Genesis 34:7 Daily Devotional & Meaning – Which Thing Ought Not to Be Done
Daily Verses Everyday! Day 218
“And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter: which thing ought not to be done.”
The sons of Jacob did not merely seek to hold Shechem accountable. They devised a plan to deceive Hamor, Shechem, and all the men of the city. They used circumcision, the sacred sign of God’s covenant, as part of their scheme. They waited until the men were physically weakened and then slaughtered them.
Their anger may have begun with a just cause, but it led them into unjust actions.
Being wronged does not give us permission to do wrong.
The wickedness committed against Dinah did not make every response from her brothers righteous. Shechem’s sin did not excuse their deception. His violence did not justify killing every male in the city. His dishonoring of Dinah did not justify taking the women and children captive.
Sin cannot be defeated by becoming sinful ourselves.
The sons of Jacob were away in the field when the news reached them. Like their father, they had begun the day attending to the ordinary responsibilities of life. They were caring for the cattle, working among the flocks, and carrying out the daily labor necessary to sustain their household. Then one message changed the entire atmosphere of the day: their sister Dinah had been violated.
“And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it.”
There are some things that, once heard, make everything else seem unimportant. The cattle could wait. The work in the field could wait. Whatever plans they had made for that day were immediately forgotten. Their sister had been harmed, and the brothers returned home carrying emotions that Scripture describes with two powerful words: they were grieved, and they were very angry.
Their first response was grief.
Before the anger came fully into view, the text tells us that “the men were grieved.” This matters because righteous anger often begins with grief. They were not merely offended because their family’s reputation had been damaged. They were grieved because someone they loved had been treated wickedly.
Dinah was their sister. They had grown up with her. They shared the same household, traveled the same roads, endured the same family tensions, and entered the land of Canaan together. She was not a stranger whose suffering they heard about from a distance. She was part of them. What had been done to her wounded the entire family.
The Bible does not describe the outward expression of their grief. We are not told whether they wept, shouted, embraced Dinah, or stood in stunned silence. Yet the word itself communicates that their hearts were deeply troubled. They understood that this was not a small offense. Their sister had been dishonored, violated, and treated as though her dignity did not matter.
Their grief was appropriate.
There are moments when grief is the only righteous response to the wickedness of the world. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says that there is “a time to weep.” Jesus Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He knew that Lazarus would soon be raised, yet He still entered into the sorrow surrounding death. Christ did not treat grief as weakness or unbelief.
The closer we grow to God, the more deeply we should grieve over what sin does to people.
Sin is not merely the violation of an abstract rule. Sin destroys. It wounds bodies, damages minds, fractures families, corrupts relationships, and leaves consequences that may continue for generations. When we see someone treated unjustly, abused, exploited, or dishonored, our response should not be cold indifference.
Romans 12:15 commands believers to “weep with them that weep.” The church is not called merely to observe the pain of others. We are called to enter into it with compassion. When one member suffers, First Corinthians 12:26 says that all the members suffer with it.
Jacob’s sons understood this principle at the family level. Their sister had suffered, and therefore they suffered with her.
Yet their grief quickly burned into anger: “and they were very wroth.”
Their anger was not wrong merely because it was intense. There are things that should make us angry. There is a false form of spirituality that treats every expression of anger as sinful, but Scripture does not teach that all anger is evil. Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” The command recognizes that anger itself may arise for legitimate reasons, while warning that anger can quickly become the doorway to further sin.
Jesus displayed righteous anger. Mark 3:5 says that He looked upon the hardhearted religious leaders “with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.” Notice again the connection between anger and grief. Jesus was angry because their hardness caused Him grief. His anger was not selfish, uncontrolled, or vindictive. It arose from His holiness, compassion, and love for what was right.
Jesus also drove the money changers from the temple. He overturned their tables because they had transformed His Father’s house into a den of thieves. His anger was directed toward wickedness that dishonored God and exploited worshipers.
There is therefore a righteous anger that sees evil and refuses to call it acceptable.
Jacob’s sons were right to recognize that what Shechem had done was wicked. They were right to grieve. They were right to be angry. Their sister should not have been treated that way. Shechem’s position as prince of the country did not excuse him. His later claim of love did not erase his violence. Hamor’s polite conversation could not transform the offense into something honorable.
The problem was not that Dinah’s brothers felt anger.
The problem would be what they allowed their anger to become.
This verse places us at an important moment before their grief and anger turned into deception and massacre. At this point, their emotions reflected the seriousness of the offense. Yet righteous anger must remain surrendered to God, or it will eventually begin committing the very kind of evil it claims to oppose.
James 1:19–20 says, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” Human anger may begin with a righteous cause, but when it is allowed to rule the heart, it does not naturally produce God’s righteousness.
Anger is like fire. Fire contained within a furnace can warm a home, cook food, and provide light. But fire released without restraint can consume the entire house. The same flame that could have served a good purpose becomes destructive when it is no longer controlled.
The anger of Jacob’s sons was like a fire beginning to burn. Their sister had been grievously wronged, and the heat of their reaction was understandable. But instead of placing that fire beneath the authority of God, they would soon release it upon an entire city. Their anger would not remain focused on the guilty man. It would expand until innocent people were killed, homes were plundered, and women and children were taken captive.
The fire that began with a desire to defend Dinah would eventually burn far beyond Shechem.
This is one of the great dangers of anger. It rarely remains within the boundaries we originally imagine. We tell ourselves that we only want justice. We convince ourselves that we are defending what is right. Yet if we do not surrender our anger to God, justice can slowly become vengeance, and vengeance can become cruelty.
Romans 12:21 says, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” When evil causes us to abandon truth, mercy, restraint, and obedience to God, evil has gained another victory. It has not only harmed its first victim; it has corrupted those who responded to it.
This does not mean that Christians should remain passive when evil occurs. Scripture commands justice. God’s people are called to defend the weak, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, expose works of darkness, report crimes, protect victims, and support rightful authorities in holding wrongdoers accountable.
Isaiah 1:17 commands, “Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Proverbs 31:9 says, “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”
Biblical justice does not ignore evil. It confronts evil beneath the authority of God.
Vengeance is different. Justice asks, “What is right?” Vengeance asks, “What will satisfy my anger?” Justice seeks protection, truth, accountability, and proper judgment. Vengeance wants the offender to feel the pain that the wounded person has felt, often without regard for boundaries or innocence.
Romans 12:19 warns, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
God does not say that evil will never be judged. He says that final vengeance belongs to Him because only He can exercise it with perfect knowledge, perfect holiness, and perfect justice.
Our anger is often mixed with pride. Our understanding is limited. Our emotions can distort the facts. We may punish the wrong person, go beyond what is right, or create new victims. God never makes those mistakes. Abraham asked in Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The answer is always yes.
The sons of Jacob were “very wroth” because Shechem “had wrought folly in Israel.”
This phrase reaches beyond the immediate emotional response of Dinah’s brothers. What Shechem had done was not merely unwise or socially inappropriate. It was described as folly, a morally disgraceful act that violated the order established by God.
In Scripture, folly is not simply a lack of intelligence. A person may be intellectually gifted and still be a fool before God. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Biblical folly is moral rebellion. It is living as though God does not see, God does not judge, and God’s commands do not matter.
Shechem’s act was folly because he allowed desire to overrule righteousness. He saw Dinah, wanted her, and took her. He behaved as though his position and passion gave him the right to ignore her dignity.
Sin often follows this same path. First a person sees something. Then desire takes root. Then the mind begins to justify obtaining it. Finally, the person acts as though wanting something is sufficient reason to take it.
James 1:14–15 explains, “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Shechem allowed lust to conceive and bring forth sin. His desire was not governed by self-control, love, or reverence for God. He treated Dinah as an object for his satisfaction rather than a woman bearing the image of God.
The text says that his sin was “in Israel.” Jacob had only recently received the name Israel. Now that name was beginning to describe more than one individual. It was becoming connected to his household and eventually to the nation that would descend from him.
Shechem had committed an offense against Jacob’s daughter, but the verse presents it as folly committed within the covenant family. Dinah belonged to the household through which God had promised to continue the covenant given to Abraham and Isaac.
This does not mean that Dinah possessed greater human worth than the women of the surrounding nations. Every person is made in the image of God. Rather, the language emphasizes that Shechem had brought a shameful act into the household God had set apart for His covenant purposes.
God was forming a people who were meant to be distinct from the surrounding nations. Israel would later receive laws that emphasized sexual purity, protection of the vulnerable, justice, and the holiness of marriage. Shechem’s action represented the very kind of uncontrolled pagan conduct from which God’s people were to remain separate.
The words “which thing ought not to be done” carry moral clarity.
Scripture does not hesitate. It does not describe the event as a complicated romantic encounter. It does not excuse Shechem because he later spoke kindly to Dinah. It does not suggest that cultural differences made his behavior morally uncertain.
It ought not to have been done.
There are situations in which wisdom requires patience, nuance, and careful judgment. But there are also actions that must be named plainly. Abuse ought not to be done. Violation ought not to be done. Exploitation ought not to be done. Using power to take advantage of another person ought not to be done.
The Bible’s moral clarity is important in a world that frequently attempts to soften evil through carefully chosen language. People rename sin so that they do not have to confront it. Greed becomes ambition. Adultery becomes following the heart. Manipulation becomes persuasion. Exploitation becomes an arrangement. Abuse becomes a mistake.
But changing the word does not change the act.
Isaiah 5:20 declares, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” God does not allow human beings to redefine darkness as light simply because the truth makes them uncomfortable.
The church must preserve this moral clarity, especially when protecting the vulnerable. We should not minimize wrongdoing to protect a family name, a ministry, a leader, or an institution. We should not become more concerned about the reputation of the accused than the well-being of the wounded.
“It ought not to be done” is a sentence that must sometimes be spoken.
Yet this same clarity must also be directed toward the response to evil. What Shechem did ought not to have been done. But what Simeon and Levi would soon do also ought not to have been done.
Scripture does not require us to choose one side’s sin and excuse the other side’s sin. God’s judgment is not tribal. He does not call an act righteous simply because it was committed by the family we sympathize with.
Shechem was guilty of violating Dinah.
Simeon and Levi would be guilty of deception, murder, and plunder.
Hamor would be guilty of treating the matter as a negotiation centered on his son’s desires.
Jacob would later rebuke his sons, though his response also appears deeply concerned with the danger their actions had created for his household.
Genesis 34 is not a chapter with simple human heroes. It is a chapter showing how one terrible sin can spread outward, producing grief, anger, manipulation, deception, violence, and fear.
That is the multiplying nature of sin.
One stone thrown into water creates ripples that move far beyond the place where it first struck. In the same way, Shechem’s sin did not remain confined to one moment. It affected Dinah, Jacob, her brothers, Hamor’s household, the men of the city, and countless women and children who would suffer after the massacre.
Sin always reaches farther than the sinner expects.
A person may tell himself, “This is my choice.” Yet sin is never entirely private. A father’s sin affects his children. A leader’s sin affects those under his authority. A husband’s sin affects his wife. A hidden addiction affects the entire household. A moment of uncontrolled desire can produce consequences lasting for years.
This is why God’s commands are not cruel restrictions. They are protections. When God says, “Thou shalt not,” He is not withholding joy from humanity. He is warning us away from roads that lead to destruction.
The sons of Jacob understood that Shechem had crossed a moral boundary. Their grief and anger testified that human beings instinctively know some actions violate the dignity of others. Even among fallen people, there remains an awareness that certain things ought not to be done.
Yet knowing that evil is wrong is not enough. We must also know how to respond to it righteously.
That requires more than strong emotions. It requires the wisdom of God.
James 3:17 says, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
This wisdom is first pure. It does not compromise with evil. But it is also peaceable and full of mercy. It refuses both passive indifference and uncontrolled vengeance.
Only God’s wisdom can teach us how to grieve without losing hope, how to become angry without sinning, how to pursue justice without becoming cruel, and how to confront evil without allowing evil to transform us.
Christ is the perfect example.
Jesus never minimized sin. He warned of judgment, exposed hypocrisy, defended the vulnerable, and called sinners to repentance. Yet He also refused to be controlled by hatred. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.
First Peter 2:23 tells us that Christ entrusted Himself to the righteous Judge. At the cross He suffered the greatest injustice in human history. The sinless Son of God was mocked, beaten, falsely accused, and crucified. Yet He did not respond with sinful vengeance.
He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
That prayer did not declare His persecutors innocent. It displayed His perfect submission to the Father and His merciful heart toward sinners.
At the same cross, God demonstrated both justice and mercy. Sin was not ignored. Its penalty was borne by Christ. Mercy was not cheaply offered. It was purchased by His blood.
The gospel therefore gives us what the sons of Jacob lacked in this moment: a place to bring our grief, a righteous Judge to whom we can surrender vengeance, and a Savior who can keep anger from consuming our souls.
When we are wronged, we may grieve.
When we see evil, we may be angry.
When the vulnerable are harmed, we should speak.
But we must bring every emotion beneath the lordship of Jesus Christ. Our pain cannot become our master. Our anger cannot become our god. Our desire for justice cannot become permission to abandon holiness.
The sons of Jacob came from the field grieved and very angry because a thing that ought not to have been done had been done. Their emotional response showed that they recognized the seriousness of the evil. But the verses that follow will show that recognizing evil in another person does not guarantee that we will avoid evil ourselves.
We need more than moral outrage. We need transformed hearts.
We need the Holy Spirit to produce self-control.
We need the Word of God to define justice.
We need the example of Christ to govern our responses.
We need faith that trusts the Judge of all the earth to do right.
There are things in this world that should break our hearts. There are acts that should stir righteous anger. Indifference toward evil is not holiness. Yet neither is uncontrolled vengeance.
May God give us hearts tender enough to grieve with the wounded, courageous enough to call evil by its proper name, and humble enough to surrender our anger to Him. May we defend those who have been harmed without becoming harm-doers ourselves. May we remember that our wrath cannot accomplish the righteousness of God. And may we trust that no act of evil is hidden from the eyes of the Lord, no victim is forgotten, and no unrepentant wrongdoer will escape His perfect judgment.
Some things ought not to be done.
When they are done, God calls His people neither to indifference nor to lawless revenge, but to truth, compassion, justice, restraint, and faith in the righteous Judge who will one day set all things right.
If you would like to explore Genesis in a sustained, verse-by-verse way with space to reflect, journal, and trace how these foundational truths unfold through Scripture the Verse by Verse book expands these reflections into a unified reading experience. The book gathers these meditations into a structured journey through Genesis, designed to help readers linger in the text and engage God’s Word more deeply over time.
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