Genesis:34

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* Verse 1-19 - Young persons , especially females , are never so safe and well off as under the care of pious parents . Their own ignorance , and the flattery and artifices of designing , wicked people , who are ever laying snares for them , expose them to great danger . They are their own enemies if they desire to go abroad , especially alone , among strangers to true religion . Those parents are very wrong who do not hinder their children from needlessly exposing themselves to danger . Indulged children , like Dinah , often become a grief and shame to their families . Her pretence was , to see the daughters of the land , to see how they dressed , and how they danced , and what was fashionable among them ; she went to see , yet that was not all , she went to be seen too . She went to get acquaintance with the Canaanites , and to learn their ways . See what came of Dinah 's gadding . The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water . How great a matter does a little fire kindle ! We should carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it . * Verse 20-31 - The Shechemites submitted to the sacred rite , only to serve a turn , to please their prince , and to enrich themselves , and it was just with God to bring punishment upon them . As nothing secures us better than true religion , so nothing exposes us more than religion only pretended to . But Simeon and Levi were most unrighteous . Those who act wickedly , under the pretext of religion , are the worst enemies of the truth , and harden the hearts of many to destruction . The crimes of others form no excuse for us . Alas ! how one sin leads on to another , and , like flames of fire , spread desolation in every direction ! Foolish pleasures lead to seduction ; seduction produces wrath ; wrath thirsts for revenge ; the thirst of revenge has recourse to treachery ; treachery issues in murder ; and murder is followed by other lawless actions . Were we to trace the history of unlawful commerce between the sexes , we should find it , more than any other sin , ending in blood . **** Matthew Henry 's Commentary ****

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