17/05/2023 - MASTER IN NEGOTIATION

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These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters.  Genesis 34.21

Hamor began his exposition by showing off his skills, and in this he did well. Nobody prospers in a worthy way without knowing how to negotiate. For this reason, the inflexible get nowhere, even if they are right in a cause or have a good product to offer. If they do not know how to convince others, they will waste the opportunity and the mission entrusted to them. Hamor assured his people that the Israelites were peaceful, good people!

Not all people accept the proposals without suspecting that something bad is behind that, and so they question the reasons for making some concession. Hamor was aware of this, and it was not by chance that he led many people. In fact, he sensed that the peace he saw in Jacob’s sons might be apparent. Now, since they didn’t want money or goods as dowry, but a simple ritual, why not rush to have everyone’s approval?

The greatest fear at that time was accepting violent people, who using force and wickedness, would take everything that was theirs. Hamor negotiated with the heirs of the divine promise, about which he understood nothing. Certainly, Shechem was next to his father, learning to negotiate, hopeful that he would obtain permission to have Dinah by his side forever. But everything that starts badly has a high probability of ending badly!

In his ability to convince, which probably helped him to become the leader of that territory, Hamor called everyone’s attention to the following fact: For indeed the land is large enough for them. In other words, he meant that his people would have no problem with the newcomers. For him, those men would be impressed by the permission, they would invest and work hard in that place. Both sides would profit from this. He was doing well!

Finally, Hamor talks about something that is of great interest to men: Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters.  Since everyone wants to start families, that was the golden chance to achieve that goal. Bringing in “new blood” is always good, so they couldn’t miss this opportunity. The good negotiator, or salesman, must know how to show off his product, showing its qualities and not its defects, if there were any in sight.

If the Israelites’ proposal was real, the inhabitants of Shechem had found in Hamor an ambassador not to be wasted, for the man knew how to persuade them, to the point that they all agreed. Except that God was not mentioned in that conversation once, and that was bad!

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares