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37 - Commentary on The Book of Genesis · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty four. Genesis chapter thirty four. At this chapter
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Speaker 1: begins the story of Jacob's afflictions in his children, which
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Speaker 1: were very great, and are recorded to show. Number One,
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Speaker 1: the vanity of this world. That which is dearest to
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Speaker 1: us may prove our greatest vexation, and we may meet
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Speaker 1: with the greatest crosses in those things of which we said,
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Speaker 1: this same shall comfort us. Number Two, the common griefs
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Speaker 1: of good people. Jacob's children were circumcised, were well taught
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Speaker 1: and prayed for, and have very good examples set them.
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Speaker 1: Yet some of them proved very untoward. The race is
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Speaker 1: not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
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Speaker 1: Grace does not run in the blood, and yet the
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Speaker 1: interrupting of the entail of grace does not cut off
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Speaker 1: the entail of profession and visible church privileges. Nay, Jacob's sons,
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Speaker 1: though they were his grief in some things, yet were
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Speaker 1: all taken into covenant with God. In this chapter we
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Speaker 1: have numeral one Dinah debauched Verses one through five, Numeral two,
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Speaker 1: a treaty of marriage between her and Setchem, who had
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Speaker 1: defiled her Verse six through nineteen. Numeral three, the circumcision
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Speaker 1: of the Sechemites pursuant to that treaty Verses twenty through
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Speaker 1: twenty four, Numeral four. The perfidious and bloody revenge which
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Speaker 1: Simeon and Levi took upon them Verses twenty five through
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Speaker 1: thirty one. Dinah dishonored BC seventeen thirty two, Verse one.
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Speaker 1: And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto
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Speaker 1: Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land
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Speaker 1: verse two. And when she Kim, the son of Hamoor,
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Speaker 1: the Hivite prince of the country, saw her, he took
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Speaker 1: her and lay with her, and defiled her verse three.
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Speaker 1: And his sole clayth unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob,
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Speaker 1: and he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the
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Speaker 1: damsel verse four. And Kim spake unto his father Haymore, saying,
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Speaker 1: get me this damsel to wife verse five. And Jacob
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Speaker 1: heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his
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Speaker 1: sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob
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Speaker 1: held his peace until they were come. Dinah was for aught.
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Speaker 1: That appears Jacob's only daughter, and we may suppose her
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Speaker 1: therefore the mother's fondling and the darling of the family,
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Speaker 1: and yet she proves neither a joy nor a credit
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Speaker 1: to them, for those children seldom prove either the best
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Speaker 1: or the happiest that are most in dulled. She is
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Speaker 1: reckoned now, But fifteen or sixteen years of age, when
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Speaker 1: she here occasioned so much mischief. Observe Number one her
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Speaker 1: vain curiosity which exposed her. She went out, perhaps unknown
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Speaker 1: to her father, but by the connivance of her mother,
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Speaker 1: to see the daughters of the land Verse one. Probably
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Speaker 1: it was at a ball or some public day. Being
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Speaker 1: an only daughter, she thought herself solitary at home, having
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Speaker 1: none of her own age and sex to converse with,
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Speaker 1: And therefore she must needs go abroad to divert herself,
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Speaker 1: to keep off melancholy, and to accomplish herself by conversation
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Speaker 1: better than she could in her father's tents. Note it
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Speaker 1: is a very good thing for children to love home.
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Speaker 1: It is parents wisdom to make it easy to them,
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Speaker 1: and children's duty then to be easy in it. Her
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Speaker 1: pretense was to see the daughters of the land, to
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Speaker 1: see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what
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Speaker 1: was fashionable among them she went to see. Yet that
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Speaker 1: was not all. She went to be seen too. She
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Speaker 1: went to see the daughters of the land, But it
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Speaker 1: may be with some thoughts of the sons of the
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Speaker 1: land too. I doubt she went to get an acquaintance
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Speaker 1: with those Canaanites and to learn their way. Note the
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Speaker 1: pride and vanity of young people betray them in many
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Speaker 1: snares Number two the loss of her honor. By this
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Speaker 1: means verse two, she kim the prince of the country,
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Speaker 1: but a slave to his own loss took her and
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Speaker 1: lay with her. It should seem not so much by
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Speaker 1: force as by surprise. Note great men think they may
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Speaker 1: do anything, and what more mischievous than untaught an ungoverned youth.
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Speaker 1: See what came of Dinah's gadding. Young women must learn
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Speaker 1: to be taste keepers at home. These properties are put
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Speaker 1: together Titus chapter two, verse five. For those that are
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Speaker 1: not keepers at home expose their chastity. Dinah went abroad
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Speaker 1: to look about her, But if she had looked about
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Speaker 1: her as she ought, she would not have fallen into
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Speaker 1: this snare. Note the beginning of sin is as the
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Speaker 1: letting forth of water. How great a matter does a
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Speaker 1: little fire kindle. We should therefore carefully avoid all occasions
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Speaker 1: of sin. And approaches to it. Number three the court
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Speaker 1: of Sikhim made to her after he had defiled her.
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Speaker 1: This was fair and commendable, and made the best of
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Speaker 1: what was bad. He loved her not as amnon Second Samuel,
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Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, verse fifteen, and he engaged his father to
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Speaker 1: make a match for him with her verse four, number four.
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Speaker 1: The tidings brought to poor Jacob verse five. As soon
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Speaker 1: as his children grew up, they began to be a
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Speaker 1: grief to him. Let not godly parents that are lamenting
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Speaker 1: the miscarriages of their children think their case singular or unprecedented.
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Speaker 1: The good man held his peace as one astonished that
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Speaker 1: knows not what to say, or he said nothing for
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Speaker 1: fear of saying amiss. As David Psalms, Chapter thirty nine,
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Speaker 1: Verses one and two. He smothered his resentments lest if
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Speaker 1: he had suffered them to break out, they should have
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Speaker 1: transported him into any indecencies, or it should seem he
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Speaker 1: had left the management of his affairs very much too much,
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Speaker 1: I doubt to his sons, and he would do nothing
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Speaker 1: without them, or at least he knew they would make
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Speaker 1: him uneasy if he did. They have shown themselves of
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Speaker 1: late upon all occasions bold forward and assuming note. Things
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Speaker 1: never go well when the authority of a parent runs
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Speaker 1: low in a family. Let every man bear rule in
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Speaker 1: his own house and have his children in subjection with
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Speaker 1: all gravity treachery of Dinah's brethren b. C. Seventeen thirty two,
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Speaker 1: Verse six. And Haymore, the father of Si Cham, came
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Speaker 1: out unto Jacob to commune with him verse seven. And
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Speaker 1: the sons of Jacob came out of the field when
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Speaker 1: they heard it. And the men were grieved, and they
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Speaker 1: were very wroth because he had wrought fally in Israel,
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Speaker 1: lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done.
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Speaker 1: Verse eight. And Haymore communed with them, saying, the soul
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Speaker 1: of my son Si Kam longeth for your daughter. I
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Speaker 1: pray you give her him to wife verse nine. And
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Speaker 1: make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters to us,
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Speaker 1: and take our daughters unto you verse ten. And ye
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Speaker 1: shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before
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Speaker 1: you dwell, and trade ye therein and get you possessions
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Speaker 1: therein verse eleven. And she Kim said, unto her father
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Speaker 1: and unto her brethren, let me find grace in your
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Speaker 1: eyes and what ye shall say unto me, I will
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Speaker 1: give verse twelve. Ask me never so much dowry in gift,
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Speaker 1: and I will give a courting as ye shall say
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Speaker 1: unto me, but give me the damsel to wife verse thirteen.
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Speaker 1: And the sons of Jacob answered, she came and harmer
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Speaker 1: his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah
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Speaker 1: their sister verse fourteen. And they said, unto them, we
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Speaker 1: cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one
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Speaker 1: that is uncircumcised, for that were a reproach unto us
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Speaker 1: verse fifteen. But in this will we consent unto you.
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Speaker 1: If ye will be as we be, that every male
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Speaker 1: of you be circumcised verse sixteen, then will we give
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Speaker 1: our daughters unto you. And we will take our daughters
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Speaker 1: unto us, and we will dwell with you, and we
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Speaker 1: will become one people verse seventeen. But if ye will
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Speaker 1: not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then we will
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Speaker 1: take our daughter and we will be gone. Jacob's sons,
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Speaker 1: when they heard of the injury done to Dinah, showed
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Speaker 1: a very great resentment of it, influence perhaps rather by
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Speaker 1: jealousy for the honor of their family than by a
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Speaker 1: sense of virtue. Many are concerned at the shamefulness of sin,
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Speaker 1: that never lay to heart the sinfulness of it. It
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Speaker 1: is here called folly in Israel verse seven, according to
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Speaker 1: the language of after times, for Israel was not yet
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Speaker 1: a people, but a family only. Note one. Uncleanness is folly,
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Speaker 1: for it sacrifices the favor of God, peace of conscience,
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Speaker 1: and all the soul can pretend to that is sacred
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Speaker 1: and honorable, to a base and brutish lust. Number two,
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Speaker 1: this folly is most shameful in Israel. In a family
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Speaker 1: of Israel, where God is known and worshiped as he
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Speaker 1: was in Jacob's tents by the name of the God
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Speaker 1: of Israel, Folly in Israel is scandalous. Indeed, Number three,
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Speaker 1: it is a good thing to have sinned stamped with
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Speaker 1: a bad name. Uncleanness is here perverably called faaly in Israel.
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Speaker 1: Second Samuel, chapter thirteen, verse twelve. Dinah is here called
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Speaker 1: Jacob's daughter, for warning to all the daughters of Israel
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Speaker 1: that they betray not themselves to this folly. Haymore came
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Speaker 1: to treat with Jacob himself, but he turns him over
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Speaker 1: to his sons, and here we have a particular account
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Speaker 1: of the treaty, in which it is a shame to
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Speaker 1: say the Canaanites were more honest than the Israelites. Numeral one.
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Speaker 1: Haymore and see Kham fairly proposed this match in order
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Speaker 1: to a coalition in trade. She Kim is deeply in
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Speaker 1: love with Dinah. He will have her upon any terms
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Speaker 1: Verse eleven and twelve. His father not only consents, but
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Speaker 1: solicits for him, and gravely insists upon the advantages that
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Speaker 1: would follow from the union of the families verse nine
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Speaker 1: and ten. He shows no jealousy of Jacob, though he
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Speaker 1: was a stranger, but rather an earnest desire to settle
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Speaker 1: a correspondence with him and his family, making him that
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Speaker 1: generous offer the land shall be before you trade you
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Speaker 1: Therein Numeral two, Jacob's sons basely pretend to insist upon
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Speaker 1: a coalition and religion, when really they designed nothing less.
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Speaker 1: If Jacob had taken the management of this affair into
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Speaker 1: his own hands, it is probable that he and Haymoor
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Speaker 1: would soon have concluded it. But Jacob's sons mediate only
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Speaker 1: revenge and a strange project they have for the compassing
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Speaker 1: of it. The Shekhamites must be circumcised, not to make them,
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Speaker 1: why they never intended that, but to make them sore,
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Speaker 1: that they might become an easier prey to their sword.
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Speaker 1: Number one. The pretense was specious. It is an honor
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Speaker 1: of Jacob's family that they carry about with them the
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Speaker 1: of God's covenant with them. And it will be a
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Speaker 1: reproach to those that are thus dignified and distinguished to
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Speaker 1: enter in such a strict alliance with those that are
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Speaker 1: uncircumcised Verse fourteen. And therefore, if you will be circumcised,
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Speaker 1: then we will become one people with you, Verse fifteen
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Speaker 1: and sixteen. Had they been sincere herein their proposal of
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Speaker 1: these terms, would have had it in something commendable. For
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Speaker 1: Israelites should not intermarry with Canaanites, professors with profane It
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Speaker 1: is a great sin, or at least the cause and
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Speaker 1: inlet of a great deal, and has often been a
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Speaker 1: pernicious consequence. The interest we have in any persons and
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Speaker 1: the hold we have with them, should be wisely improved
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Speaker 1: by us to bring them to the love and practice
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Speaker 1: of religion. He that winneth so Roles is wise, But
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Speaker 1: then we must not, like Jacob's sons, think it enough
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Speaker 1: to persuade them to submit to the external rights of religion,
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Speaker 1: but must endeavor to convince them of its reasonableness, and
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Speaker 1: to bring them acquainted with the power of that number two.
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Speaker 1: The intention was malicious, as appears by the sequel of
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Speaker 1: the story. All they aimed at was to prepare them
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Speaker 1: for the day of slaughter. Note. Bloody designs have often
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Speaker 1: been covered and carried on with a pretense of religion.
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Speaker 1: Thus they have been accomplished most plausibly and most securely.
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Speaker 1: But this dissembled piety is doubtless double iniquity. Religion is
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Speaker 1: never more injured, nor are God's sacraments more profaned, than
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Speaker 1: when they are thus used for a cloak of maliciousness. Nay,
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Speaker 1: if Jacob Gab's sons had not had this bloody design,
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Speaker 1: I do not see how they could justify their offering
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Speaker 1: the sacred sign of circumcision the seal of God's Covenant
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Speaker 1: to those devoted Canaanites who had no part or lot
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Speaker 1: in this matter. Those had no right to seal, that
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Speaker 1: had no right to the promise. It is not meet
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Speaker 1: to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs
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Speaker 1: that Jacob's sons valued not this while they could make
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Speaker 1: it serve their turn verse eighteen. And their words pleased
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Speaker 1: Hamoor and seek him Hamer's son verse nineteen. And the
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Speaker 1: young man deferred not to do the thing, because he
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Speaker 1: had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was more honorable
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Speaker 1: than all the house of his father verse twenty. And
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Speaker 1: Haymoor and she Khim his son came unto the gate
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Speaker 1: of their city and immuned with the men of their city,
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Speaker 1: saying verse twenty one, these men are peaceable with us.
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Speaker 1: Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade therein.
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Speaker 1: For the land behold it is large enough for them.
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Speaker 1: Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and
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Speaker 1: let us give them our daughters verse twenty two. Only
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Speaker 1: herein will the men consent unto us, for to dwell
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Speaker 1: with us, to be one people. If every male among
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Speaker 1: us be circumcised, as they are circumcised verse twenty three,
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Speaker 1: shall not their cattle and their substance, and every beast
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Speaker 1: of theirs be ours. Only let us consent unto them,
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Speaker 1: and they will dwell with us verse twenty four. And
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Speaker 1: unto Haymoor and to she Kim his son. Hearkened all
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Speaker 1: that went out of the gate of this city, and
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Speaker 1: every male was circumcised all that went out of the
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Speaker 1: gate of his city. Here Number one, Haymoor and she
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Speaker 1: Kim gave consent themselves to be circumcised verse eighteen nineteen.
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Speaker 1: To this, perhaps they were moved not only by the
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Speaker 1: strong desire they had to bring about this match, but
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Speaker 1: what they might have heard of the sacred and honorable
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Speaker 1: intentions of this sign in the family of Abraham, which
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Speaker 1: it is probable they had some confused notions of and
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Speaker 1: of the promises conferred by it, which made them the
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Speaker 1: more desirous to incorporate with the family of Jacob. Zachariah,
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Speaker 1: Chapter eight, verse twenty three. Note many who know little
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Speaker 1: of religion yet know so much of it as makes
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Speaker 1: them willing to join themselves with those that are religious. Again,
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Speaker 1: if a man would take upon him a former religion
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Speaker 1: to gain a good wife, much more should we embrace
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Speaker 1: the power of it to gain the favor of a
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Speaker 1: good God, even circumcise our hearts to love him. And
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Speaker 1: as she can here not defer to do the thing.
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Speaker 1: Number two, they gained the consent of the men of
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Speaker 1: the city Jacob's sons, requiring that they also should be circumcised. One,
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Speaker 1: they themselves had great influence upon them by their command
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Speaker 1: and example. Note, religion would greatly prevail if those in authority, who,
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Speaker 1: like she Kim, were more honorable than their neighbors, would
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Speaker 1: appear forward and zealous for it. Two they urged an
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Speaker 1: argument which was very cogent verse twenty three. Shall not
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Speaker 1: their cattle and their substance be ours. They observed that
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Speaker 1: Jacob's sons were industrious, thriving people, and promised themselves and
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Speaker 1: their neighbors advantage by alliance with them. It would improve
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Speaker 1: ground and trade and bring money into their country. Now, One,
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Speaker 1: it was bad enough to marry upon this principle, Yet
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Speaker 1: we see covetousness the greatest matchmaker in the world, and
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Speaker 1: nothing designed so much with many as the laying of
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Speaker 1: house to house and feeld to field without regard had
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Speaker 1: to any other consideration. Two, it was worse to be
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Speaker 1: circumcised upon this principle. The Sikamites will embrace the religion
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Speaker 1: of Jacob's family only in hopes of interesting themselves thereby
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Speaker 1: in the riches of that family. Thus there are many
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Speaker 1: with whom gain is godliness, and who are more governed
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Speaker 1: and influenced by their secular interest than by any principle
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Speaker 1: of thy religion. Murder of the Shekamites b. C. Seventeen
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Speaker 1: thirty two, verse twenty five. And it came to pass
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Speaker 1: on the third day, when they were sore, that the
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Speaker 1: two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took
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Speaker 1: each man his sword and came upon the city boldly
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Speaker 1: and slew all the males verse twenty six. And they
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Speaker 1: slew Hamor and Seekam his son with the edge of
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Speaker 1: the sword, and took Dinah out of Siechim's house and
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Speaker 1: went out verse twenty seven. The sons of Jacob came
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Speaker 1: upon the slain and spoiled the city, because they had
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Speaker 1: defiled their sister verse twenty eight. They took their sheep
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Speaker 1: and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was
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Speaker 1: in the city, and that which was in the field
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Speaker 1: verse twenty nine, and all their wealth, and all their
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Speaker 1: little ones and their wives took they captive and spoiled
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Speaker 1: even all that was in the house verse thirty. And
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Speaker 1: Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ye have troubled me
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Speaker 1: to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land,
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Speaker 1: among the Canaanites and the Perzesites, and I, being few
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Speaker 1: in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and
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Speaker 1: slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my
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Speaker 1: house verse thirty one. And they said, should he deal
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Speaker 1: with our sister as with an harlot. Here we have
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Speaker 1: Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons, young men not
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Speaker 1: above twenty years old, cutting the throats of the Sichemites,
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Speaker 1: and thereby breaking the heart of their good father Numeral one.
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Speaker 1: Here is the barbarous murder of the Sikamites. Jacob himself
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Speaker 1: was used to the sheep hook, but his sons had
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Speaker 1: got swords by their sides, as if they had been
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Speaker 1: the seed of Esau, who was to live by his sword.
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Speaker 1: We have them here number one, slaying the inhabitants of Sichem,
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Speaker 1: all the males a more unseeach 'em, particularly with whom
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Speaker 1: they had been treating in a friendly manner, but the
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Speaker 1: other day, yet with a design upon their lives. Some
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Speaker 1: think that all Jacob's sons, when they wheedled the Sichemites
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Speaker 1: to be circumcised, designed to take advantage of their soreness
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Speaker 1: and to rescue Dinah from among them. But the Simeon
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Speaker 1: and Levi, not content with that, would themselves avenge the injury,
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Speaker 1: and they did it with a witness. Now one, it
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Speaker 1: cannot be denied, but that God was righteous in it.
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Speaker 1: Had the Sichemites been circumcised in obedience to any command
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Speaker 1: of God, their circumcision would have been their protection. But
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Speaker 1: when they submitted to that sacred right only to serve
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Speaker 1: a turn, to please their prince and to enrich themselves,
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Speaker 1: it was just with God to bring this upon them.
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Speaker 1: Note as nothing secures us better than true religion, so
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Speaker 1: nothing exposes us more than religion. Only to pretend to
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Speaker 1: two but Simeon and Levi were most unrighteous one. It
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Speaker 1: was true that Sicham had wrought folly against Israel in
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Speaker 1: defiling Dinah. But it ought to have been considered how
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Speaker 1: far Dinah herself had been necessory to it. Had Sechim
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Speaker 1: abused her in her own mother's tent, it would have
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Speaker 1: been another matter. But she went upon his ground, and
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Speaker 1: perhaps by her indecent carriage, had struck the spark which
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Speaker 1: began the fire. When we are severe upon the sinner,
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Speaker 1: we ought to consider who was the tempter. Two It
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Speaker 1: was true that Sichim had done ill, but he was
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Speaker 1: endeavoring to atone for it, and was as honest and
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Speaker 1: honorable ex post facto after the deed as the case
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Speaker 1: would admit. It was not the case of the Levite's
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Speaker 1: concubine that was abused to death. Nor does he justify
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Speaker 1: what he has done, but courts a reconciliation upon any terms.
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Speaker 1: Three it was true that Siechum had done ill, But
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Speaker 1: what was that to all the Sichemites? Does one man's
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Speaker 1: sin and will they be wroth with all the town?
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Speaker 1: Must the innocent fall with the guilty? This was barbarous, indeed,
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Speaker 1: for but that which above all aggravated the cruelty was
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Speaker 1: the most perfidious treachery that was in it. The Sichemites
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Speaker 1: had submitted to their conditions and had done that upon
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Speaker 1: which they had promised to become one people with them
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Speaker 1: Verse sixteen. Yet they act as sworn enemies to those
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Speaker 1: to whom they had lately become sworn friends, making as
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Speaker 1: light of their covenant as they did of the laws
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Speaker 1: of humanity. And are those the sons of Israel cursed
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Speaker 1: be their anger, for it was fierce. Five. This also
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Speaker 1: added to the crime that they made a holy ordinance
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Speaker 1: of God subservient to their wicked design, so making that odious.
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Speaker 1: As if it were not enough for them to shame
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Speaker 1: themselves upon their family, they bring a reproach upon that
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Speaker 1: honorable badge of their religion. Justly would it be called
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Speaker 1: a bloody ordinance number two seizing the prey of Sichem
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Speaker 1: and plundering the town they rescued Dinah verse twenty six.
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Speaker 1: And if that was all they came for, they might
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Speaker 1: have done that without blood, as appears by their own
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Speaker 1: showing verse seventeen. But they aimed at the spoil. And
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Speaker 1: though Simeon and Levi only were the murderers, yet it
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Speaker 1: is intimated that others of the sons of Jacob came
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Speaker 1: upon the slain and spoiled the city verse twenty seven,
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Speaker 1: and so becoming accessory to the murder in them, it
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Speaker 1: was manifest in justice. Yet here we may observe the
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Speaker 1: righteousness of God. The Sea Chamites were willing to gratify
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Speaker 1: the sons of Jacob by submitting to the penance of
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Speaker 1: circumcision upon this principle, shall not their cattle and all
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Speaker 1: their substance be ours verse twenty three, and see what
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Speaker 1: was the issue. Instead of making themselves masters of the
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Speaker 1: wealth of Jacob's family, Jacob's family became masters of their wealth.
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Speaker 1: Note those who unjustly grasp at that which is another's
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Speaker 1: justly lose that which is their own Numeral II. Here
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Speaker 1: is Jacob's resentment of this bloody deed of and Levi
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Speaker 1: verse thirty two. Things he bitterly complains of number one,
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Speaker 1: the approach they had brought upon him. Thereby, you have
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Speaker 1: troubled me, put me into a disorder, for you have
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Speaker 1: made me to stink among the inhabitants of the land.
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Speaker 1: That is, you have rendered me and my family odious
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Speaker 1: among them. What will they say of us in our religion?
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Speaker 1: We shall be looked upon as the most perfidious, barbarous
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Speaker 1: people in the world. Note the gross misconduct of wicked
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Speaker 1: children is the grief and shame of their godly parents.
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Speaker 1: Children should be the joy of their parents, but wicked
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Speaker 1: children are their trouble, sadden their hearts, break their spirits,
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Speaker 1: and make them go mourning from day to day. Children
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Speaker 1: should be an ornament to their parents, but wicked children
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Speaker 1: are their reproach and are as dead flies in the
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Speaker 1: pot of ointment. But let such cheerchildren know that if
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Speaker 1: they repent, not the grief they have caused to their parents,
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Speaker 1: and the damage religion has sustained in its reputation through them,
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Speaker 1: will come into the account and be reckoned. For Number two,
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Speaker 1: the ruin they had exposed him too. What could be
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Speaker 1: expected but that the Canaanites, who were numerous and formidable,
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Speaker 1: would confederate against him, and he and his little family
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Speaker 1: would become an easy prey to them. I shall be
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Speaker 1: destroyed I and my house. If all the Sichemites must
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Speaker 1: be destroyed for the offense of one, why not all
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Speaker 1: the Israelites for the offense of two. Jacob knew, indeed
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Speaker 1: that God had promised to preserve and perpetuate his house.
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Speaker 1: But he might justly fear that these vile practices of
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Speaker 1: his children would amount to a forfeiture and cut off
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Speaker 1: the entail. Note, when sin is in the house, there
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Speaker 1: is reason to fear ruin at the door. The tender
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Speaker 1: parents foresee those bad consequences of sin which the wicked
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Speaker 1: children have no dread of. One would think they should
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Speaker 1: have made them to relent, and they should have humbled
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Speaker 1: themselves to their good father and begged his pardon. But
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Speaker 1: instead of this they justify themselves and give him this
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Speaker 1: insolent reply, Should he deal with our sister as a harlot?
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Speaker 1: No he should not, But if he do, must they
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Speaker 1: be their own avengers. Will nothing less than so many
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Speaker 1: lives and the ruin of whole city serve to atone
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Speaker 1: for an abuse done to one foolish girl. By their question,
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Speaker 1: they tacitly reflect upon their father, as if he would
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Speaker 1: have been content to let them deal with his daughter
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Speaker 1: as with a harlot. Note it is common for those
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Speaker 1: who run into one extreme to reproach and as censure
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Speaker 1: those who keep them mian, as if they ran into
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Speaker 1: the other. Those who condemned the rigor of revenge shall
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Speaker 1: be misrepresented as if they countenanced and justified the offense.
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Speaker 1: And of Chapter thirty four