6th.: Why Dinah?
After being reconciled to his brother Esau (Gen. 33:1-15),
Jacob moved near the city of Shechem (Gen. 33:18).
One of the local boys took a fancy to Jacob’s daughter, Dinah.
The local boy seduced her, and wanted to marry her (Gen. 34:2-4).
Jacob held his peace.
He waited for his sons to come in from the field.
The sons were angry, because a local boy had defiled their sister (Gen. 34:5-7).
The Israelite men made a false treaty with the men of Shechem with regards to intermarriage.
Per one of the terms of the agreement, the men of Shechem agreed to be circumcised.
While they recovered from the circumcision surgery, two of Jacob’s sons, Levi, and Simeon,
killed all the men of Shechem, and took their possessions (Gen. 34:8-29).
Jacob complained to his boys about what they had done, and they answered that no one
should deal with their sister as if she were a prostitute (Gen. 34:30-31).
Part of Jacob’s complaint was, “Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among
the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and I being few in number,
they shall gather together against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.” (Gen. 34:30).
The scripture does not record if Jacob took this concern to the Lord, as he had his fears regarding his brother.
Nevertheless, it would have been good if he had.
Then the Lord could have reassured him, or given him wisdom, or whatever.
"... cause me to know the way wherein I should walk." (Ps 143:8c)