Listen to Jacob's response:
And that is the end of it.
There is no biblical record regarding these two instances that Jacob called any of them into account for their sins. In fact, the only response that he made to Levi and Simeon was that, "This does not look good." That is pretty weak, if you ask me. He did not have a real good sense of justice or righteous indignation. This was a terrible crime. You could, in a way, forgive him for his love of his sons; he would not want the law to come down on them as it should have. But, on the other hand, he did not do anything—pretty weak.
Of course, they were grown men by this time, but he was still the patriarch. He had the power of life and death in his hands. He could have done something.
Eventually, he did do something in a way. He took away Reuben's firstborn status, and he told Simeon and Levi that they would be scattered in Israel. They would not get an inheritance of land. But, even so, it was too little too late. Jacob did not leave a very good record.
The woman symbolizes Babylon, the mother (that is, the source) of abominations. Remember, abominations there the Greek noun related to the concept of stench. Drunk with the blood of God’s people (verse 6), she obviously imperils them. She is a danger to them. You see the parallel here with Jacob’s comment in Genesis 34:30: Jacob felt that the Gentiles living on all sides of him would come to consider the Israelites persona non grata, people who should not be in the land which God had given them. He feared they would confederate, ganging up and overpowering his family in revenge for the murders committed by Levi and Simeon. He saw his entire house (the House of Israel) threatened through their treachery. He could not forget that, if you will forgive the very much intended double entendre, they were the ones who raised the stink with their violent subterfuge.
I take it "the sons of Jacob" refers to the wider group of sons—not just to Simeon and Levi; but to Reuben, and Naphtali, and Asher and the others as well. After Simeon and Levi did what they did, the others came in and spoiled the city—took away the goods.
Of course, he should not have, but Jacob was at least trying to find a political way out of this thing. I am sure that he understood that he was vastly outnumbered by the inhabitants of this land, and he wanted to get out of there with his skin saved. The only thing that I can think of was that God intervened and allowed Jacob (and all of his family) to escape with his hide. Otherwise, something very terrible might have occurred to the very group that God was beginning to form, that would be the fathers of their nations.
