Shim'on (Simeon)

שמעון

Genesis 29:33 names him as the second son of Ya'akov by Le'ah

His tribal territory from the outset was an island with that of Yehudah, occupying a significant portion of the western Negev (cf Joshua 19:1). However, Genesis 49:5 states that Shim'on forfeited his lands to Yehudah (Joshua 19:1 and 1 Chronicles 4:24 endorse this) which is why Shim'on did not get a Mosaic blessing (Deuteronomy 33).

Ezra 10:31 includes a Shim'on among the men who had taken foreign wives.

As with Shem, Shem-Ever, Shamah and Shemu-El (Samuel), so again here we have difficulty in locating the root and thence the true meaning. The first three letters clearly give Shama (שמע) = "to hear", with the subsidiary meanings to "understand", "render obedience" and "announce". This also makes an interesting connection with Yishma-El.

1 Chronicles 2:43, 5:8 and 8:13 all have the name Shema (שמע), as does Nehemiah 8:4; while Joshua 15:26 gives it as the name of a town in the southern part of the tribe of Yehudah - that part of Yehudah which was originally in Shim'on.

1 Chronicles 5:4 has a Shema'ah (שמעא) who was a son of King David, though 2 Samuel 5:14 names him Shamu'a (שמוע) - the Aleph ending is an Aramaic variation that we are well accustomed to.

1 Chronicles 6:14 has a Shim'i (שִׁמְעִי), while 1 Chronicles 6:15 (6:29 in some versions) has a Shim'a (שִׁמְעָא), both of them sons of Merari. Shim'i re-appears as the Beney Shim'i, or Shimiathites (שִׁמְעָתִים) in 1 Chronicles 2:55, and as himself in Exodus 6:17, Numbers 3:18 and Esther 2:5.

1 Chronicles 12:3 names the tribe of Hashma'ah of the Beney Giv'ah (בְּנֵי הַשְּׁמָעָה הַגִּבְעָתִי), which is variously rendered as though it were an error for Sham'ah or Shim'a or even Shama'ah.

1 Kings 12:22 and Jeremiah 29:31 have a prophet named Shema-Yah (שמעיה), and 2 Kings 12:22 (12:21 in some versions)and 2 Chronicles 24:26 have Shim'at (שמעת).

That so many prophets and priest-kings should bear variations upon this name, must lead us to wonder what was really going on. The key lies in Ya'akov's blessing of his twelve sons, in Genesis 49:

"Shim'on and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Let my soul not come into their secret; unto their assembly let my honour not be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they dug down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Ya'akov, and scatter them in Yisra-El."

These verses are explained in the notes to Levi. Shim'on and Levi were jointly responsible for the slaughter of the Shechemites in vengeance for the rape of Dinah, and it is usually thought the verses refer to this. Shim'on's absorption into Yehudah and the fact that Levi had no inheritance but only refuge cities in all the tribes, is understood by the latter phrases.

Nor should we forget that in the Jesus story, the number one disciple (Jesus' Bin-Yamin, so to speak, his "eldest son" in the Biblical sense of ultimogeniture) was properly named Shim'on, though he is now referred to as Peter, an epithet or "nickname" meaning "the rock". Why such terrible keenness to forget his real name? Look again at the very specific role he played then, and continues to play now?

Copyright © 2019 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press