Theme: CONTRITENESS
Text: “And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.” – Genesis 34:25, 26.
Comment: The text above was the fatal result of Hamor’s indiscretion in humiliating Dinah, the seventh child of Leah, Jacob’s first wife who “went out to see the daughters of the land” and the violent reaction of two of her brothers, Simeon and Levi over the incident. After Shechem, his son Hamor and “and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city”, that on the third day when the men were in pains, Simeon and his brother, Levi turned on them, massacred them, took their spoils and wives as hostages. – Genesis 34:27-29.
Jacob, a just man, knew his sons had overreached themselves in a slaughter that vitiated or exceeded the evil done to them. Therefore, he disinherited them saying: “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret… for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall…Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” – Genesis 49:5-7.
Simeon and Levi missed the opportunity to forgive. They also did not take into reckoning that vengeance belongs to God. In their smoking anger, they also disregarded the law of God which states: “Thou shalt not kill”. (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17) We should avoid their errors.