Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Genesis Ch.34 / 50 Ch.s
GE:34
* 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.