Category:Tribe of Simeon (subject)
According to Jewish (Christian, and Islamic) traditions, the Tribe of Simeon ( = House of Simeon = Sons of Simeon = Simeonites) was one of the Twelve Tribes--the descendants of Jacob's and Leah's son Simeon.
Overview
According to the Biblical narrative, the Sons of Simeon settled in Egypt with the other descendants of Jacob, and then followed Moses and Joshua in their way back to the Land of Israel.
The status of the Sons of Simeon as one of the Twelve Tribes is somehow uncertain. According to Genesis 49 Jacob cursed both Levi and Simeon to be "scattered." Consistently, like the Sons of Levi the Sons of Simeon should not be considered one of the Twelve Tribes. The ancient Jewish tradition remains ambivalent:
- The Tribe of Simeon is mentioned as one of the Twelve Tribes in the censuses of Numbers, numbering 59,300 in the First Census and 22,200 in the Second Census (although with a dramatic decrease of -37,100).
- The Tribe of Simeon was the only one not to be mentioned in the Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33).
- The Tribe of Simeon did not received a defined territory in the Land of Israel but was scattered in villages within the territory of the Tribe of Judah (see map).
- It was part of the loose confederation of Israelite tribes at the time of the Judges.
Unclear is also what happened at the time of the schism between the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom. According to 2 Chronicles 15:9, the Southern Kingdom was made of the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin, besides those members of the Tribe of Simeon, the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh who "had settled among them." As no reference is made that the Tribe of Simeon joined the Northern Kingdom, it is apparent that the text did not regard the Sons of Simeon living in the south as one of the Twelve Tribes. The Tribe of Simeon had already disappeared in the earliest Jewish tradition - if ever existed - even before the events following the Babylonian Exile made them become one of the ten Lost Tribes.
However, in spite of all these difficulties, the later Jewish tradition would count the Sons of Simeon as one of the Twelve Tribes.
The Tribe of Simeon in ancient sources
Genesis
External links
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