Genesis 34:18-24

"And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was honored above all the house of his father. And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for, behold, the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent unto us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours? Only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city."

Genesis 34:23, here, reveals the design of Hamor and Shechem to "take over" the house of Jacob and all that he possessed. The pattern, repeated over and over in history, of a whole population blindly accepting the foolish plans of their rulers recurs again here. "All that went out of the gate of their city" is a reference to all the able-bodied men, all the members of the town meeting. As is often the case, when "every one agrees," only ONE was doing the thinking. They blindly sealed their doom unanimously! The skill by which Hamor and Shechem proposed their acceptance and made it look good to the people must be hailed as a marvel.

Hamor's speech was a diplomatic masterpiece. Without reference to the Dinah episode, or to his own personal interest, he showed that the agreement would be of great value to the townspeople.[18]

The initiative then lay with the sons of Jacob. Contrary to anything that could have been predicted, the Shechemites did it! When Jacob and his sons confronted the dilemma presented by this development, the plans of God for the isolation and development of a "Chosen People" who would in the fullness of time deliver to mankind their Redeemer would have been frustrated and destroyed if Jacob's family had accepted it. However wickedly the sons of Israel rejected it, they did what they had to do, although with a wicked cruelty and avarice that were the shame of generations of Israel. They had trapped themselves by proposing what they thought were unacceptable conditions. When the Shechemites accepted and met the conditions, their only course was to go back on their word and refuse to keep the promises that they had made. Herein lay the "guile" ascribed to Jacob's sons. They made promises and proposed conditions upon which they would act, knowing full well that even if Shechem met the conditions, they would never fulfill their side of the false bargain. Their bloody and treacherous refusal to do what they had promised to do is next recorded.