Carelessness (34:1). Why was it so important that Dinah get to know the women of the land? Why didn’t her mother advise her and somebody dependable accompany her on her sightseeing trip? (Her brothers were out in the field with the flocks.) For that matter, why was Jacob tarrying in this pagan neighborhood and deliberately endangering his family? He should have been at Bethel leading them closer to the Lord.

The name of the Lord isn’t mentioned once in this chapter, and the wisdom of the Lord is surely absent as well. When we disobey the Lord, we put ourselves and our loved ones in danger. Consider what happened to Abraham in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1ff.), Lot in Sodom (19:1ff.), Isaac in Gerar (26:6-16), Samson in Philistia (Judg. 14; 16), and Peter in the high priest’s courtyard (Luke 22:54ff.).

Defilement (vv. 2-5). Three times in the narrative the word defiled is used to describe Shechem’s wicked deed (vv. 5, 13, 27). The young prince claimed that he did it because he loved her and wanted her for his wife, but committing violent rape and keeping the girl confined in a house (v. 26) was a strange way to declare his love.

But his actions and words bore witness only to the fact that God’s people and the people of Canaan had different standards of conduct. To the Jews, sexual activity that violated the law of God brought defilement to the victim and judgment to the guilty party. In later years, the Mosaic law with its penalties sought to protect people by declaring sexual misconduct both a sin and a crime (Deut. 22:23-29). The silence of Jacob when he heard the tragic news (Gen. 34:5) showed neither indifference nor cowardice on his part. Since his sons were in the field with the sheep and cattle and he could do nothing without their help, he was wise to wait.