"And all they who came out of the gate of his city received from Hamor and from Shekem, his son; and they circumcised every male, all who came out of the gate of the city." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 34:24) preserves a detail easy to miss: the men of the city agreed unanimously.
"All who came out of the gate" — in ancient Near Eastern usage, this meant the full adult male citizenry. The vote was not close. Everyone agreed to be circumcised.
The strangeness of consent
The rabbis were troubled by this scene. Why would an entire city agree so easily? Several readings emerged. Some said Hamor was a powerful ruler and the men feared disobeying him. Some said the economic promise — access to Jacob's flocks and daughters — was too attractive to refuse. Some said the men of Shechem had their own lustful motives, hoping for wives from Jacob's household.
None of these readings make the consent clean. It was collective action for mixed reasons, most of them unworthy. And because it was for unworthy reasons, the pain they endured bought them nothing. The circumcision of Abraham's household was a covenant with God; the circumcision of Shechem's men was a business deal. The knife was the same; the meaning was not.
The takeaway: the same physical act can be sacred or hollow depending on why you do it.