SIMEONE (Hebr. Šim'ôn, Greek Συμζόν). — Giacobbe (v.) and Lia (Gen. 29: 33; 35: 22; 48: 5), from whom one of the tribes of Israel took its name. At the time of his birth, his mother connected the name with the Lord’s hearing, “because he heard (fâma') that I am unloved and gave me this one also (son).” Together with Levi, he took part in the fierce and treacherous repression of the Sichemites, who had dishonored his sister Dina (ibid. 34: 1-31): the deed incurred Giacobbe’s condemnation (ibid. 49: 5 ff.), but, because of a certain aspect of heroism and religious-patriotic zeal, it was also celebrated (Iud. 9: 2). On the first journey he made to Egypt during the famine, S. was held hostage by Giuseppe, since the firstborn Ruben was not guilty of the sale of his brother (Gen. 42: 25, 36; 43: 23). He was later joined in Egypt by his six sons, together with Giacobbe (ibid. 46: 10; cf. I Par. 2: 1; 4: 24 ff.).
The principal information concerning the tribe of S. is given in Ios. 19: 1-9. Its territory lay between Bersabee and the Dead Sea, south of Judah, with which the tribe appears to have been incorporated (ibid. 19: 1), and by which it was in fact absorbed: it was the Nègheth, a vast desert region in which the tribe appeared to be dispersed rather than settled (I Par. 4: 39-43), an idea reflected in Giacobbe’s ominous prophecy (Gen. 49: 7) and in the fact that the tribe is omitted from Mosè’s blessing (Deut. 33).
The decline of the tribe is apparent from the time of the desert: the Simeonites fit for military service at Sinai numbered 59,300 (Num. 1: 22), whereas in the steppes of Moab there were only 22,200 (ibid. 26: 12-14). The occupation of the territory assigned to S. took place with the help of Judah (Iud. 1: 3, 17), which kept the better part for itself: the portion allotted to S. consisted only of steppe or desert. This also explains why the tribe contained the sole Levitical city of Asan (I Par. 6: 59, 65 [Hebr. 6: 44, 50]; Ain in Ios. 21: 4, 9, 16 should be corrected to Asan). The Simeonites still supplied David with 7,100 warriors (I Par. 12: 25). But already at this period, and increasingly thereafter, the cities formerly belonging to S. are listed as Judean: Bethel, Ramoth to the south, Arama, Asan (I Sam. 30: 27-30), Bersabee (II Sam. 24: 7; I Reg. 19: 3; II Reg. 23: 8), Siceleg (I Sam. 27: 6), etc. (cf. I Par. 4: 28-31).
The later information suggests that the tribe had to face particular difficulties, against which it sought to react: it was partly absorbed by Judah, and partly perhaps
by Arab tribes and the Philistines, who at times occupied some of its cities. Some may also have emigrated to the northern tribes, with which S. seems to have had particular relations, judging from the identity of the calf cult at Bersabee and in the northern centers of Bethel, Galgala, and Dan (Am. 4: 4; 5: 5; etc.). The tribe sought to defend itself against the nomads of the desert, and likewise to react against the Canaanites, as in the case of the two expeditions (I Par. 4: 34-45) during the time of Ezechia, in which thirteen Simeonite leaders occupied a pastureland near Gerara, taking it from the “sons of Ham.”
The name of S. was also borne by a citizen of Jerusalem in the time of Ezra (Estd. 10: 31) and by a priest, ancestor of the Maccabees (I Mach. 2: 1). Giovanni Rinaldi