Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 49:6

6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret : unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man , and in their self-will they digged down a wall .

Or Counsel, or company, as the word is used, Psal. 64. 2. Ier. 15 17. i. e. do not partake with them in their secret and wicked designs. Hereby he signifies to all posterity, that that bloody enterprize was undertaken without his consent or approbation, and that he could not think of it without detestation, nor let it pass without a severe censure. Or, O my soul, thou wast not in their secret, as the Chald. Syr. and Arab. take it, by a common Enallage of the future tense for the past.

Either 1. properly so called. So the sense is, let not my honour or good name be bound up with theirs: They gloried in their wickedness, which I abominate and which indeed is their shame. Or 2. Improperly, so he understands either 1. His Soul, which is indeed the glory of a man: Though I do not remember any place of Scripture where that word must necessarily be so understood. So this is a repetition of the same thing in other words, which is usual in Scripture. Or rather, 2. His tongue, for which the word honour, or glory is commonly put, as Psal. 16. 9. compare with Acts 2. 26. Psal. 30. 12. and 57. 8. and 108. 1. because the Tongue or speech is the glory of a man, by which he is distinguished from unreasonable creatures, and, if well used, it brings much honour to God and to the man that speaks with it. So the sense is, as my Soul did not approve of that wicked action, so my Tongue never gave consent to it, nor shall it now by silence seem to own it, but shall publickly witness my abhorrency of it.

(i. e.) Men, the Sichenites, Gen. 34. 25, 26. the singular number for the plural, as Gen. 3. 2. and 32. 5. 1 Chron. 10. 1. compared with 1 Sam. 31. 1. He saith man rather then men, either with respect unto the Prince, whose slaughter was principally designed; or to shew that they slew them all to a man.

It may note, that this cruelty of theirs was committed. 1. By their own will and choice, not by Iacobs will or consent, which they never asked nor obtained. 2. Without any necessity or sufficient provocation, but meerly by their own will and proper motion. 3. Not rashly and hastily, but wilfully and resolvedly after mature deliberation. 4. Not unwillingly, but chearfully and with delight and good will, as that word commonly signifies.

Not the walls of the City, but of private houses, it may be onely of the Princes house, who upon the first noise of the tumult, might and probably did retire and secure himself in some strong room of the house, whose wall they brake down that they might come at h[illegible: 1+ letters]m. For neither were the walls of houses or Cities so strong then as now many are, nor were Simeon and Levi destitute of fit instruments to break down a wall which doubtless they brought with them, as easily foreseeing that difficulty in their enterprize. But because the Hebrew word is not Shur, a wall, but Schor, an Oxe, others translate the words thus, They houghed or killed an Ox, or Bull, meaning Shechem, so called either from his lust, or from his strength and power, from which Princes are oft so called, as Deut. 33. 17. Psal. 22. 12. and 68. 30. Or, rather thus, They rooted out, or drove away an Ox, i. e. the Oxen, the singular number for the plural, as before, and under them are comprehended the other cattle of the Sichemites, which they drove away, as we read they did, Gen. 34. 28. For as the words may bear this sense, so it seems more reasonable to understand them of that which certainly was done by them, then of their breaking a wall, of which we do not read any thing in the history.

Marginal references: Or, houghed Oxen.