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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 34:18 - 34:18
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The condition seemed reasonable to the two suitors, and by way of setting a good example, “the young man did not delay to do this word,” i.e., to submit to circumcision, “as he was honoured before all his father's house.” This is stated by anticipation in Gen 34:19; but before submitting to the operation, he went with his father to the gate, the place of public assembly, to lay the matter before the citizens of the town. They knew so well how to make the condition palatable, by a graphic description of the wealth of Jacob and his family, and by expatiating upon the advantages of being united with them, that the Shechemites consented to the proposal. שְׁלֵמִים: integri, people whose bearing is unexceptionable. “And the land, behold broad on both sides it is before them,” i.e., it offers space enough in every direction for them to wander about with their flocks. And then the gain: “Their cattle, and their possessions, and their beasts of burden...shall they not be ours?” מִקְנֶה is used here for flocks and herds, בְּהֵמָה for beasts of burden, viz., camels and asses (cf. Num 32:26). But notwithstanding the advantages here pointed out, the readiness of all the citizens of Shechem (vid., Gen 23:10) to consent to be circumcised, could only be satisfactorily explained from the fact that this religious rite was already customary in different nations (according to Herod. 2, 104, among the Egyptians and Colchians), as an act of religious or priestly consecration.