IV. HAMOR AND THE SBECBEMITEs. 1. 1'/ie condition prescribed by Jacob's sons explained. This was dooe by the ruling sovereign nnd the crown prince in a public assembly convened at the city gate. 2. T/i,e condition accepted by the Shechemites. Trusting to the good faith of the Hebrew strangers, they assented to the proposition thnt all the male inhabitants should be circumcised, and in good faith it was carried out by both prince nnd people. V. THE SONS OF JACOB AND THE SHECHEMITES. 1. Tli,e massacre of the inhabitants by .Dinali's brethren. Three dnys after, when, in consequence of the painful opera- tion to which they had submitted, the male part of the population was unable to stir in their defence, Simeon and Levi, confident of success in their nefarious deed, fell upon the unsuspecting city, and slew all the males. It was a heartless, rutbless, treacherous, diabolic massacre, fit to rank with the St. Bartholomews and Glencoc~ of modern times. 2. The spoliation of the city by Jacob's sons. If Simeon nnd Levi were alone responsible for the massacre, the sacking of the city was the work of all the brethren (Joseph and Benjamin doubtless excepted). Not only did they make captives of the wives and children, but they carried off every live thing they could find of any value; and not only did they ransack the houses, from the palace to the cottage, but they appear to have stripped even the very dead. The annals of uncivilised warfare scarcely record a more atrocious crime. VI. JACOB AND DrnAH's BRETHREN. 1. Tlie feeble reproof of Jacob. Be only complains that their cruel deed would cause his name to be abhorred in the lnnd, anrl perhaps lead to their extermination ns a people. For the different views that have been entertained of Jacob's words the Exposit.ion may be consulted. 2. The ins1tffi- cient reply of .Dinah's brethren. Shechem certainly had wronged Dinah, but he never meant to treat her as a harlot. Learn-I. The danger of unrestrained social intercourse between the Church allfl the world in genernl, and in particular between the daughters of the pious and the sons of the ungodly-exemplified in Dinah, who, going to see the danghters of the land, lost her fair fame, and brought trouble on her father's house. 2. The misery of yielding to unholy passion-illustrated in Shechem, whose unbridled lust bore bitter fruit to all concerned: to Dinah dishonour, to Jacob shame and sorrow, to Jacob's sons the thirst for revenge, to Hamor and the Shcchemites as well as to himself overwhelming retribution. 3. The wickedness of which good men when left to themselves may be guilty-exhibited in the conduct of Jacob's sons, who in this lamentable affair were chargeable with treachery, sacrilege, murder, spoliation, oppression. 4. The possibility of the innocent suffering with and for the guilty- shown in the massacre of the Shechemites for the sin of Shechem. 6. The certainty that a man's worst foes are often those of his own household-of which the case of Ja.cob wns n melancholy instance, whose name wns more dishonoured by his sons' atrocities than by his daughter's misfortune.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ch. xxxiv.-Good out of evil. The whole of this miserable story has its place in the development of the kingdom of God. No alliance can be true and safe which is not upon the foundation of the Divine covenants. Circumcision without faith is 11 mere carnal ordinance, working evil. The sin of Shechem wns avenged, but it wns avenged by the commission of a greater sin by Simeon and Levi. It was not thus that the kingdom of God was to be spread. "Ye have troubled me," Jacob sai,I. And so have nil worldly agencies and methods troubled the true Church. It is better to suffer at the hands of the wicked than to make compromising alliance with them. The worldly Church has filled the world with misery. Abuse of Divine things has been the source of innumerable evils, not only among the people of God, but even in the sphere of men's secular life. But notwithstanding the sin of Simeon and Levi, their prompt execution of the Divine judgment upon the sin of Shechem must luwe pro- duced a. wholesome fear in the country, and connected that fear with moral purity. The sins of unchastity and violation of family rights were monstrously prevalent 11mong the heathen people of Canaan, and it was doubtless ordered that this outbreak of human passion should bear witness for God as the God of pnrity and the God of 4\0 TlIE BOOK OF GENESIS. Ccn. xnr. 1-1/i.