Genesis 49:5–7
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
Sometimes the most profound blessing a man can receive is a clear-eyed, Spirit-inspired rebuke of his sin. Jacob, speaking under the inspiration of God, is not settling old family scores. He is laying out the trajectory of his sons' character, a character that will echo down through the generations of the tribes that bear their names. The incident that looms behind this terrible curse is the massacre at Shechem, recorded back in Genesis 34. After their sister Dinah was defiled by the prince of the city, Simeon and Levi, full of a furious, carnal zeal, concocted a deceitful plan. Under the guise of a covenantal pact, they convinced the men of Shechem to be circumcised, and then, while their victims were incapacitated and helpless, they fell upon them with the sword, slaughtering every male in the city. They were not acting as agents of divine justice.