Genesis 34:30 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 34:30
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 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 themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Simeon
שִׁמְע֣וֹןshim.'on
H8095
Shimon · proper noun, a man's name
Levi
לֵוִי֮le.Vi
H3878
Levi · proper noun, a man's name
troubled
עֲכַרְתֶּ֣ם'a.khar.Tem
H5916
properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
stink
לְהַבְאִישֵׁ֙נִי֙le.hav.'i.She.ni
H887
to smell bad · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix
inhabitants
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 5:21 And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in th…
Joshua 7:25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them wit…
1 Samuel 13:4 And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistin…
Psalms 105:12 When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
Genesis 13:7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled th…
Genesis 28:13-14 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest,…
Genesis 49:5-7 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
1 Samuel 27:12 And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 34:25–end
Here, we have Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons, young men not much above twenty years old, cutting the throats of the Shechemites, and thereby breaking the heart of their good father.
I. Here is the barbarous murder of the Shechemites. Jacob himself was used to the sheep-hook, but his sons had got swords by their sides, as if they had been the seed of Esau, who was to live by his sword; we have them here,
1. Slaying the inhabitants of Shechem - all the males, Hamor and Shechem particularly, with whom they had been treating in a friendly manner but the other day, yet with a design upon their lives. Some think that all Jacob's sons, when they wheedled the Shechemites to be circumcised, des…
Jacob said . . . Ye have troubled me--This atrocious outrage perpetrated on the defenseless citizens and their families made the cup of Jacob's affliction overflow. We may wonder that, in speaking of it to his sons, he did not represent it as a heinous sin, an atrocious violation of the laws of God and man, but dwelt solely on the present consequences. It was probably because that was the only view likely to rouse the cold-blooded apathy, the hardened consciences of those ruffian sons. Nothing but the restraining power of God saved him and his family from the united vengeance of the people (compare Gen 35:5). All his sons had not been engaged in the massacre. Joseph was a boy, Benjamin not y…
Ye have troubled me - Brought my mind into great distress, and endangered my personal safety; to make me to stink - to render me odious to the surrounding tribes, so that there is every reason to suspect that when this deed is come abroad they will join in a confederacy against me, and extirpate my whole family. And had he not been under the peculiar protection of God, this in all human probability would have been the case; but he had prevailed with God, and he was also to prevail with men. That Jacob's resentment was not dissembled we have the fullest proof in his depriving these two sons of the birthright, which otherwise they had doubtless enjoyed. See Gen 49:5, Gen 49:7, where some addit…
The Church Fathers
NUMBER OF PEOPLE FROM JACOB. — Jacob, fearing the war of the inhabitants of the land, when he lived in the city of Salem that destroyed his sons, says, For I am small in number, and they, meeting against me, will kill me . Out of fear of the attack of many who could rise against him, he says that he has a small number of men. He does not say that he has many less than necessary for the conquest of that city, since he divided them into two camps during his return journey. [
Those who are brothers according to faith to the injured one, if they are in the priestly order, like Levi, are among the subjects (Simon, in fact, is interpreted as "obedience"). They are extremely displeased if somebody who is their intimate friend according to faith is offended. However, they should not proceed to demand blood, nor should they expect extremely severe punishments for the corruptors, so as not to listen to Christ, who said to them, "You have made me hateful, so that I am now evil in the eyes of all the inhabitants of the land." It is necessary to remember what Jesus said in reproof to Peter, who was holding his sword, "Put up again your sword into its sheath: all those who take the sword shall perish with the sword." In fact, it is not fitting for us, who are inclined toward piety in God, to be armed with swords but rather to be patient. Even though some people want to persecute us, we must reproach them to be good. We must be patient but never silent, as we must refer to him who judges rightly. Those who want to avoid destruction must be careful not to leave the tabernacle of the father, that is, the house of God, in order not to be received into the herds of the heretics and other strangers. After moving out of the father's tabernacle, Dinah was brought to the house of Shechem. She would have never been reproached if she had stayed in the paternal houses and had lived constantly in the holy tabernacles. David declares how that thing is beautiful and very useful by singing, "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will earnestly seek: that I should dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I should behold the fair beauty of the Lord and survey his temple. For in the days of my affliction he hid me in his tabernacle: he sheltered me in the secret of his tabernacle."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dinah — Judged; vindicated, daughter of Jacob by Leah, and sister of Simeon and Levi (Gen. 30:21). She was seduced by Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite chief, when Jacob’s camp was in the neighbourhood…
Levi — Adhesion. (1.) The third son of Jacob by Leah. The origin of the name is found in Leah’s words (Gen. 29:34), “This time will my husband be joined [Heb. yillaveh] unto me.” He is mentioned as taking a…
Shechem — Shoulder. (1.) The son of Hamor the Hivite (Gen. 33:19; 34). (2.) A descendant of Manasseh (Num. 26:31; Josh. 17:2). (3.) A city in Samaria (Gen. 33:18), called also Sichem (12:6), Sychem (Acts…
Chiding · Jacob chi — Jacob chi
Deception · .Jacob’s — .Jacob’s
Dishonesty · .Simeon and Levi — .Simeon and Levi
Homicide · .Simeon and Levi — .Simeon and Levi
Simeon · .Jacob’ s — .Jacob’ s
Vengeance · . — .
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
בְּיֹשֵׁ֣ב
be.yo.Shev
H3427
properly · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
land
הָאָ֔רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Canaanites
בַּֽכְּנַעֲנִ֖יba.ke.na.'a.Ni
H3669
a Kenaanite or inhabitant of Kenaan · preposition with the article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
Perizzites
וּבַפְּרִזִּ֑יu.vap.pe.ri.Zi
H6522
a Perizzite · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
few
מְתֵ֣יme.Tei
H4962
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct
number
מִסְפָּ֔רmis.Par
H4557
a number · noun, common masculine singular absolute
together
וְנֶאֶסְפ֤וּve.ne.'es.Fu
H622
to gather for any purpose · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
me
וְהִכּ֔וּנִיve.hi.Ku.ni
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix
destroyed
וְנִשְׁמַדְתִּ֖יve.nish.mad.Ti
H8045
to desolate · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
house
וּבֵיתִֽיu.vei.Ti
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi,.... who were the principals concerned in this affair:
ye have troubled me; because of the sin they had committed, because of the dishonour brought upon religion, and because of the danger he and his family were hereby exposed unto; it greatly disquieted him, made him very uneasy, he was at his wit's end almost, knew not what to do, what course to take to wipe off the scandal, and to defend himself and family; since it served, he says:
to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land; to make him odious and abominable, to be hated and abhorred by all the people round about, and to be looked upon and treated as a deceitful, treacherous, and perfidious…
And Jacob said. Moses declares that the crime was condemned by the holy man, lest any one should think that he had participated in their counsel. He also expostulates with his sons, because they had caused him to stink among the inhabitants of the land; that is, they had rendered him so odious, that no one would be able to bear him. If then the neighboring nations should conspire among themselves, he would be unable to resist them, seeing he had so small a band, in comparison with their great number. He also expressly names the Canaanites and Perizzites, who, though they had received no wrong, were yet by nature exceedingly prone to inflict injury. But Jacob may seem to act preposterously, i…
Jacob reproved the originators of this act most severely for their wickedness: "Ye have brought me into trouble (conturbare), to make me stink (an abomination) among the inhabitants of the land;...and yet I (with my attendants) am a company that can be numbered (lit., people of number, easily numbered, a small band, Deu 4:27, cf. Isa 10:19); and if they gather together against me, they will slay me," etc. If Jacob laid stress simply upon the consequences which this crime was likely to bring upon himself and his house, the reason was, that this was the view most adapted to make an impression upon his sons. For his last words concerning Simeon and Levi (Gen 49:5-7) are a sufficient proof that…
