The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 463

xxxiii. 21 ; Ps. civ. 25)--for them (literally, Commentary') which they macle-bcldl7,- before them, i. e. for them to wo.nder about i. e. either they themselves feeling confident with their flocks and herds. This was the of snccess beca.nsc of the sickness which lay second argnment employed by Hamor and upon the inhabitants (Ainsworth, Dathe, his son) ; let us take their daughters to us Rosenmiiller, Murphy, &c.), or, while the for wives, and let us give them our daugh- city was lolled into security in consequence ters. Only herein (or under this condition) of the treaty (Onkelos, Josephus, Keil, Lange), will the men consent unto us for to dwell or perhaps referring only to the fact that they with us, to be one people, if every male encountered no opposition, and came in safctv among us be circumcised (literally, in the (aa11>a>.wc) to the city (LXX., Ii:alisc1,)-an<! circumcising to or by us of every male), as slew all the males. Probably the toll'n ''""~ they are circumcised. .After which state- small. ment of the indispensable condition of the Yer. 26.-And they Blew Hamor and alliance proposed, they ad van cc as a third Shechem hie son with the edge (litcr,illy. argument for its acceptance the material ad- the mouth) of the sword,-without excusing vantages which such an allia.11ce would inevit- the inhuman barbarity of this remorseless ably secure for them. She.11 not their cattle massacre, Kurtz offers an elaborate antl. inter- and their substance and every beast of esting analysis of the complex motin of theirs (the mikneh refer to flocks and herds ; which it was the outcome, in particular the behemah to asses and camels) be ours 1 showing how in Jacob's sons that strange -literally, Shall not these (be) to us ?-only admixture of religious zeal and cam al passion let us c;onsent unto them, and they will of lofty faith and low craft, existed which dwell w'nh us. formed so large n portion of the character of Yer. • 24. - And unto Hamor and unto the patriarch himself (vide 'Hist. of the Oltl. Bhechem his son hearkened all that went Covenant,' vol. i. § 82)-and took Dinah out out of th.e gate of his city. The ready ac- of Bhechem'a house,-in which up to this quiescence of the Shechemites to the proposal time she had been detained against her will of Jacob's sons has not unreasonably been (Alford), though this may be open to question regarded as a proof that th;;y 11·ere already (Kalisch}--and went out. acquainted with circumcision ns a 1ocial, if Yers. 27-29.-The sons of Ja.cob-not all not religious, rite (Kurtz, Keil, &c.), And except Simeon and Le,i (Delitzsch), nor every male waa circumcised, all that went Simeon and Levi nlone (Kalisch, Inglis), !nit out of the gate of his city. Knobel notes it Simeon and Levi a.long with the others (ITo- as remarkable that the Hivites were not cir- senmiiller, Keil, Lange )-came upon the slain, cumcised, since, according to Herodotns, the -the absence of the l conjunctivo at tit~ rite was observed among the Phenicians, and comm~ncement of this verse, which parti- probably also the Canaanites, who were of tionists account for by the hypothesis that the &3.me extraction, and thinks that either vers. 27-29 nre on interpolation, is explainccl the rite was not universally observed in any by Keil as designed to express the subjective of these cmcient nations where it was known, excitement nnd indignation of the historian or that the Hivites were oliginally a differ- at the revolting character of the crime ho ent mcc from the Canaanites, and had not was narrating-and spoiled the city, because conformed to the customs of the land (vide they (i. e. the inhnbitnuts being rcganleu, on Lange in loco). Murphy thinks the present the well-known principlo of the solidarity of instance may point out one way in which nations, as involved in tho crime or their the custom spread from tribe to tribe. ruler) had defiled their sister, and so exposed Yor. 25.-A.nd it came to pass on the themselves to repri~als, in which they (i. e. third day, when they were aore,-Jiterally, the sons of Jacob) took their sheep, and their in their being in pain; orr ijaav Iv r,jj 1rov'I' oxen, and their asses, and that which was (LXX.). Inflammation and fever commonly in the city, and that which wns in the field, set in on the third day, which was for that and all their wealth, and all their little !'eason regarded as the critical day-that two onee,-taph, a collective noun for boys nllll of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah'e girh, who ru·e so callcu from their brisk an,l brethren (i. e. sons of the same mother, tripping motion (Gcsenius)-and their wives Leah), took each man his sword, and came took they captive, and spoiled even all thnt upon the oity-a.ccompnnied by their servants was in the house. Tho words tl.escribc a com- (Keil), or their father's men (llrurphy), b1tt plete sacking of the city, in which every house this is doubtful (Le.nge). That the other wns swept·of its inmates and its valunlilcs. sons of Jacob and brethren of Dinah did not Yer. 30.-And Jacob said to Simeon and pursue their thirst for vengeance to the same Levi, Ye have troubled mo (i. e. brought extremity as Si!T'eon and Levi seems apparent trouble upon me) to mako ma to stink-or, to from ver. 27; yet it is quite possible that cause me to become hateful; µ1ar1rov µ, ,,,.,. they joined with Simeon and Levi in th.e 1ro,iiran (LXX. )-among the inhabitants of 11,s:111lt upon the city (Roscnmiiller, 'Src:iker's tl:e land, 11.:iong the Ca:iaanites and t!ie 408 THI<~ BOOK OF GENESIS. [en. xxxt,·. 1-31,