Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 34:30

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Genesis 34:30

1819–1905
Anglican
Charles Ellicott
Charles Ellicott

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Genesis 34:30

1819–1905
Anglican
SCRIPTURE

"And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house." — Genesis 34:30 (ASV)

You have troubled me. — Jacob’s timidity led him to think first of the danger that would result from the conduct of his sons, and only afterwards of the cruelty and treacherousness of their deed.

He commented upon this on his dying bed in words of fitting reprobation, but his reproof now is singularly weak, and the retort of his sons just. If the danger were all, this could have no weight when a shameful wrong had been done; but in avenging this wrong they had committed a crime of a deeper dye.