Response To The Story Of Dinah

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Response to the Story of Dinah Value Placed upon Circumcision. The religious value of circumcision in the Story of Dinah was to create a covenant among the descendants of Abraham. The covenant that every male were to be circumcised kept the descendants of Abraham together forming a common bond among them. Those that were not circumcised were therefore not descendants of Abraham and treated as outcasts. If males were not circumcised it would bring disgrace upon their people. As genesis says: this is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”(Genesis 17:10-14) The sons of Jacob promised Hamor, that if all the males among the Hivites would be circumcised, they could give Dinah as a wife for Hamor’s son and the two families would become one people. The sons of Jacob used this religious act of circumcision as ploy to attack the Hivites and plunder their city. The Bible goes out of its way to tell us that Jacob’s son put forth the circumcision challenge with deception in mind (Genesis 34:13) And the fact that they threatened to have Dinah removed from Shechem’s house during the negotiations (Genesis 34:17), implies that she was there as guest, not as a hostage. Jacob, saw through the brother’s pretentious performance as

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