Simeon

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Simeon (Hebrew: שמעון, Shimʾon; Greek: Συμεών, Symeōn; Latin: Symeon; "God has heard"), (b. Abib 2247 AMApril 1756 BC
Nisan 2004 He
Abib 2247 AM), was the second son of Jacob and Leah, and the ancestor of the Tribe of Simeon.

A Display of Anger

Main Article: Dinah

In Abib 2272 AMApril 1731 BC
Nisan 2029 He
Abib 2272 AM, his sister Dinah strayed from camp near the city of Shalem, in the region of Shechem. (Genesis 33:18 (KJV)) The local prince (also named Shechem) saw her and took her by force. Afterward, the prince was in love with Dinah and asked his father, King Hamor, to negotiate a marriage between him and Dinah.

Hamor approached Jacob and suggested a treaty involving mutual intermarriage. Jacob's sons said that they would accept this, on condition that all the men of the city circumcise themselves. King Hamor agreed to this.

Three days later, Simeon and Levi carried out their actual plan: they attacked the city by night, when the men of the city were still sore from the circumcisions, and killed the men, including Hamor and Shechem. They also took Dinah out of the prince's house and brought her back to camp. They returned with their brothers to plunder the city, capturing wealth, flocks, herds, women & children, and anything else of value.

Brief Imprisonment

In or about Abib 2276 AMApril 1727 BC
Nisan 2033 He
Abib 2276 AM, Simeon participated in the plot to sell his brother Joseph into slavery. Twenty years later, he found himself in an Egyptian prison.

In Abib 2296 AMApril 1707 BC
Nisan 2053 He
Abib 2296 AM, famine had struck all the Middle East. Jacob, hearing that grain could be had in Egypt, sent all his sons to Egypt to buy grain. (Benjamin did not go on this first trip.) There they met the viceroy of Egypt, who accused them of spying. At first the viceroy confined them all, but later the viceroy kept Simeon only in prison and sent the rest back to Canaan with strict instructions to come again with Benjamin.

Eventually the brothers came again, and Simeon was released. Later, however, all the brothers were arrested, when the viceroy accused them of stealing a silver cup from his house. The cup was indeed found in the possession of Benjamin. Judah then made a heartfelt plea to the viceroy that he take Judah in Benjamin's place.

The viceroy then shocked all the brothers by revealing that he was none other than their lost brother Joseph. Joseph went on to extend his personal invitation, on behalf of the Pharaoh, to Jacob and all his household to move to Egypt.

Entry into Egypt

In Teveth 2298 AMJanuary 1705 BC
Shevat 2055 He
Teveth 2298 AM, Simeon, together with his father, entered Egypt. He was about 51 years old at the time and had six sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul. The last son was his son by a Canaanitish wife.