Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor–speaking with guile because he had defiled their sister Dinah
Genesis 34:13 (Revised JPS, 2023)
Simeon and Levi get all the blame for the whole story of the massacre of Shechem, starting with the circumcision requirement, so why does the text tell us that “Jacob’s sons answered” and not just “Simeon and Levi” answered? In what way were they all “speaking with guile,” and not just the two offending brothers?
The rabbis explain that the trickery wasn’t intended to end in bloodshed. The trickery was that the brothers presented Shechem an impossible requirement: “You and all your men in your whole city must be circumcised.”
Who would agree to this?! But if Shechem refused, he would be forced to reject his claim to Dinah and return her to her family.
This seemed like a clever enough plot that Jacob didn’t object to it.
He didn’t assume Dinah’s blood brothers would be so aptly named.