HaMalachi
13-06-2005, 06:32
In Genesis I found a story that made me laugh, but made sooo much sense at the same time.
Its the story of Dinah and the Shechemites.
Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah went out to visit with the women, while on the trip Shechem the local ruler saw her, kidnapped her and raped her.
He then talks about how much he loves her and wants her to be his wife, telling his father to tell Jacob that he wants her as a wife.
Jacob hears about it, but doesn't do anything right away because all the males were in the field at the moment
Well, the sons get word about it, and come in from the fields while Shechem's father is talking to Jacob. He asks that Dinah becomes wife to his son and that they intermerry amongst the two peoples to become one people, and put all this bad stuff behind them.
Shechem then tells the brothers to name the price that he may be redeemed for his deeds, asking them to name a price for the marriage, no matter the cost, as long as he still marries Dinah.
So the brothers, still pissed off about what had happened to their sister respond with no, can't do it because they can't marry any people that the males are not circumsized. They stated that the only way they would allow the marriage to happen was that every male from the region had to be circumsized.
Shechem agrees and goes home to tell all the males. They all agree with their ruler and they all get circumsized.
3 days later, while the men were still in the pain of what they had done, two of Jacob's sons crept down and slaughter all the males, put Shechem to the blade and took Dinah home.
Jacob heard about it and told them they shouldn't have done such a thing, that now war could come down upon their house and that he didn't think they could win such a war if the other regions banned against him. The son's simply stated...
"Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"
I had to agree, I would be pretty upset if someone had done that to my sister. I don't think I would have taken it to the extreme as they did, but at the same time, maybe. If they had said no, then Shechem would have made war, costing lives on both sides, simply because he couldn't control himself with a woman. So I guess it saved bloodshed this way. I would have at the very least taken Shechem down.
Its the story of Dinah and the Shechemites.
Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah went out to visit with the women, while on the trip Shechem the local ruler saw her, kidnapped her and raped her.
He then talks about how much he loves her and wants her to be his wife, telling his father to tell Jacob that he wants her as a wife.
Jacob hears about it, but doesn't do anything right away because all the males were in the field at the moment
Well, the sons get word about it, and come in from the fields while Shechem's father is talking to Jacob. He asks that Dinah becomes wife to his son and that they intermerry amongst the two peoples to become one people, and put all this bad stuff behind them.
Shechem then tells the brothers to name the price that he may be redeemed for his deeds, asking them to name a price for the marriage, no matter the cost, as long as he still marries Dinah.
So the brothers, still pissed off about what had happened to their sister respond with no, can't do it because they can't marry any people that the males are not circumsized. They stated that the only way they would allow the marriage to happen was that every male from the region had to be circumsized.
Shechem agrees and goes home to tell all the males. They all agree with their ruler and they all get circumsized.
3 days later, while the men were still in the pain of what they had done, two of Jacob's sons crept down and slaughter all the males, put Shechem to the blade and took Dinah home.
Jacob heard about it and told them they shouldn't have done such a thing, that now war could come down upon their house and that he didn't think they could win such a war if the other regions banned against him. The son's simply stated...
"Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"
I had to agree, I would be pretty upset if someone had done that to my sister. I don't think I would have taken it to the extreme as they did, but at the same time, maybe. If they had said no, then Shechem would have made war, costing lives on both sides, simply because he couldn't control himself with a woman. So I guess it saved bloodshed this way. I would have at the very least taken Shechem down.