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[Bengalzona]

(05-07-2016, 02:42 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: Hold on a sec... I thought that it was only Jacobs sons that stole and killed everyone. I thought I remeber Jacob being pissed that his sons did that and his sons replyed with a snarky comment. I could be remembering wrong though, since it's been about 10 years since I read the bible.

Yes, Jacob was not involved. It was only Simeon and Levi who did the killing. The other brothers (sans Joseph and Benjamin who weren't born yet) joined in on the looting and pillaging. The text in the picture is not accurate in this regard.

And, yes, he was pissed that his sons did this (see the response to Dino below).

The sons comment wasn't so much snarky. It was more myopic. Jacob was trying to teach them that there was more than one issue here, but they were stuck on just the one thing.

(05-07-2016, 02:54 PM)GMDino Wrote: He was upset because he was afraid the other people would combine and attack them...not because of what they did.


And that answer isn't snarky...

He was angry about what happened to her, as well as about his sons choices and actions. More than you might think. Jacob and his people had walking orders from God to not inter-marry with the native people in the area. This was why they bought land from Shechem's father and lived out side the city. Having the daughter of the Jacob raped by the son of a chief of a neighboring tribe presented a complex set of issues. There may have been a cultural differences between the Israelites and the Canaanites where Shechem's behavior may have been acceptable among his people, but not among the Israelites. A response required a certain amount of diplomacy and delicacy.

Jacob waited until his sons came in from the field in order to have them make a judgment about how they should respond. He basically deferred the judgment to them to test them. He needed to test them because they would lead the group after he passed on and needed to understand judgments and repercussions. He also needed to find out how much they had been influenced by the people and customs in Canaan. The point of the story is that, when faced with a complex situation, they did not turn to God in prayer. Instead, they chose deceit and murder with a little bit of greed thrown in as well (i.e. pillaging). Their response was their own personal vendetta rather than a 'righteous' response condoned by God.