We are still in chapter 34 of Genesis with our word for today is used for the first time in the Bible in our chapter. מֹ֣הַר bride-price, dowry, money or goods given to the father of the bride; in some sense as compensation for the loss of his daughter. It is used 3 times in the Old Testament. Here are all the uses. Exodus 22:16-17 If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the כְּמֹ֖הַרbride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins. 1 Samuel 18:23-25 But David said, “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law? I’m only a poor man and little known.” When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other בְּמֹ֔הַרprice for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines. And the last use of our word is in our chapter today in the same sense as the other two uses.
Genesis 34:12 Ask me for as great a מֹ֣הַר bride-price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.” What is interesting is that Dinah’s brothers use this as an opportunity to get revenge. Genesis 34:13-17 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”
Later in the chapter the fate that Hamor and Shechem had planned to do to Jacob’s family ended up happening to them instead. Genesis 34:20-21, 23, 27-29 So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters…Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.”…The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered. It is amazing how God protects Jacob’s family from the harm that Hamor and Shechem were planning against them even while they were planning harm as well. As we have seen several times now God doesn’t condone lying and revenge but at the same time can use the free will actions of sinful people to accomplish his will. God accomplished His will to bring Christ into the world to save us from our sins. And he did it through Jacob’s family. Matthew 1:1-2, 21 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob… She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
