Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.” And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
The background of this story is that Hamor, the son of , saw Israel’s daughter Dinah and laid with her sexually. He, in essence, raped her. Israel, her father, did nothing about it. But when her 11 brothers found out about it they convinced Hamor that he could marry Dinah (something Hamor wanted) if they and all the men of the town were to be circumcised. Since Hamor really did love Dinah, they all agreed. But Hamor had to convince the fellow men of Shechem to also be circumcised. This would not be an easy task. It is one thing to be circumcised on the 8th day after brith (Leviticus 12:3) and quite another to be circumcised as an adult male. That process is be painful, but you never remember it when you are 8 days old vs 18 and above years old. The sons of Israel would use that pain to their advantage. They would eventually come upon these men during that pain and kill them all. That is the complete story. But the point in the above text is how Hamor convinced his fellow men to be circumcised. Their being circumcised would be to HIS advantage. He would get married but they would be in pain. To convince them to go along with his agreement, he could not use an argument (an idea) that would benefit him and not them. Instead he uses the leadership strategy of idea-goal association. He had to find a way to associate his idea (everyone joins a circumcision party) with a goal that would benefit THEM, not just HIM. We read in the above passage that he tells them if they want to financial gain (property and livestock) from these men of Israel, they can use circumcision as a tool. Once they are all circumcised, nothing will stop them in acquiring all of the property from Israel. His argument was: Pain now, but gain later. But it would be gain for THEM, not just HIM. Sometimes when you want to convince others of an idea that would benefit you, you must first present the idea to others in a way it would benefit them. Idea-goal association strategy.
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