And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.
Jacob held his peace. Jacob, as a father and a good man, must have been deeply distressed. But he could do little. In the case of a family by different wives, it is not the father, but the full brothers, on whom the protection of the daughters devolves-they are the guardians of a sister's welfare and the avengers of her wrongs. It was for this reason that Simeon and Levi, the two brothers of Dinah by Leah, appear the chief actors in this episode; and though the two fathers would have probably brought about an amicable arrangement of the affair, the hasty arrival of these enraged brothers, who came home while Hamor was conversing with Jacob (cf. Genesis 34:6 with Genesis 34:8), introduced a new element into the negotiations.
Verse 6. Hamor - i:e., donkey; and such a name being applied to a prince is a striking proof of the very different ideas which, in the East, are associated with that animal, which there appears sprightly, well proportioned, and of great activity. This chief is called Emmor (Acts 7:16).
Verse 7. Were grieved, and they were very wroth. Good men in such a case could not but grieve; but it would have been well if the anger of Dinah's brothers had been restrained, or that they had known the precept, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." No injury can justify revenge; but Jacob's sons planned a scheme of revenge in the most deceitful manner (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:9). They seem to have regarded the wrong done to their sister not simply as a private injury or domestic calamity, but as an ignominy of so indelible a nature as affected not the honour merely, but the very existence of Jacob's house. A dishonour done to the chosen family appeared in their eyes a graver offence, a greater crime, than if inflicted on any other. Jacob having been made Israel, the commission of a crime which ignored the family relations with God, was, in the Scripture sense of the term, "folly in Israel" (Psalms 14:1).