But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.” Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me for as great a bride-price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”
The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”
Comment: You may know more of this story of Hamor and Dinah than we have read in the last two days. It is a gory tragedy started by Hamor’s raping Dinah, but we now begin to see the mixed impure motives of the thinking on both sides. This is worked out in a situation, a cesspool of lust, anger, and hidden desires. Today we see the proposed dowry, and the groom’s family’ response. Abraham’s male descendants had to be circumcised. If they were to become related families they demanded the Hivites had to be circumcised. Jacob’s boys saw a bigger pool of available young women open to them; they demanded that they and the Hivite males looked the same and possibly they argued by their circumcisions they would really become one with them. On the other hand, Hamor’s men saw the wealth of Jacob and coveted it! So they had a circumcision party!
Prayer: Help us to be honest with pure motives in our decisions,Father.
As I read it! 