What's up with Genesis 34?

[JayFifthmonth]

I recently decided to read the Bible (New American version) cover to cover, and unfortunately thus far it raised more questions than it has answered.

One of the most questionable and for me disturbing passages I have read so far is Chapter 34 of Genesis. Essentially, one of Jacob’s daughters is raped, and so to get revenge, her brothers go out and slaughter an entire city. What is their punishment? Absolutely nothing. Jacob effectively just slaps them on the wrist and says “Don’t do that anymore,” and most noticeably, God is silent. God doesn’t say a thing about this, or condemn it in any way. This isn’t the first time so far in my reading of Genesis that I’ve noticed God seem to simply ignore or outright permit certain customs that all modern day Christians would consider abhorrent: polygamy, slavery, deceit, adultery, etc. The early patriarchs certainly didn’t leave very holy lives, and many times it seems that God is silent on their sins.

So essentially I was just wondering if maybe I’m reading something wrong, or if you had any insight on the matter. The Old Testament so far seems to me almost a contradiction of the New Testament and Jesus’s teachings of love and peace, yet as Catholics we are still obligated to respect both Testaments.

Thanks so much!

 

[valentino]

One thing to remember is that God has dealt with man entirely different over the ages.The main thing to remember is that God can treat man howevver He pleases.If God sends an earthquake tomorrow its within His rights.Man is completely dependent on God and this is what man continues to forget.He made this more obvious to the Hebrews of old but unfortunately man today has forgot its history or denies that its reality.Man is no different today then he was 4000yrs.ago.Man is not more intelligent.

 

[Jim_Roberts]

I recently decided to read the Bible (New American version) cover to cover, and unfortunately thus far it raised more questions than it has answered.

One of the most questionable and for me disturbing passages I have read so far is Chapter 34 of Genesis. Essentially, one of Jacob’s daughters is raped, and so to get revenge, her brothers go out and slaughter an entire city. What is their punishment? Absolutely nothing. Jacob effectively just slaps them on the wrist and says “Don’t do that anymore,” and most noticeably, God is silent. God doesn’t say a thing about this, or condemn it in any way. This isn’t the first time so far in my reading of Genesis that I’ve noticed God seem to simply ignore or outright permit certain customs that all modern day Christians would consider abhorrent: polygamy, slavery, deceit, adultery, etc. The early patriarchs certainly didn’t leave very holy lives, and many times it seems that God is silent on their sins.

So essentially I was just wondering if maybe I’m reading something wrong, or if you had any insight on the matter. The Old Testament so far seems to me almost a contradiction of the New Testament and Jesus’s teachings of love and peace, yet as Catholics we are still obligated to respect both Testaments.

Thanks so much!

---

Behind the story of the rape is Dina and the revenge of Jacob’s sons on the men of the city
of Shechem there probably lies a dimly recollected historical event connected with an armed conflict between the early Israelite tribes invading central Canaan and the Human inhabitants of the Schechem people. The Greek word Horite was probab;y used indiscriminately to designate the Hurrian inhabitants of the Schechem region. Every able-bodied man is the community: literally all those who go our at the gate of the city, apparently meaning the men who go out to war. By temporarily crippling them through circumsion, Jacob’s sons deprived the city of its defenders.

JESUS II TRUST IN YOU

 

[Mintaka]

“God is silent right now” and “God doesn’t do anything right now” doesn’t necessarily mean “absolutely nothing bad happened to the protagonists because of what they did.” A lot of these stories come back on people later, if you pay attention; although sometimes you have to understand some kind of weird Hebrew pun or quote to get it.

Of course the other side of the Dinah story is that the children of Israel did have very good reason to discourage (with sharp pointy things) any kind of capture-marriage or rape-your-way-to-money-and-land marriage. They were all alone in their monotheism and explicit laws, and a woman marrying out was pretty much not going to have any chance to keep her own ways.

But the proper way to do this was not to use the Covenant as a trick, or to slaughter unarmed people during a treaty; war was to be fought openly. This kind of “let’s use Dinah and God as a front” stuff is part of what got the children of Israel off their land and stuck in Egypt as slaves (not to mention a lot of male Hebrews, adult and otherwise, very dead). Payback is heck.

And of course in the short run, all this is leading up to the story of Joseph, where the brothers even tried to murder one of their own by a trick, and where the only way for Joseph get out alive was to serve God faithfully and trust Him blindly. There’s reconciliation afterward, but the children of the bad brothers are still going to pay.

 

[Mintaka]

I forgot to mention that you’ve already seen this played out with Jacob. His deception against his father and Esau’s rights came back on him with the tricks played on him by Laban. His mother helping him with tricks came back on him with Leah and Rachel’s favoritism for certain kids, and the way Joseph and Benjamin suffered because Jacob favored them. In the end, he found himself desperate to reconcile with the brother he’d wronged.

But of course the tricks don’t stop there, as we saw.

A good chunk of Genesis could be defined as “Adam’s kids keep outsmarting themselves and doing murder, and thus bring trouble on themselves and their descendants.” Yep, and sometimes divine retribution means just letting events have their natural consequences.

 

[Fidelis]

Keep in mind when reading historical narrative in the Old Testament, just because one or more of the characters does something, it doesn’t follow that God approves of it. Most often no commentary or moralizing is made within the text itself in response to these events.

Why is that? It’s because the Scriptures are purposely subtle. They were written to be studied and taught within a teaching, living traditional culture. They were not meant to be taken and read out of that context or like we would read a modern novel.

Most often the stories would be read as part of a lesson to the people, and then be commented on by the Jewish priests (who were also teachers) and later rabbis.

As a previous poster noted, if you read these stories in their original context, you find that a lot of these obviously immoral actions go on to have consequences-- usually very serious ones. No need for heavy-handed moral-ism within the story: in the wider context, the lessons are obvious.

 

[JayFifthmonth]

Thanks a lot everybody, that does answer my questions. I was starting to have some doubts about Abraham and his family and their descendants, primarily concerning their behavior. But the Heavenly Father does see all and deals with them in His own way.

 

[stevekehl]

You also have to remember there is no Mosaic Law at this time. Evidently it was customary for powerful men to declare war when their family had been violated in some way. This is evidenced by the willingness of the Hivite men to be circumcised to make peace. In addition, Hamor wanted Jacob’s people to be blended with his own, this would have snuffed out the Jewish people before they had started. There is a parallel when God commands Saul to destroy the Amalakites, men, women, children, and livestock. God’s putpose was to preserve the Jewish people as a race and culture for the coming Messiah. In light of this, destroying the Hivites was one part of preserving the Jews until the New Covenant was established.

 

[JayFifthmonth]

Ok, so Mosaic Law had not yet been established. But what about God’s law? Morals? A code of ethics? I cannot fathom a God that would approve of genocide or slaughtering another race just to preserve the ethnic purity of another. That sounds just like Hitler’s Final Solution.

 

[Fidelis]

Ok, so Mosaic Law had not yet been established. But what about God’s law? Morals? A code of ethics? I cannot fathom a God that would approve of genocide or slaughtering another race just to preserve the ethnic purity of another. That sounds just like Hitler’s Final Solution.

I would respectfully disagree with stevekehl’s assessment here:

stevekehl
God’s putpose was to preserve the Jewish people as a race and culture for the coming Messiah. In light of this, destroying the Hivites was one part of preserving the Jews until the New Covenant was established.

There are other ways of looking at this. Here is a good evaluation by *Catholic Answers *apologist Jimmy Akin:

Hard Sayings of the Old Testament

 

[Dave_Noonan]

I recently decided to read the Bible (New American version) cover to cover, and unfortunately thus far it raised more questions than it has answered.

One of the most questionable and for me disturbing passages I have read so far is Chapter 34 of Genesis. Essentially, one of Jacob’s daughters is raped, and so to get revenge, her brothers go out and slaughter an entire city. What is their punishment? Absolutely nothing. Jacob effectively just slaps them on the wrist and says “Don’t do that anymore,” and most noticeably, God is silent. God doesn’t say a thing about this, or condemn it in any way. This isn’t the first time so far in my reading of Genesis that I’ve noticed God seem to simply ignore or outright permit certain customs that all modern day Christians would consider abhorrent: polygamy, slavery, deceit, adultery, etc. The early patriarchs certainly didn’t leave very holy lives, and many times it seems that God is silent on their sins.

So essentially I was just wondering if maybe I’m reading something wrong, or if you had any insight on the matter. The Old Testament so far seems to me almost a contradiction of the New Testament and Jesus’s teachings of love and peace, yet as Catholics we are still obligated to respect both Testaments.

Thanks so much!

In many stories in Genesis, you have to keep reading to find out what happens to the characters and how they get their “comeuppance” later. There’s not necessarily immediate punishment and sometimes the effects are not fully known for generations.

In one example (already noted) Jacob, the ultimate trickster–even his name in Hebrew implies the same–later is tricked by his father-in-law in the matter of Rachel and Leah and by his sons in the matter of Joseph. In this way, there is more of a subtle quality of poetic justice to these stories than direct divine retribution.

Likewise, in the story of Dinah, Levi and Simeon are eventually cursed for their violence in Gen 49:7 and their being “scattered in Israel” comes to fruition when the tribe of Levi receives no land after the conquest and the tribe of Simeon dwindles to the point that they are not even mentioned in the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy–and ultimately are given a sort of minor itinerant status within the lands assigned to the tribe of Judah.

 

[Crumpy]

I recently decided to read the Bible (New American version) cover to cover, and unfortunately thus far it raised more questions than it has answered.

One of the most questionable and for me disturbing passages I have read so far is Chapter 34 of Genesis. Essentially, one of Jacob’s daughters is raped, and so to get revenge, her brothers go out and slaughter an entire city. What is their punishment? Absolutely nothing. Jacob effectively just slaps them on the wrist and says “Don’t do that anymore,” and most noticeably, God is silent. God doesn’t say a thing about this, or condemn it in any way. This isn’t the first time so far in my reading of Genesis that I’ve noticed God seem to simply ignore or outright permit certain customs that all modern day Christians would consider abhorrent: polygamy, slavery, deceit, adultery, etc. The early patriarchs certainly didn’t leave very holy lives, and many times it seems that God is silent on their sins.

So essentially I was just wondering if maybe I’m reading something wrong, or if you had any insight on the matter. The Old Testament so far seems to me almost a contradiction of the New Testament and Jesus’s teachings of love and peace, yet as Catholics we are still obligated to respect both Testaments.

Thanks so much!

There are different levels of meaning and comments can fall in several categories. As a previous post suggested, God was being lenient with the Patriarchs and their tribes. The covenant at Sinai outlawed a lot of the things you mentioned, so the contrast is intentional, for sure.

In that light, you can begin to see other themes going on here, repeating something we saw in Gen 1: God making order out of chaos. Things were formless and void, then God fixes that. So, here’s the moral chaos that God is going to remedy at Sinai.

that’s my update for now; I’m still backtracking in my commentaries on this subject.