Simeon

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Simeon is a person in the Torah and Old Testament. Simeon was the second son of Jacob and Leah and the ancestor of one of the Twelve Tribes of the Israelites.

Birth[change | change source]

After Leah gave birth to her second son she said that the Lord had heard her voice so she named her son Simeon. She then gave birth to another son and said “I have poured out my heart to the Lord” and named him Levi.

The story of Dinah[change | change source]

When a prince named Shechem raped Dinah after having kidnapped her, he and his father Hamor wanted Shechem to marry her. So Jacob’s sons told him to tell Hamor to tell the men of Shechem to circumcise themselves. And then they did, so Shechem could marry Dinah. Then Simeon and his brother Levi killed every adult male in Shechem and rescued Dinah. But Jacob was angry with Simeon and Levi since he thought that the Canaanites would kill them all for it. So they asked him “should our sister be treated as a whore”.

Story of Joseph[change | change source]

Simeon was the one of Joseph’s brothers that he jailed to get the others to bring Benjamin to Egypt.

Land Distribution[change | change source]

When Jacob died, he told Simeon and Levi that because of the massacre of Shechem they wouldn’t have land of their own as part of their inheritance but would instead be contained by the lands of the other tribes. So the tribe of Simeon had its lands surrounded on all sides by land belonging to the tribe of Judah.