Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
back to:
Genesis
Book: Genesis
Chapter: 34
Overview:
Dinah defiled
By Shechem.
(1-19) The Shechemites murdered
By
Simeon and
Levi.
(20-31)
1-19 Young persons, especially females, are never
So safe and
Well off as under the care of pious parents. Their own
ignorance, and the flattery and artifices of designing, wicked
people, who are ever laying snares for them, expose them to
great danger. They are their own enemies if they desire to go
abroad, especially alone, among strangers to true religion.
Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children
from needlessly exposing themselves to danger. Indulged
children, like
Dinah, often become a grief and shame to their
families. Her pretence was, to see the daughters of the land, to
see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was
fashionable among them; she went to see, yet that was not all,
she went to be seen too. She went to get acquaintance with the
Canaanites, and to learn their ways. See what came of
Dinah's
gadding. The beginning of
Sin is as the letting forth of water.
How great a matter does a little
Fire kindle! We should
carefully avoid all occasions of
Sin and approaches to it.
20-31 The Shechemites submitted to the sacred rite, only to
serve a turn, to please their
Prince, and to enrich themselves,
and it was just with
God to bring
Punishment upon them. As
nothing secures us better than true religion,
So nothing exposes
us more than religion only pretended to. But
Simeon and
Levi
were most unrighteous. Those who act wickedly, under the pretext
of religion, are the worst enemies of the
Truth, and harden the
hearts of many to
Destruction. The crimes of others form
No
excuse for us. Alas! how one
Sin leads
On to another, and, like
flames of
Fire, spread
Desolation in every direction! Foolish
pleasures lead to seduction; seduction produces wrath; wrath
thirsts for revenge; the thirst of revenge has recourse to
treachery; treachery issues in
Murder; and
Murder is followed
By
other lawless actions. Were we to trace the history of unlawful
commerce between the sexes, we should find it, more than any
other
Sin, ending in
Blood.