And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife.
Shechem's request to his father to get Jacob's daughter for him as wife followed his lawless act against Jacob's one daughter. It was the lawless deed of one rash youth that brought her shame and sorrow and began results so terrible as violence and bloodshed. The beginning leading to it all was Jacob's daughter going out to see the daughters of the land, venturing into association with the ungodly. Seeking pleasure among those who fear not God places a person on Satan's ground and invites temptation.
The wrong provoked Simeon and Levi but did not justify them. Their secret, treacherous retaliation deceived the Shechemites and gave a whole city to ruin and slaughter by murder. That cruel destruction is condemned as grievous sin marked by deceit, cruelty, fierce anger, and violence. It filled Jacob with horror and fear that, being few in number, he and his house would be destroyed by the inhabitants of the land. That grief and abhorrence he still expressed nearly fifty years later on his deathbed in Egypt.
Shechem's request to his father to get Jacob's daughter for him as wife followed his lawless act against Jacob's one daughter. It was the lawless deed of one rash youth that brought her shame and sorrow and began results so terrible as violence and bloodshed. The beginning leading to it all was Jacob's daughter going out to see the daughters of the land, venturing into association with the ungodly. Seeking pleasure among those who fear not God places a person on Satan's ground and invites temptation.
The wrong provoked Simeon and Levi but did not justify them. Their secret, treacherous retaliation deceived the Shechemites and gave a whole city to ruin and slaughter by murder. That cruel destruction is condemned as grievous sin marked by deceit, cruelty, fierce anger, and violence. It filled Jacob with horror and fear that, being few in number, he and his house would be destroyed by the inhabitants of the land. That grief and abhorrence he still expressed nearly fifty years later on his deathbed in Egypt.