What does Genesis 34:30 mean?

Jacob finally expresses some strong emotion about this situation. Read in the full context of this terrible incident, it casts him in an even more unflattering light than ever before. Jacob's only recorded responses to the rape of his daughter Dinah (Genesis 34:1–3) are to wait for his sons to return (Genesis 34:5), and this concern over other communities reacting to Simeon and Levi's bloody revenge. We don't know if he was aware of his sons' plan to betray their contract with Shechem and take revenge. If he wasn't, it's possible Jacob may even have been willing to give Dinah to Shechem to keep peace.

The anger Jacob expresses here is entirely focused on the social risk their action has brought on him. He doesn't condemn their brutal and bloody revenge, at least not so far as it's recorded in Scripture. Nor does he overtly scold them for false dealings. Rather, the main concern for Jacob is that this makes him vulnerable and unwanted in the region. He is focused on his fear that the Canaanites and Perizzites who occupy the land will gather together to destroy him "and his household." As it turns out, the opposite seems to be true; the surrounding communities will keep a fearful distance from Jacob and his family (Genesis 35:5).

Once again, Jacob's primary response to a critical situation seems to be fear. The response of his sons is to act boldly—if brutally—for what they see as justice and strength. Another facet to this story is that Dinah, Levi, and Simeon are all children of Leah, a wife Jacob has treated with indifference (Genesis 29:31). Jacob's lack of strong action to protect his daughter, their birth sister, creates a void in the family that Simeon and Levi stepped in to fill.