the Apostle
teaches and nature itself dictates; for to girls the virtue is suitable, which
the proverb applies to women, that they should be (oikouroi,) or keepers of the
house. Therefore fathers of families are taught to keep their daughters under
strict discipline, if they desire to preserve them free from all dishonor; for
if a vain curiosity was so heavily punished in the daughter of holy Jacob, not
less danger hangs over weak virgins at this day, if they go too boldly and
eagerly into public assemblies, and excite the passions of youth towards
themselves. For it is not to be doubted that Moses in part casts the blame of
the offense upon Dinah herself, when he says, "she went out to see the
daughters of the land;" whereas she ought to have remained under her
mother's eyes in the tent.”
3.
Now even among Christians today, this offends
most of us. Maybe some of you here. But it is true. We should not raise our
daughters as if they were boys. We should protect our daughters from bad men.
4.
That includes not letting them go about freely
in public, particularly in dangerous places, and frankly in many workplace
environments. Most women I know, including my wife, who I have ever heard talk
about workplace experiences, have told me how they have been sexually assaulted
in one form or another.
5.
That includes things like working at
Chik-fil-A, or as a massage therapist. My wife has done both.
6.
We need to be wise and really cautious in letting
our daughters work in uncontained environments, and especially where they are
working with other men. It should go without saying that letting our daughters
go out at night, dressed immodestly, etc., is foolish and ungodly and a
violation of the 9th commandment.
7.
Calvin, “Shechem, indeed, had acted wickedly and
impiously; but it was far more atrocious and wicked that the sons of Jacob
should murder a whole people, to avenge themselves of the private fault of one
man. It was by no means fitting to seek a cruel compensation for the levity and
rashness of one youth, by the slaughter of so many men. Again, who had
constituted them judges, that they should dare, with their own hands, to
execute vengeance for an injury inflicted upon them? Perfidy was also
superadded, because they proceeded, under the pretext of a covenant, to
perpetrate this enormous crime.”
a. In other words, the sons
of Jacob did not extend the forgiveness of revenge in their hearts, and in fact
their passions grew so strong that it led to murdering many not only in the
heart, but in the act.
b. They hatched a deceptive
plan to wipe out the men of Shechem, such was their wickedness.
8.
”In Jacob, moreover, we have an admirable
example of patient endurance; who, though afflicted with so many evils, yet did
not faint under them… Therefore we must beware, lest, after we have
become severe judges in condemning the faults of others, we hasten
inconsiderately into evil. But chiefly we must abstain from violent remedies
which surpass the evil we desire to correct….[the sons of Jacob] wrongfully appropriate to
themselves the right of taking revenge: why do they not rather reflect thus;
"God, who has received us under his care and protection, will not suffer
this injury to pass unavenged; in the meantime, it is our part to be silent,
and to leave the act of punishing, which is not placed in our hands, entirely
to his sovereign will." Hence we may learn, when we are angry at the sins
of other men, not to attempt anything which is beyond our own duty. ”
a. Calvin even adds that
Hamor, prince of the city there in Canaan and Shechem’s father, showed great
courteousness and humanity, which should have quelled the just anger of Jacob’s
sons.
b. Calvin explains that
Jacob and company were the strangers, the foreigners, and the prince of the city
has come out to try to make peace and smooth things over, but because Jacob’s sons
refused, he says their minds must have been “savage beyond measure, not to
be inclined to levity.”
c. Calvin even says Shechem’s
entreaties deserved that Jacob’s sons should have “granted forgiveness to
his fervent love.” Calvin said Shechem was “deceived by blind love and by
the error of incontinence” & that he did not intend any malice against them
by violating Dinah whom he loved.
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