This verse underscores how Hamor leverages financial gain to manipulate his people into forging a deceptive alliance with Jacob’s family.
In Genesis 34, Hamor and his son Shechem attempt to persuade their fellow townspeople to enter into a covenant with Jacob’s family. Within this context, Hamor’s words convey a strategy driven by self-interest: “Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us” (v.23). This rhetorical question shows Hamor’s belief that by aligning themselves with Jacob, the people of Shechem will benefit materially and eventually take possession of what belongs to Jacob’s clan. The location is the city of Shechem, which lies in the land of Canaan near the modern-day city of Nablus in the West Bank. Situated between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, Shechem served as a significant landmark for trade and travel routes in the region.
These events occurred during the early second millennium BC, at a time when Jacob and his family were settling in Canaan. Historically, Jacob can be placed around 1900 BC, as one of the patriarchs in the lineage that eventually leads to the nation of Israel. Hamor, the Hivite ruler, used persistent persuasion to convince his people that the economic gains from Jacob’s family's flocks and herds would be worth adopting the sign of the covenant (circumcision). However, beneath this veneer of peaceful exchange, a more troubling plot was unfolding, foreshadowing the vengeance Jacob’s sons would soon unleash against the men of Shechem (Genesis 34:25-29). This entire account highlights the complex interplay of greed, deception, and covenant promises that run throughout the Old Testament narrative and later echo into New Testament principles about treasure and possession Matthew 6:19-21).
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Genesis 34:23 meaning
In Genesis 34, Hamor and his son Shechem attempt to persuade their fellow townspeople to enter into a covenant with Jacob’s family. Within this context, Hamor’s words convey a strategy driven by self-interest: “Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us” (v.23). This rhetorical question shows Hamor’s belief that by aligning themselves with Jacob, the people of Shechem will benefit materially and eventually take possession of what belongs to Jacob’s clan. The location is the city of Shechem, which lies in the land of Canaan near the modern-day city of Nablus in the West Bank. Situated between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, Shechem served as a significant landmark for trade and travel routes in the region.
These events occurred during the early second millennium BC, at a time when Jacob and his family were settling in Canaan. Historically, Jacob can be placed around 1900 BC, as one of the patriarchs in the lineage that eventually leads to the nation of Israel. Hamor, the Hivite ruler, used persistent persuasion to convince his people that the economic gains from Jacob’s family's flocks and herds would be worth adopting the sign of the covenant (circumcision). However, beneath this veneer of peaceful exchange, a more troubling plot was unfolding, foreshadowing the vengeance Jacob’s sons would soon unleash against the men of Shechem (Genesis 34:25-29). This entire account highlights the complex interplay of greed, deception, and covenant promises that run throughout the Old Testament narrative and later echo into New Testament principles about treasure and possession Matthew 6:19-21).