The chapter begins with Dinah, the daughter of Leah being, basically, raped by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. The bible says that he took her and lay with her, and violated her. The, Shechem said he was in love with her and wanted her to be his wife, so his father went to Jacob and Leah and asked for Dinah to wed his son. Shechem and Hamor acted as if it was no big deal to sleep with Dinah even though it wasn't mutual and wanted by Dinah or her family. Sex out of wedlock was not ok, especially to a God fearing family.

            Instead of allowing God to make the problem right, Jacobs sons took matters into their own hand. They told Hamor that if their men were to become circumcised then they would agree to have not only Dinah wed Shechem but all of their sisters would dwell with their men and the families would become one. After the men got circumcised, Jacobs sons went through and killed all of their men to settle their revenge, causing Jacob to be disgraced by his sons actions.

            God set his people apart from the pagans, but that didn't mean he wanted His people to act better than everyone else, He still wanted Jacobs sons to be respectful to others. God wasn't consulted at any part of this terrible problem, they didn't go to God after Dinah was raped, or after they were approached to have Dinah wed Shechem, God was left out of the equation which is why Jacbos sons went to sin to make their anger and revenge justified. God is the one to justify the situation and make it right, not us, we should never sin to make ourselves feel better. Jacobs family was in the right to refuse the marriage and give Dinah to a man who honored God and wouldn't rape her, but they spiraled down when the sons made a deal that they never intended to honor and then murdered all of them.  If you make a deal with someone, honor it.