Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bare unto Jacob, went forth to see the daughters of the land 1). And when she saw Shechem the son of Hemor the Hivite, who was lord of the land, he took her, and slept with her, and weakened her; and his heart was set on her, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto her, and said unto Hemor his father, Take me the damsel to wife. And Jacob heard that Dinah his daughter was defiled, and his sons were with the cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they came. Then Hemor, Shechem's father, went out to Jacob to speak to him; but Jacob's sons came out of the field, and when they heard it, the men were troubled, and were very wroth, because he had hasted to commit folly in Israel, and had put Jacob's daughter to sleep; for such a thing was not wont to be done. Then Hemor spoke to them, saying, "My son Shechem's heart desires your daughter; give her to him as a wife. Make friends with us, give us your daughters, and take you our daughters, and dwell with us; the land shall be yours.
1) Marginal gloss: Daughters of the land. What one seeks apart from God's word in reason and human wisdom certainly corrupts the spirit and faith; therefore no addition of human doctrine and works should be made to God's word.
Be open; dwell, and advertise, and work therein. And Shechem said unto her father and brethren: Let me find favor with you; what you say to me I will give; only ask of me confidently the morning gift and the present; I will give it as you ask; only give me the harlot to wife. Then Jacob's sons answered Shechem and Hemor his father, and spake deceitfully because Dinah their sister was defiled, and said unto them: We cannot do this, that we should give our sister to an uncircumcised man, for that would be a disgrace to us. But then we will obey you, if ye become like us, and all that is male among you be circumcised; and we will give our daughters unto you, and take your daughters unto us, and dwell with you, and be one people. But if ye will not obey us to circumcise you, we will take our daughter, and depart. The speech pleased Hemor and his son well. And the young man did not delay in doing so, for he had a desire for Jacob's daughter. And he was magnified above all in his father's house. Then Hemor and Shechem his son came to the city of Thor, and talked with the people of the city, saying: These people are peaceable with us, and will dwell in the land.
and become; so now the land is encompassed, we will take their daughters as wives and give them our daughters. But then will they be willing to dwell with us, and become one people with us, where we shall circumcise all that is male among us, even as they are circumcised. Their cattle and goods, and all that they have, shall be ours, if only we will them to dwell with us. And they obeyed Hemor, and Shechem his son, all that went in and out of the gates of his city, and circumcised every male that went in and out of his city. And on the third day, when it pained them, the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took every man his sword, and went thirstily into the city, and slew all the males, and slew Hemor also, and Shechem his son, with the edge of the sword. And they took Dinah their sister of the house of Shechem, and went away. Then the sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and "spoiled" the city because they had defiled their sister. And they took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and all that was in the city, and in the field. And all their goods, and all their children, and their wives, they took captive, and spoiled all that was in the houses. And Jacob said unto Simeon and Levi, Ye have made it to stink before the inhabitants of this land, the Cananites and the Perizzites; and I am a small company. Now when they come together against me, they will strike me, and I will be destroyed with my house. But they answered, Should they deal with our sister as with a harlot?
1 Then you see that the Scriptures write nothing good about the good and pious Jacob that he encountered, and his legend always holds up to us how he was thrown out of one misfortune and misery into another; when we saw how sour it had become for him with the wives and sheep when he served twenty years. Item, how he was afraid of Esau. Now, when he thinks that his misfortune is over, he is heartbroken that his daughter is violated and his sons also cause misfortune.
that he no longer has it good with anyone in the country. So his legend goes out to the last, that God always puts one cross over the other on his neck; as we will hear further.
So this is not the least of his sufferings, that he must suffer the disgrace and dishonor that befalls him with such courage, as if he had to let it go and could not take revenge, because the squire in the country does it, and thinks it does not matter much whether he takes his daughter from him and disgraces her. But that is still the greatest thing, that he must bear the shame with his children, that the whole country says of him, and everyone laughs at his accident, and must have the mockery to the detriment.
3 Here think how his faith is tempted, that he might have said, "Now where is the great promise that God will do me good and protect me? Does that mean benevolent, that he lets me pass over such a disgrace? The text does not speak of how he was afraid, but gives it to each one to think for himself how it hurt him in his heart, and yet he had to suffer in silence. Now this is written for our consolation and example of patience, when we have His word and promise; but He leaves us otherwise, that we may not fall into doubt, but know that God will not forsake us; as He kept His word, that it was finally fulfilled.
4 Now behold the story whence it cometh: "She went out (saith the text) to see the daughters or maidens of the land." It befits a virgin to run now and then; [it] is not a good sign if they cannot stay at home. Jacob would not have admitted it to her either, so [her.] to run. But it goes thus, if God does not guard, then no one guards, as the 127th Psalm, v. 1, says: "Where the LORD does not guard the city, the guards watch in vain." There is no doubt that he brought up his daughter in the best possible way, but it does not help. So it happens to many parents, when they have brought up their children well, that they still turn out badly. He does not want them to be allowed to run around and have their way, but to pull and teach them with all diligence.
God, if it does not work out, we have done our part. For it is not in our power, but in God's power, that children do well; where he is not in the ship, one never sails well.
5. Further, behold, the evil of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, falling upon the city of Shechem, and slaying all that is male, contrary to their father's will, so that they all sin, Simeon and Levi, Shechem, Hemor, and Dinah, and all the brethren; [They are all wickedness that they do; and the two sons also are perjured, that they keep not the peace, though they had vowed it, when the citizens were circumcised; so that the whole city must pay for the one wickedness.
But how is it that Jacob, at the end of the 48th chapter, v. 22, boasts that he took the land and the property justly, when it looks much different here? For his sons fall upon the city with violence and injustice, and take it all. But this is how God uses to make right out of wrong. The children do wrong against their father and their promise, but Jacob gets it right; so Shechem and Hemor are punished justly and rightly, even though they do wrong. Just as God commonly punishes boys by boys, sometimes also pious people by boys, and again; as the holy Job was punished by wicked boys from Arabia [Job 1, 15.], whereas the pious Abraham struck the four kings, as is heard above [Gen. 14, 15.]. Summa: Everything is in God's hand, it comes from where and how He wills, to whom He gives it, he has it. Now that the Shechemites are defeated and lose what is theirs is also right, although Jacob's sons fall into it unjustly; but God takes it because they are defeated, and gives it to Jacob so that he may keep it with good right.
(7) These are his works, when he gives or takes away a land and steals it wherever he wants; as he let the Hebrews steal their gold and silver utensils from the Egyptians, as it says in the other book of Moses [Cap. 12, 36]. This was wrong in the eyes of the people, but not in the eyes of God, for he wanted to punish them as they deserved. So it goes now in
The world is a place where one prince robs another, one country beats another, as one knave beats another.
(8) But we must consider that the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob were also pious and holy, because the Scriptures often exalt and praise them. However, they often stumbled and committed many a gross misdeed, as we shall see more hereafter, which is much the case with the great patriarchs. Now it would be a knavery to act so wrongly and with disloyalty as they do here, and to fall with deceit upon the defenseless Shechemites, and to strike and take away everything, when they had no debt to the citizens. It was not proper for them to rebel against Hemor and Shechem, even though they were already using injustice and violence, because they were masters of the land, while Jacob and his family were living there as aliens. Thus, God allows His own to become great sinners before He makes them righteous. Thus St. Paul had to persecute the Christians in the worst way before he became the most noble apostle [Apost. 8, 3. 9, 1. 2. 1 Tim. 1, 13. 14].
(9) All this is written for us as an example, so that even if a man stumbles in gross works, he is not to be condemned for it. If works were to make one pious in the sight of God, then these patriarchs would have to be rejected; for there is almost nothing of them in the legend but such coarse pieces. Therefore, nothing must be valid before God but grace and mercy. Therefore it is much better to preach about the saints, because how they fasted, did these or those works. For these are the secret and marvelous works of God, that he would have sinners to be saints, that all our glory of godliness and good works might be brought low. For this is the sum of it: As long as he keeps us, so long are we pious; but when he removes his hand, and lets us go ourselves, we are desperate wretches. But let no man despair if we fall, but that we will not forsake the word; for his word and his grace are greater and more than all men's sins. This chapter is based on the history; we also want to see a little of the secret interpretation.
(10) That Dinah, Jacob's daughter, goes out among the strange women means the frivolous souls that do not remain at home in the word of God, but go out and mix with the doctrines of men, and fall upon that which pleases reason. If Dina had stayed at home with her father, she would have remained unchanged; thus, the conscience also remains pure, because it hangs on the word of God alone; but as soon as it seeks something more, and goes after the teachings of men, it will certainly be corrupted. For God wants us to be His bride alone, and to cling to Him; so it is not possible for the conscience to remain unchanged when the laws of men enter it. But I speak only of the doctrines and laws of men, which are beaten and driven into the conscience, and not of outward statutes, which alone are put into the hand.
(11) Now when she has gone out, Shechem, the ruler of the land, becomes aware of her and courts her; that is, as Habakkuk says [Cap. 1:16], Cibus ejus electus, the devil, the prince of the world, seeks only cute little bits; that is, that by teachers of men he brings to himself and deceives not his multitude, but only those who have heard God's word and are God's people. So now he puts them to sleep and weakens them; for the devil does not seek to corrupt the souls he has under him, but only those who are still pure, as he has done through the papacy.
012 But that Shechem and Hemor should make terms with Jacob and his sons, and make an alliance, that he may retain them, and
The reason for this is the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of the teachers of men, which they use to deceive people and win them over. As the papists do, pretending that they will keep the gospel, and preach all that is written therein; as the Shechemites allow themselves to be circumcised, and say: We will not teach anything that brings harm, but that which is for salvation. So they have the Scripture and the gospel that we have, but they mean it wrongly, only painting it with such a color that they bring us to themselves and lead us away from the righteous faith.
(13) Their brothers let this happen at first, but soon they come in by force, take the sister again, beat and destroy everything; that is, the right preachers are there, and winning souls and consciences, they bring them home to God again. But that they deceive the citizens of the city, and pretend to dwell with them and keep company with them, means that we are also immersed in the doctrines of men; but after that we have taken up the right sword, that is, God's word, so that we put down and destroy everything that is human, so that they corrupt the consciences, do not stop until we have completely subdued it and made it all. And that the two brothers alone go and strangle everything is because there are few who preach God's word, but the other false saints are the greatest number; yet God's word is so powerful that it does them harm and destroys their thing.