Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/209

Rh 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 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 had not 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 Sam. 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 indecencies. 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 showed 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.

6. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. 7. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth; because he had wrought folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done. 8. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife. 9. And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. 10. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. 11. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. 12. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife. 13. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister; 11. And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us. 15. But in this we will consent unto you: if ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised; 16. Then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17. But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.

Jacob's sons when they heard of the injury done to Dinah, showed a very great resentment of it, influenced perhaps rather by jealousy for the honour of their family, than by a sense of virtue. Many are concerned at the shamefulness of sin, that never lay to heart the sinfulness of it. It is here called folly in Israel, (v. 7.) according to the language of after-times; for Israel was not yet a people, but a family only. Note, 1. Uncleanness is folly; for it sacrifices the favour of God, peace of conscience, and all the soul can pretend to, that is sacred and honourable, to a base and brutish lust. 2. This folly is most shameful in Israel, in a family in Israel, where God is known and worshipped, as he was in Jacob's tents, by the name of the God of Israel. Folly in Israel is scandalous indeed. 3. It is a good thing to have sin stamped with a bad name: uncleanness is here proverbially called folly in Israel, 2 Sam. 13. 12. Dinah is here called Jacob's daughter, for warning to all the daughters of Israel, that they betray not themselves to this folly.

Hamor came to treat with Jacob himself, but he turns them over to his sons; and here we have a particular account of the treaty, in which it is a shame to say, the Canaanites were more honest than the Israelites.

I. Hamor and Shechem fairly propose this match, in order to a coalition in trade. Shechem is deeply in love with Dinah; he will have her upon any terms, v. 11, 12. His father not only consents, but solicits for him, and gravely insists upon the advantages that would follow from the union of the families, v. 9, 10. He shows no jealousy of Jacob, though he was a stranger, but rather an earnest desire to settle a correspondence with him and his family, making him that generous offer. The land shall be before you, trade ye therein.

II. Jacob's sons basely pretend to insist upon a coalition in religion, when really they designed nothing less. If Jacob had taken the management of this affair into his own hands, it is probable that he and Hamor would soon have concluded it; but Jacob's sons meditate only revenge; and a strange