Genesis 34 and the Law

Abstract

Abstract: Two features of the Shechem story present challenges for reading: the story’s ambiguities and its relationship to the law. The two features are mutually implicating. Through their words and their actions, particular characters allude to particular laws, revealing that they hold divergent points of view on the crisis instigated by Prince Shechem. Disclosing this conflict of perspectives clarifies many of the story’s ambiguities and maximizes others. In this way, Genesis 34 reveals itself as a legal riddle. All the legal actions proposed and taken by different characters correspond with biblical laws, but all are wrongly applied. One possibility after another is tested and discarded, until all the options are discounted.