Genesis 34:13-17

"And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father with guile, and spake, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us. Only on this condition will we consent unto you: if ye will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised; then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone."

There is a possibility that Jacob's sons never dreamed of the Shechemites submitting to the conditions that they laid down. What an unreasonable thing to demand, that all the males of the city should be circumcised! Such an agreement surprises us today, after millenniums of time, and the surprise of the sons of Jacob must indeed have been shocking. It does not seem right to suppose that Jacob's sons:

1. intended the destruction of Shechem from the first;
   
2. that they foresaw the acceptance of their demand for all the men of the city to be circumcised;
   
3. that they had calculated the day of greatest pain and soreness to the defenders; and
   
4. that the whole design of their attack and victory was thought out in advance. On the other hand, the "guile" mentioned here was simply that of proposing conditions which they supposed were unacceptable to the Shechemites, intending all the while to rescue and take their sister back by force. Note the last line of Genesis 34:17.
   

Much to the consternation of Jacob's household, however, the Shechemites accepted the demands in toto, as detailed in the next paragraph.