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their opponents being too weak from the circumcision to fight back well (Exod 34:25-27), and
they plundered the city (Gen 34:28-29). Jacob complained that this would make his name
odious among the inhabitants (Gen 34:30) and later cursed them for their act (Gen 49:6-7),
though his sons insisted that they were justified by what Shechem had done to their sister (Gen
34:31). Who was right?
The laws of seduction and rape clarify the situation. In the book of the covenant, the
penalty for seduction of an unbetrothed woman was either payment of brideprice followed by
marriage or else forfeiture of the brideprice without marriage if the father objected to the
marriage (Exod 22:16-17). Deuteronomy gives a more stringent penalty for rape, setting the
brideprice at an extremely high fifty shekels (Deut 22:29; the price of an prime-aged, adult male
slave, Lev 27:3). But neither rape nor seduction were capital offenses so long as the girl was
unbethrothed. In the light of these laws, Simeon and Levis killing of Shechem was clearly way
out of proportion with the crime that was committed. The Mosaic law, then, supports Jacobs
disapproval of the act of his two sons.
The kidnaping and selling of Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:28) is similarly seen in a new
light when read in conjunction with the book of the covenant. There kidnaping (literally,
"stealing a man") was punishable by death whether or not the victim were sold into slavery
(Exod 21:16). This law underscores that the act of Josephs brothers in the narrative of Genesis
was a heinous one.
g. The Two Tablets of Stone for the Decalogue. In Exod 24:12, Moses is told to receive
tablets of stone on which would be written the law and commandments. Later these tablets are
said to be two in number which were inscribed front and back (Exod 31:18; 32:15), and upon
them were the ten words (Exod 34:18; Heb. debarim; often here rendered commandments), that
is, the Decalogue. Artistic portrayals of the Decalogue have concentrated on the fact that there
were two tablets and assumed that the first five "words" (or "commandments") were on the first
tablet, whereas remaining laws were on the second tablet. Which commandments included by