7.1.7 Gen. 34: The Bloodbath at Shechem

The story does not shed much light on the relationship between the  Canaanite population and Jacob’s clan. Neither the Canaanite Shechem  nor Jacob’s sons consider what they are doing here. The vicious circle of  lawbreaking and revenge begins to turn. Only Hamor sees beyond the  edge of his plate, as does Jacob. But Jacob remains conspicuously  uninvolved here and does not belong to the acting persons, he is rather  in the victim role (34,30). The only two sensible ones do not manage to  stop the vicious circle of lawbreaking and revenge. How topical the OT is  again.