Genesis 37:12

His brethren went. The sons of Jacob seem to have made rather long annual migrations from one pastureland to another, as is often necessary even today. Shechem lies 60 road mi. north of Hebron, and Dothan (v. 17) another 16 mi. to the northwest of Shechem. Use of the northern pasturelands implies that the season was summer or early fall. The dry season began in April and lasted till October (see v. 24). The reason for pasturing the flocks at Shechem may have been the fact that Jacob’s family owned property there, secured partly by purchase (ch. 33:19) and perhaps partly by conquest (ch. 34:27). Jacob’s sons seem to have felt that they had nothing to fear from the surrounding population (ch. 35:5), who had never taken revenge for their massacre of the Shechemites.