Genesis 34:23

23 This is a very good deal for us - these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we're going to get our hands on it. So let's do what they ask and have them settle down with us."

Genesis 34:23 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 34:23

Shall not their cattle, and their substance, and every beast
of theirs, [be] ours?
&c.] Which would in course come into their families in process of time, by intermarrying with them, or, being more numerous and powerful than they, could seize upon them when they pleased, and take all they had: thus they argue from the profit and advantage that would accrue to them by admitting them among them, upon their terms; and this argument, taken from worldly interest, they knew would have great influence upon them: only let us consent unto them;
in the affair of circumcision: and they will dwell with us;
and what by trading with them, and marrying among them, all their wealth and riches will come into our hands.

Genesis 34:23 In-Context

21 "These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle down here and make themselves at home; there's plenty of room in the country for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage.

22 But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as they themselves are.

23 This is a very good deal for us - these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we're going to get our hands on it. So let's do what they ask and have them settle down with us."

24 Everyone who was anyone in the city agreed with Hamor and his son, Shechem; every male was circumcised.

25 Three days after the circumcision, while all the men were still very sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each with his sword in hand, walked into the city as if they owned the place and murdered every man there.