John Calvin Commentary Genesis 34:5

"Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they came." — Genesis 34:5 (ASV)

And Jacob heard. Moses inserts a single verse concerning the silent sorrow of Jacob. We know that those who have not been accustomed to reproaches are the more grievously affected when any dishonor happens to them. Therefore, the more this prudent man had endeavored to keep his family pure from every stain, chaste, and well-ordered, the more deeply he is wounded.

But since he is at home alone, he dissembles and keeps his grief to himself until his sons return from the field. Moreover, by this statement, Moses does not mean that Jacob deferred vengeance until their return, but rather that, being alone and devoid of counsel and of consolation, he lay prostrate as one disheartened. The sense, then, is that he was so oppressed with insupportable grief that he held his peace.

By using the word “defiled,” Moses teaches us what is the true purity of humanity: namely, when chastity is religiously cultivated and everyone possesses his vessel in honor. But whoever prostitutes his body to fornication filthily defiles himself. If, then, Dinah is said to have been polluted, whom Shechem had forcibly violated, what must be said of voluntary adulterers and fornicators?