This section of Scripture begins the terrible story of Dinah’s rape and subsequent retaliation by her birth brothers Levi and Simeon. There are several troubling situations which we will see this chapter. First, Jacob was supposed to be on the way from Paddan-Aram to Bethel where his father and mother lived. He had not seen them for twenty plus years and they had never met his wives and children. He was on the way to be with them (Genesis 31: 18 etc.) when he stopped in Shechem. He should have kept going and not mingled with the Canaanites for they were staunch pagans and did not know the God of Israel. Such would be the temptation that would plague this nation throughout their existence. They were commanded to be separate and they would mingle even to the point of marrying into the pagans and adopting their idolatrous ways turning from the God that gave them the unique Covenant separating them out from the rest of the world as God’s people.
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