Day 12. Genesis 34-36

Genesis 34-36

Genesis 34

¹And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

²And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

Dinah's name means "judged, vindicated".

The Hivites are also descendants of Canaan. (Gen. 10:17). So they are black as well.

This incident is commonly referred to as, the Rape of Dinah.

³And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.

Shechem loved Dinah? Perhaps he was just infatuated. Unless it's love at first sight; except that's not real love, that's infatuation/lust/desire.

Shechem asked his father Hamor to get him to marry Dinah.

⁵And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.

Even though Jacob (at nearly 60) was able to wrestle god, and win until god cheated; he didn't want to get into a fight with Hamor... at least until his 11 sons were there to back him up.

⁷And 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.

Why is the land called Israel, when Jacob isn't yet? He was told his name was Israel, why isn't he going by Israel?

Hamor pleads with Jacob, saying his son really loves Dinah. Why don't your people and our people make marriages together. Well, Jacob is probably a racist like his dad and grandfather. Shechem asks what dowry they can provide so that he can marry Dinah.

¹³And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:

¹⁴And 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:

¹⁵But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;

¹⁶Then 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.

If your men become circumcised, then we will marry your daughters, and you can marry ours... even though they only had Dinah.

Hamor and Shechem thought this was a good idea.

²⁴And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

Hamor and Shechem, and all the men of the city were circumcised.

²⁵And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.

The men were sitting around, with their very tender penis'; and Simeon and Levi came to town with their swords and killed all the men. I like the word "boldly". It implies that Simeon and Levi had courage. How much courage does it take to fight against a man who has one hand on his extremely sore penis?

²⁶And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out.

They even killed Hamor and Shechem.

²⁷The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.

The rest of the brothers came and took all the livestock, and all the gold.

²⁹And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

They even took the children and the wives. Those boys really wanted to revenge their sisters rape.

Jacob calls Simeon and Levi and says, you made the Canaanites hate us now. Now they are going to come after us.

³¹And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?

And that's how Dinah earned her name of "vindicated". Odd how Dinah got her name of "vindicated" when she was born, and then after her rape, the rapist, and his whole town got killed, thus providing her ultimate vindication.

I find it odd that this story would be included in the bible. Here we see the punishment for rape is complete destruction of the town that was the home of the rapist. Later, in Deuteronomy 22, we'll get the new law for rape. Here it is. Deut. 22: ²⁸If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;

²⁹Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

In Deut, we see the punishment for a rapist is he has to pay the father 50 shekels of silver, and marry the girl, additionally, he can't divorce her. In the Dinah rape story, we see Shechem offering to marry her, and also offered to pay whatever dowry Jacob and his sons asked. They asked for foreskins.

Why would Moses put in the law of 50 shekels and marriage, when precedence has already been set that you get to kill the rapists entire city?

It's because the Deuteronomy laws only deal with Hebrews amongst Hebrews. The Deuteronomy law for rape wouldn't apply to a Hivite raping a Hebrew anyway. Since the people were Hivites (descendants of Canaan) and black anyway, it didn't really matter that they were all killed. Jacob, like his father and grandfather, didn't want his sons marrying any blacks. He definitely isn't going to let his daughter marry a black.

Genesis 35

¹And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

That's really convenient of god to tell Jacob to leave when he's probably going to be chased out of town anyway.

²Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

Odd how Jacob allowed his people to have strange gods, except when they were going to Bethel.

⁵And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

This is the first use of the word terror in the bible. I find it interesting that the thing that causes terror (terrorist) is god.

⁸But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

Who is Deborah? Why is she being carried around by Jacob? Rebekah was Jacob's mother, was she still around at this point? Why is she important enough to name here? This is the only mention of her. The next time we hear of a Deborah is in Judges. Apparently Allon-bachuth means "oak of weeping". Someone really loved Deborah.

¹⁰And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

He was already name changed back in Genesis 32:28, of course, that time it didn't stick, but now it will... probably.

¹¹And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

¹²And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

All these promises have been said before.

¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

How many times is this place going to be named Bethel?

¹⁶And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

Rachel was pregnant again?

¹⁸And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

Nice of Abraham to honor his dieing wife's wish and name the son that killed her the thing that she named it. Of course, Benoni means "son of my pain". What else could it mean? Benjamin probably means "son who killed my beautiful loving wife, I hate this boy". Nope, Ben means "son of" Jamin means "right" or "right hand" or "south". Some scholars say that his name is Benjamim, the mim meanding "days". Which would mean that Abraham named his son "son of days" referencing his old age.

¹⁹And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

²⁰And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

Well, the claim of "unto this day" is kind of doubtful. There is a place in Isreal, on the south of Jerusalem, that is named Kever Rochel "Rachel's Tomb". It is traditionally considered to be that. Somehow, the Hebrews managed to go into captivity in Egypt, come out, take over the whole land, and remember exactly where one person was buried. Additionally, they were carried away to Babylon, and returned, and knew where it was. Then the land was captured by the muslims... and they knew where it was...

²²And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

Reuben lay with his dad's concubine? Reuben was the oldest. Sleeping with his father's concubine was a grievous offense. Oddly, this is considered incest, and taboo, but marrying your cousin isn't.

Next is a list of Jacob's sons.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.

²⁷And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

²⁹And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Isaac dies at 180. If Isaac now dies, this is at least 20 years after Jacob stole the blessing. He lived with dim vision for a long time. Isaac was 60 when the boys were born, so they were 120 when Isaac died. If they were 40 at the time of the blessing incident, then Isaac was 100 and this is now 80 years after that.

Genesis 36

¹Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.

Edom, means red, Esau was red.

²Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

³And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

Uh... what? Gen 26:34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: and Gen. 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

Gen 26:34/28:9 says he married Judith Beeri and Bashemath Elon and Mahalath Ishmael.
Now, Gen 36:2/3 says he married Anah Zibeon and Adah Elon and Bashemath Ishmael.

There's a bit of inconsistency there. This is a whopping 10 chapters later that it can't get the wives of Esau correct. Since lineage is so important, why can't they get it right?

⁶And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.

⁷For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.

Very similar to Lot and Abraham. The land couldn't hold both, son one of them moved away.

What follows in verses 9-43 is a list of the offspring of Esau. Remember, the bible is supposedly an accurate historical document. We see it can't get the history right, does it still get the theology right?

Points to ponder:

1. If Esau became the father of the Edomites, then was the blessing that Isaac bestowed upon him correct?

2. Does murdering an entire town justify the rape of your sister?

3. Is the lineage important?