Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 34

Dinah ... went out to see the daughters of the land. —Those commentators who imagine that Jacob lived only twenty years at Haran must assume that he remained two or more years at Succoth, and some eight years at Shechem, before this event occurred, leaving only one more year for the interval between Dinah’s dishonour and the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites.

Nevertheless, if Dinah was now not more than fourteen, there would remain a period of only nine years, in which Leah had to bear six sons and a daughter, with a long interval of barrenness, during which Zilpah was given to Jacob and bore two sons.

But besides this impossibility, Jacob evidently remained at Succoth only until he was shalem, sound and whole from his sprain. Dinah’s visit was one of curiosity, for she went to see the daughters of the land. That is, she wanted, as Abravanel says, to see what the native women were like and how they dressed themselves.

Josephus says that she took the opportunity of a festival at Shechem. However, as neither her father nor brothers knew she was going, but were with their cattle as usual, it is likely that with only one or two women she slipped away from her father's camp and paid the penalty of her girlish curiosity. But she would feel no such curiosity after being a year or two at Shechem, so it is probable that her dishonour took place within a few weeks after Jacob’s arrival there.

Similarly, Hamor’s words in Genesis 34:21-22 clearly show that Jacob was a newcomer. For he proposes that the people should let them dwell in the land, and therefore consent to the condition required by them that the Hivites should be circumcised. It would have been absurd to speak this way if Jacob had already lived there eight years with no apparent intention of going away.

THE TÔLDÔTH ISAAC (Genesis 25:19 to Genesis 35:29).

THE BIRTH OF ISAAC’S SONS.

Abraham begot Isaac —The Tôldôth in its original form probably gave a complete genealogy of Isaac, tracing his descent up to Shem, and showing by this that the right of primogeniture belonged to him; but the inspired historian uses only as much of this as is necessary for tracing the development of the Divine plan of human redemption.

The Syrian. —Really, the Aramean, or descendant of Aram. (See Genesis 10:22-23.) The name of the district also correctly is “Paddan-Ararn,” and so far from being identical with Aram-Naharaim, in Genesis 24:10, it is strictly the designation of the region immediately in the neighbourhood of Charran.

The assertion of Gesenius that it meant “Mesopotamia, with the desert to the west of the Euphrates, in opposition to the mountainous district towards the Mediterranean,” is devoid of proof. (See Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 1, p. 304.)

In Syriac, the language of Charran, padana means a plough (1 Samuel 13:20), or a yoke of oxen (1 Samuel 11:7); and this also suggests that it was the cultivated district close to the town.

In Hosea 12:12 it is said that Jacob fled to the field of Aram; but this is a very general description of the country in which he found refuge, and affords no basis for the assertion that Padan-aram was the level region. Finally, the assertion that it is an ancient name used by the Jehovist is an assertion only. It is the name of a special district, and the knowledge of it was the result of Jacob’s long-continued stay there. Chwolsohn says that traces of the name still remain in Faddân and Tel Faddân, two places close to Charran, mentioned by Yacut, the Arabian geographer, who flourished in the thirteenth century.

Isaac entreated the Lord. —This barrenness lasted twenty years (Genesis 25:26) and must have greatly troubled Isaac. It would also compel him to reflect deeply on the purpose for which he had been given to Abraham and afterwards rescued from death upon Mount Jehovah-Jireh.

When offspring came, in answer to his earnest pleading of the promise, the delay would serve to impress upon both parents the religious significance of their existence as a separate race and family, and the necessity of training their children worthily.

The derivation of the verb to entreat, from a noun signifying incense, is uncertain but rendered probable by the natural connection of the idea of the ascending fragrance and that of the prayer mounting heavenward (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:4).

The children struggled together.— Two dissimilar nations sprang from Abraham, but from mothers totally unlike; so, too, from the peaceful Isaac two distinct races of men were to originate, but from the same mother, and the contest began while they were yet unborn. And Rebekah, apparently unaware that she was pregnant with twins, but harassed with the pain of strange jostlings and thrusts, grew despondent, and exclaimed—

If it be so, why am I thus? —Literally, If so, why am I this? Some explain this as meaning “Why do I still live?” but more probably she meant, If I have conceived in this way, in answer to my husband’s prayers, why do I suffer in this strange manner? It thus prepares for what follows, namely, that Rebekah wished to have her condition explained to her, and therefore went to inquire of Jehovah.

She went to inquire of the Lord. —Not to Shem, nor Melchizedek, as many think, nor even to Abraham, who was still alive, but, as Theodoret suggests, to the family altar. Isaac had several homes, but probably the altar at Bethel, erected when Abraham first took possession of the Promised Land (Genesis 12:7), and therefore especially holy, was the place indicated; and if Abraham were there, he would doubtless join his prayers to those of Rebekah.

Jacob heard. — As Dinah did not return home (Genesis 34:26), her father probably learned of her dishonour from the maidservants who had gone out with her. But “he held his peace,” chiefly from his usual cautiousness, as he was no match for the Hivites, but partly because Leah’s sons had the right to be the upholders of their sister’s honour.

He had wrought folly in Israel. — The great anger of Jacob’s sons agrees as completely with the general harshness of their characters as the silence of the father with his habitual thoughtfulness; but it was aroused by a great wrong. The use, however, of the term Israel to signify the family of Jacob as distinguished from his person belongs to the age of Moses, and is one of the proofs of the arrangement of these records having been his work. In selecting them, and weaving them together into one history, he would add whatever was necessary, and in the latter half of this verse we apparently have one such addition.

You shall dwell with us. — Hamor proposes that Jacob’s family should abandon their nomad life, and settle among the Hivites, and trade with them, and get possessions, not merely of cattle and movable goods, but of immovable property. He wished the two clans to coalesce into one community.